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Holocaust survivor Kristine Keren, who is mentioned in a front-page story in this week's paper, has a particularly harrowing wartime memory.

As a young girl, she and her family spent 14 months hidden in the dark, rat-infested sewers of Lvov, Poland. Once, when heavy rain fell, the water nearly reached the ceiling of the sewer and Keren's parents had to hold their children above the waterline so they could breathe.

That image stands out as a powerful metaphor for the extraordinary measures people took to survive during even the darkest hours of the Holocaust. Some were fortunate; others, of course, could not survive no matter how sturdy their will to live.

Though half a century has passed since Keren and her family lived in the sewers, their fortitude and determination in that cramped space continue to inspire, transcending time and place.

Their story reminds us that the human spirit is far sturdier than most of us, in far more comfortable circumstances, can fathom.

Yom HaShoah, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day that takes place Sunday, May 4, and will be marked throughout the Bay Area in the next several days, offers an opportunity to memorialize the millions who died in this century's worst catastrophe.

But it is also a chance to honor and celebrate those who survived and managed to bravely forge ahead with their lives despite having experienced the most profound trauma imaginable.

Too, Yom HaShoah is a chance to stop and ask what we can learn from survivors — from their resilience and determination

Survivors, certainly, are not monolithic. Nor are they saints. They share the same human weaknesses as the rest of us. Nonetheless, many have invaluable lessons to impart, through both their words and actions.

This Yom HaShoah, at a time in history when many survivors are aging and dying, let us make sure to learn from them while we still can.