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As the first Holocaust survivor to appear on national television, Hanna Kohner had the chance to relive her story for the entire United States.

Without her knowledge, Kohner was selected in May 1953 to appear on the television program "This Is Your Life," on which people from her past came to tell parts of her life from before, during, and after World War II. The guests, almost all of whom she had not seen in years, were reunited with Kohner on live television as she went through her life story.

Kohner's storytelling centered around a love story to make the story easier to swallow for American audiences, according to her daughter, Julie, who spoke about her mother's appearance on the television show at Temple Sholom, Bridgewater, on April 26. Hindie Potok, the education director at Temple Sholom, believed the program was important because of its nontraditional look at the Holocaust.

"My husband was a rabbi, and he'd always say, 'what would we do without the Holocaust?'" Potok said. "We don't always have to teach the Holocaust through moaning and groaning. We should talk about these stories and about rescuers as well."

Potok believes that Kohner's unique story is especially important because of the alarming number of people who do not know about the Holocaust.

"Forty percent don't know that the Holocaust existed," Potok said. "If they don't know this, they will believe the deniers. It's important that both Jewish and regular kids need to know what happened."

Potok said that this program, which is more engaging than most because it features such a unique video, is more likely to stick with children and teach them about the Holocaust before they hear deniers in their schools.

"Some of the kids from the religious schools say that teachers and fellow students deny the Holocaust," Potok said. "It's scary to have this happen. You're Jewish, and you better know your heritage."

Kohner was born in Czechoslovakia in 1919 and spent the first 19 years of her life doing things any normal teenager was doing -- studying in school, spending time with friends, going on dates. She even had a fiancé, Walter Kohner. That all changed with the Nazi invasion on March 11, 1938, and the invasion of her town seven months later. Walter had secured the papers to go to the United States, and Hannah's mother secured papers for her to work as a maid in Amsterdam.

"She waited, and waited, and waited, and unfortunately, by 1942, nothing came," Julie said about Hannah's anxious wait for Walter to send for her. "She realized she could not leave Europe any more."

At this point, Hannah met and married Carl Benjamin, a German who also fled to Amsterdam. Not long after they were married, the couple was sent to the first of four concentration camps: Westerbork, Theresinstadt, Auschwitz, and Mauthausen.

"On erev Rosh Hashana, 1944, Carl was sent to Auschwitz," Julie said. "The wives were told that on Yom Kippur, they would follow."

Unfortunately, Carl and Hannah would never see each other again; Carl was immediately gassed in Auschwitz. Hannah survived Auschwitz and was sent on the last female transport to Mauthausen, where she was liberated by American soldiers in May 1945. With no family members left, the only person Hannah knew to contact was her old fiancée, Walter. Hannah sent a letter to Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, where it reached Walter's brother. He then forwarded it to Luxembourg, where he was stationed. Little did she know that Walter was in the American army and already in Europe, and he began his search throughout Europe. Once they were reunited, they were married in three separate ceremonies in one day in October 1945.

"This is a story with a happy ending," Julie said. "Of course, we know there are so many stories that do not have happy endings."

Kohner's husband Walter approached "This Is Your Life" host Ralph Edwards about having his wife on the show. Julie said that Edwards "wanted to do this badly" and talked producers into putting Kohner on the show. With Walter's help, the show brought together childhood friends, a soldier in Gen. George Patton's Third Army who liberated Mauthausen camp, and her brother, who she had not seen since before the war.

"Eight years after the war, people were not talking about the Holocaust," Julie said. "It was an incredible risk for the network and the sponsors as well. This was the first attempt to show the American people slowly, very slowly, what happened to all these Jews."