On Wednesday, surrounded by the glow of candles, she shared that story with her fellow MSU students.

“I (planned) on talking more about the brighter side of things,” she said. “You don’t really think of the happiness because there was none at the time.”

MSU Hillel Jewish Student Center, the Jewish community center for MSU, partnered with Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity, to hold a candlelight vigil Wednesday in remembrance of the Holocaust. The official Holocaust Remembrance Day, called Yom HaShoah in Hebrew,
is May 1.

“In a traditional sense, we’re supposed to have a candle lit for 24 hours,” Winterberger said. “May 1 is before finals, so we knew we wouldn’t be able to have a really meaningful event.”

Students gathered on the patio of MSU Hillel, 360 Charles St. The original plan was to hold the vigil at the rock on Farm Lane, but it was moved because of the weather.

“We do this every year,” said Shale Kaplan, co-host of the event and member of Alpha Epsilon Pi. “Usually it’s a walk, and we walk from Hillel or we walk along the river to the rock and have the candlelight vigil.”

Winterberger said the event speaks to a feeling of personal responsibility to maintain the memory of the Holocaust.

“There’s a deep sense of responsibility in the Jewish community to remember and to inform the next generation,” she said. “To never forget, really.”

Kaplan said as time goes on, it becomes increasingly important to remember.

“It’s events like these that will help remember the people (who died),” he said.

Geography junior Lisa Dershowitz said she felt it was important always to remember the Holocaust.

“It’s very close to us,” she said. “Every year, we like to do something in remembrance.”

Tracey Moskowitz, an education junior, said she has distant family members who died in the Holocaust.

“I hope to walk away with strength to make sure this doesn’t happen again and empowerment,” she said.

The happiness of Winterberger’s story is her grandmother and her grandmother’s brother escape, thanks to the determination of their father to break out of the prison camp — even after one failed attempt.

“It would make (my grandmother’s brother) feel wonderful because it’s a mission for them to get their story out there,” Winterberger said. “They felt they were chosen to survive so they could tell their stories.”