In July 1944, 20-year-old Golan escaped from the Szkolna Concentration Camp in Radom, Poland, where he had been imprisoned since October of the previous year. The freedom in the forest was short-lived, though, as two German field gendarmes spotted and took him to join a group of Polish peasants, who were rounded up from different villages to do labor.

Today, thousands of miles away in the comfort of his Cupertino home, 79-year-old Golan, a retired businessman, still remembers the incident like it was yesterday.

On April 29, along with other Holocaust survivors, Golan told his story at a Santa Clara County holocaust remembrance ceremony titled "The Many Faces of Resistance: In Honor of the 60th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising."

The event commemorates Yom Hashoah, the day established for remembrance of the more than six million Jewish people who perished during the Holocaust.

"This is an annual event, and each year we have a different theme; this year is about resistance," says Bart Charlow, executive director of the Silicon Valley chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice, one of the event sponsors. "Saul is a wonderful person. He has a lot to share."

Golan shared his story of the labor camp in Poland.

To communicate with the Poles, the German officers demanded a translator from the group.

"No one answered. So finally I responded. The moment I opened my mouth, the Poles and a German soldier called me 'dirty Jew.' I just ignored the insult," recalls Golan, who was born in Poland and is fluent in six languages.

"That was how I became the interpreter and foreman," he says. "My function was to instruct the Poles to build bunkers and fortifications on the German-Russian frontline at the Vistula River."

Not long after being labeled "dirty Jew," Golan's strength and compassion earned him the respect and trust of the German soldiers.

"They confided in me, telling me about their troubles at home and venting their feelings against Hitler and being fed up with the war," he recounts. "I'll never forget a young, blond German soldier who called Hitler a murderer. He could have been shot right on the spot for saying something like that."

At the end of 1944, artillery fire by the Russians intensified. The war was drawing to an end, and the Germans were ordered to liquidate Golan's camp and transport all the Poles to Germany.

"Suddenly everyone became my friends, showering me with food and vodka so I could help them escape by bribing the Germans," says Golan.

On the eventful night of Jan. 8, 1945, the Germans assembled all the detainees, including Golan, to leave for Germany. During the march to the train station, Golan approached one of the soldiers to whom he had given the vodka and asked the soldier to help him escape.

"He grabbed my arm and told me in German to get lost," Golan recalls. "It was hard to believe. I was then left alone in the darkness of nowhere. I waited until the next day to find a village and a warm shelter. To this day, since the German soldier helped me to escape, I still wonder why they didn't kill me."

Golan and other survivors' stories told at the event serve as just a few examples of the many forms of heroic resistance during the Holocaust.

Charlow says, "As surely as a number tattooed on a forearm, the Holocaust remains an indelible lesson for us about the dangers of prejudice and how institutions can twist ordinary people into willing or passive instruments of extreme hatred."

Blanca Alvarado, chairwoman of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, which co-sponsored the commemorative event, says, "The Holocaust is a watershed event in human history. Its lessons are ones that we must never forget."