A 100-year-old Florida woman, who survived three concentration camps and a death march, will throw the first pitch at Tropicana Field on May 5.

She will celebrate her 100th birthday on May 5 as the Tampa Bay Rays host the New York Yankees at Tropicana Field. “I never could have imagined celebrating a birthday like this, let alone my 100th,” Kahan said in a statement.

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“I’m so grateful that I am here to tell my story and help the world remember why kindness and empathy are so important for us all,” she added.

Who is Helen Kahan?

Helen Kahan was born as Hani Sabo in 1923 in Rozavlea, Romania. She was 21 years old when her family was taken to Auschwitz during the Holocaust. “I knew already what happened to my family. My whole family was killed in Auschwitz,” she recalled.

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She moved to Budapest to work as a seamstress. In 1944, she returned to her family when the Nazis occupied Hungary.

She was forced into a ghetto before being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, then Bergen-Belsen, and at last to the Lippstadt concentration camp.

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Kahan escaped the death march as the war ended. Later, she was liberated along with others by the Soviet army in May 1945.

Her husband, Kalman, was also a Holocaust survivor. He died in 2001. They had two children.

Kahan and her family moved to United Stated in 1967. She was reunited with three uncles, an aunt, and one grandmother.

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She worked as a payroll manager in a hospital in Brooklyn, New York. Currently, she lives in Florida. She has five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren

Kahan’s MLB debut is in the recognition of the Florida Holocaust Museum, where she has volunteered for years to share her life story with generations of museum visitors.

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The proceeds from the game will go to the museum. The Rays Baseball Foundation will also offer a grant of $10,000 to the museum.