Sylvia Richman greets Raymond, the Tampa Bay Ray’s mascot.

Holocaust survivor Sylvia Richman was an honored visitor at Tropicana Subject in St. Petersburg on July 13 when she received to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in the course of the annual “Rays Up” evening.

The night, which noticed the Tampa Bay Rays defeat the Boston Pink Sox, was held in partnership with the Florida Holocaust Museum.

Not solely was Richman’s story of survival briefly shared with followers in the course of the recreation, however the Rays Baseball Basis introduced a $10,000 donation to the museum and gave Richman a customized Rays jersey. She selected to have the quantity 24 on the jersey to commemorate the date she arrived in the USA (January 24), celebrating it as her “second birthday.”

Richman, a resident of Tampa, was born in Krakow, Poland in 1938. When she was a small little one, she and her mother and father moved to Lemberg in Ukraine, shortly earlier than that metropolis was occupied by the Nazis. They lived within the ghetto there and her father was taken away to assist construct, then be held as a prisoner within the Janowska focus camp.

Richman and her mom remained within the ghetto for a couple of extra months earlier than escaping. Then Richman was separated from her mom and spent two years in a convent exterior Warsaw.

After the conflict, she stayed along with her aunt till her father may return to Poland for her. Finally, they reunited along with her mom, who had been in a displaced individuals camp in Austria, and immigrated to the USA.

Although she was younger, she has reminiscences of a German soldier pointing a rifle at her, and of her grandmother and different kin vanishing, by no means to be seen once more.