Jaffe said she was only 11 years old when the war began and said she and her five siblings were no longer allowed to go to school because they were Jewish.
“I felt shame, even though I had done nothing wrong,” she said.  “It was so strange seeing the other (non-Jewish) children I had always gone to school with still go to school while I could not.”
Jaffe said Jews had to wear stars on the front and back of their clothes to distinguish themselves from non-Jewish citizens.
“That was when I felt that I was different from the other kids, even though I did not understand why,” she said.
Jaffe said the feeling of constant fear she and her family experienced as Nazis overtook her village. One of the most painful experiences to her was when many Christians in her village became militia for the Nazis.
“Because (the) village was so small, the Nazis asked for volunteers from the village to be their militia. The people I had known all of my life became the ones who executed so many of the Jewish people in my village,” Jaffe said. “That was the most painful part — the way they turned against us.”
Jaffe also shared stories from the winter her family spent hiding in a forest, and how she and her family barely escaped one execution for a price: a Nazi officer wanted her mother to sew dresses for his wife.
“The Nazis said they were going to resettle all of the Jews in a new village, but then they locked all of us in a house and picked 10 men to dig the graves,” she said. “The thing I remember most is how there were about 150 of us in the room, but no one was crying and no babies were screaming. We knew it would do no good — they would not have pity on us.”
Jaffe said she remembers thinking once the Nazis called her name, she would take off running as fast as she could.
“I knew they would shoot me in the back, but I thought a shot in the back would be less humiliating than being shot at the grave site and falling on top of everyone else,” she said.
However, when the Nazi officer called her family’s name, Jaffe’s family was spared because of her mother’s sewing skills. Jaffe said she felt like her feet did not touch the ground as her family ran back to its house after being pardoned from execution.
“To this day, I still feel guilt because I did not once turn around to say goodbye to the ones left behind,” she said. “They were the people I had known all my life, but I did not look back.”
Jaffe said she began to publicly speak about her experiences about 30 years ago and has since spoken at approximately 350 events.
“Because I was young (during the Holocaust), I thought the adult generation should be the ones to speak out about it, but then I began to realize many of them were no longer able to do so,” she said. “So, I spoke for about 10 minutes at my first speaking event, and now I feel it is my responsibility to tell others about it so they will know it happened.”
Linda Vodovis, Jaffe’s daughter, said she did not realize her mother was a Holocaust survivor until she had to ask about her family’s heritage for a school project when she was about 10 years old.
“She never spoke about her past when I was young, so I had no idea until I had to interview my parents for that project,” Vodovis said. “And the magnitude of her experiences didn’t really hit me until I heard her speak about it once I was an adult. I always seem to learn a new factoid when I listen to her speak (at events).”
Jaffe said she hopes to spread awareness about the Holocaust, and she strives to spread a message that hatred is destructive.
 ”Hatred leads to decay,” she said. “I do not hate anyone, and believe me, that is a great accomplishment. I hope young people will use tolerance and acceptance to overcome hateful forces.”