Standing before about 80 students in the Chambers Building, Robert Mendler of Latrobe pulled down his blue shirtsleeve and showed the black "B5188" tattooed on his arm.

The 81-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor shared experiences from his six-year imprisonment in 10 Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe with members of Hillel and students in History/Jewish Studies 121 (History of the Holocaust 1933-1945) yesterday evening.

Hillel sponsored the event, which was an extension of Tuesday's Holocaust Memorial Day. Hillel President Laura Taylor said all college students should hear the stories of Holocaust victims.

"It's important that we hear these stories, so we can make sure these things never happen again," she said. "I thought his speech was powerful, and it's hard for me to comprehend what he went through and survived."

Before his speech, Mendler showed black-and-white video footage of the liberation by American troops of the camp he was in, Dachau. As the audience watched the images of cadavers and emaciated prisoners, Mendler commented on life in concentration camps.

"I had boils all over my body from the lack of nourishment," he said. "The camp was surrounded by double barbed wires, and every day, I saw people run into the wires and electrocute themselves because they couldn't take the camp."

Mendler said he managed to survive because of his desire to live.

"I wanted to see my mother and sister again," he said. "Survival wasn't about how big or strong you were, but how mentally tough."

After the end of World War II, Mendler spent four years in Germany and then immigrated to the United States to live with relatives. He now owns a shoe store and gives lectures on the Holocaust.

"I am grateful for the freedom and happiness I found in America," he said. "People take so many of their freedoms for granted. Freedom of speech and religion -- we didn't have these freedoms in occupied Europe."

History/Jewish Studies 121 professor Linda Short said her students were excited to meet a Holocaust survivor.

"Having an actual person here is more interactive than a film or book," she said. "It puts a better face on the Holocaust."

Lindsay Baer (sophomore-education) said she found the speech interesting and emotional.

"I've heard a lot of stories about the Holocaust from my grandfather," she said. "It was a very terrible thing to happen."