CAMBRIA - Howard Melton was away from home at a summer camp on June 22, 1941. Noises roused the camp early in the morning. Nazi Germany had launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, and his homeland of Lithuania was caught in the middle.

Melton shared his story with students, staff and guests at Cambria-Friesland High School on Wednesday.

He was invited to speak by Angela Jennson, who works with special education and at risk students for the Cambria-Friesland School District. Jensson said she was doing research on her grandfather, who served with the 42nd Rainbow Division and helped liberate 30,000 concentration camp survivors at Dachau.

Jensson, wanting to learn more about her grandfather's experience, contacted the Holocaust Education Center in Milwaukee, and inquired if they knew of any camp liberators who were still alive and might be willing to speak about their experiences. They did not, but asked if she would like to hear from a survivor.

Melton was 12 when the war arrived. He said that his hometown, Vilnius, had a population of about 160,000 when about 40,000 German troops arrived.

He said that most of the Jews tried running away from the Germans, but there was no public transportation, so they fled on foot, bicycle or horse-drawn  cart. His family, including his mother, father and an older and a younger sister, made it about 40 kilometers away before being turned back.

He spoke of what life was like after anti-Jewish laws were passed.

"You could not walk on the sidewalk, use public transportation, go to the cinema or the library," Melton said. "They tried to dehumanize you. If you are not a human being they could do whatever they wanted."

Melton talked about the ghettoes established by the Nazis in Vilnius, and the horrors faced by him, his family and the other Jewish families forced to live in them. His family was put to work by the Nazis to expand an airport, and Melton said that the food workers were given equaled about 800 calories a day.

"They were trying to work you to death," Melton said. "And they did a good job."

Melton's father was separated from the family in 1942. He said his mother made the decision to volunteer the rest of the family to go to a work camp in Latvia.

"My mother saved my life," Melton said. "But not hers or my sisters."

His little sister was sent to a concentration camp in 1943. In the spring of 1944, men and women were separated, and it was the last time he saw his mother or older sister. He was sent to a concentration camp in Poland, where prisoners wore triangles of different colors to signify what kind of prisoner they were- political, Jewish, homosexual or criminals.

Melton talked about life in the camp, where he lived in a barracks with about 250 other boys between the ages of 12 and 16. He shared stories of hard work, forced marches, beatings for no reason and little food. Melton said that if someone did get their hands on food, they ate it so it could not be stolen from them. He said that if anyone fell or lay down, the Germans would set dogs on them.

Melton spoke about the lack of sanitary facilities, and described some of the horrors, from being so hungry that rotten potatoes seemed appealing to seeing a body so covered in lice that it moved, an image he said he cannot get out of his mind.

"You're hungry...starved. You're tired. You don't know if you will be alive tomorrow," Melton said. "It's so horrible."

Melton was liberated on May 2, 1945. He said he weighed about 50 to 55 pounds.

"If I could have written my own future (on that day), I could not have done a better job. Life has just been wonderful," Melton said.

He spent two years in hospitals. He came to the United States in 1949, following a friend he had met at the concentration camp who came to the U.S two years before. Melton joined the Air Force in 1950 rather than be drafted into the Korean War. In 1951, he married Evelyn, a woman from Milwaukee. The Meltons have four children and 10 grandchildren.

Melton answered questions from the audience about his family, what he feels about those who deny the Holocaust ever happened, and more. Melton said that reading about someone who denied the Holocaust happened made him so angry that he decided to begin sharing his story.

"I'll speak as long as I can," Melton said.

He said that of his extended family of 35, he and his father were the only survivors. Melton said that 96 percent of the Jewish people living in Lithuania at the start of war were killed. He described hatred as a disease.

"I still believe in God," Melton said. "God didn't do this. Humans did. God gives you a choice to be good or bad. The choice is yours. It's what you do, that's what counts."