100-year-old survivor throws first pitch
Kahan was born in Romania and she, along with the rest of her family, was sent to the Auschwitz death camp, and she has a prisoner number tattoo on her forearm.
Holocaust survivor Helen Kahan celebrated her 100th birthday last Friday by throwing the first pitch for the Tampa Bay Rays as they prepared to play their Major League Baseball game against the New York Yankees at Tropicana Field in Florida.
Kahan was given the honour to mark a partnership between the Rays and the Florida Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg, where she is a volunteer.
The Rays also donated $10,000 to the museum on the day.
“The more [practice] I do, the more I’m better,” Kahan said, in a report from Spectrum News.
“I did not have time to do it, but now I’m doing it,” she said.
“They’re [the Rays] very good players, and I love them.”
She added, she has a favourite player in the team, but didn’t want to reveal it.
“My secret to living long?” she said, looking upward. “My God.”
Kahan’s family was there to see her throw the pitch, including her 14 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She wore a Rays uniform for the occasion, and gave the ball a sprightly lob at the catcher.
Kahan was born in Romania and she, along with the rest of her family, was sent to the Auschwitz death camp, and she has a prisoner number tattoo on her forearm.
She was 21 at the time, the eldest of her six siblings.
Though the rest of her family perished, she survived, and was liberated from Auschwitz by the Red Army.
Kahan later immigrated to the US in 1967 with her husband and family.
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