Survivors of Nazi Germany's attempts to eradicate European Jews are sharing their stories with Keys students, church members, synagogues and community groups this week.

David and Irene Mermelstein; Marsha and Joe Sachs; Herbie Karliner and Hungarian Stephan Ban visited Marathon High School on Thursday afternoon. They were to return to Key Largo Thursday evening to visit the Keys Jewish Community Center, where they were to attend a reception and dinner.

Karliner was on a ship, the St. Louis, in 1939 filled with 1,000 Jews and other refugees fleeing Nazism in Europe. The ship was denied entry into the United States and Cuba. The ship returned to Europe and what passengers feared was certain death. More than half the passengers subsequently died under Germany's thumb.

"Of the 936 on the ship, 354 died," said Judy Greenman, who was with the group. "Mr. Karliner lost his parents and two sisters."

Karliner also spoke at Treasure Village.

The powerful stories of the survivors are meant to let people know of the horrors of Nazi-occupied Europe, according to Alex Cruz, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is sponsoring the tour. Some 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

The group was scheduled to be in Key West today to visit Mary Immaculate Star of the Sea Catholic School and Horace O'Bryant Middle School. The survivors will talk with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. A question and answer session is planned for 2:20 p.m. at Horace O'Bryant.

At 7 p.m. they'll visit Rabbi Yaacov and Chana Zucker and the Congregation at the Key West Chabad.

On Saturday, the group is to visit Rabbi Shimon and Nadia Dudai and the Congregation B'Nai Zion, and St. Peter's Episcopal and Trinity Presbyterian Church on Sunday.

On Monday, the survivors will hold a public forum at 9:30 a.m. at the Tennessee Williams Theatre at Florida Keys Community College.

For more information, call 202-225-4630.

jguerra@keysnews.com