JEFFERSON TWP — Infants and young children thrive on their parents’ affection.

But Shulamit Bastacky, who was a Jewish baby in Poland during the early 1940s, was deprived of that for nearly three years during the Holocaust. Instead of her mother and father showering her with love in her first years of life, a Roman Catholic nun hid her in a cellar, caring for baby Shulamit as much as she could.

“I am one of those survivors who are called ‘hidden children’ survivors. Those survivors are alive today because someone else risked their lives to save us,” she said to hundreds of eighth- and 11th-graders at the Knoch High School auditorium Tuesday. “The first few years of your life are based on how you will develop in becoming a person and an adult.”

She spoke to students and answered questions for more than an hour about her family’s stories, some repercussions of her early life experience and how those experiences motivated her to do good.

Her parents survived Holocaust work camps, but she had numerous relatives die during that time, including her grandmother, aunt and cousin.

“When I was about 12 years old, growing up in Poland, my parents decided to tell me some parts of the story,” she said. “There are some parts of the puzzle I will never know because they chose not to tell me everything.”

When the Holocaust ended, Bastacky, a malnourished toddler who had little contact with others or the outside world, ended up in a Catholic orphanage in Lithuania for a time.

By a stroke of luck, her father found her at the orphanage and was able to definitively identify her through one of her birthmarks. At that time, she did not know her real name or recognize her father.

Adjusting to a more normal childhood was difficult. Noises often frightened her, anything from birds chirping to a phone ringing. To this day, she feels uncomfortable in small, enclosed spaces.

She came to the United States in her early 20s, and has now lived in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh for more than 50 years. She has her master’s degree in social work and did social work with the elderly.

Eighth-graders at Knoch Middle School recently read “The Diary of Anne Frank” in their reading classes, and 11th-graders are going over World War II in their American history classes, so her story is educationally relevant on many levels.

“Being able to meet these people in these situations … are the best teaching sources whatsoever,” said Adam Hadbavny, an American history teacher at Knoch High School who coordinated Bastacky’s visit.

Students agreed.

“We got to see the impact on her, even afterward,” said Phoenix Kelly, 16, a junior. “You have to give up hate to be able to see the world clearly.”

Olivia Beblo, 17, a junior, said it’s more than a story about the Holocaust. It’s a story about tolerance and understanding others who are different.

“You have to take into account others more, what they’ve been through,” she said. “We are one of the last generations to see survivors.”

While Bastacky said it’s impossible to forgive what happened during the Holocaust, it does no good to perpetuate the hate.

“You cannot forgive murder of millions of human beings. You cannot ever forgive or forget. It’s not possible,” she said. “But we cannot hate everybody today, because if you do hate, then you’re giving Hitler and his Nazis victory. It takes energy to hate. Take that energy and do something good.”

For several years, she’s collected and donated thousands of teddy bears to give to those in need of some happiness: the elderly, the homeless and the hospitalized.

She bought herself her first teddy bear as a young adult and sees the giving of the small stuffed animals as a symbol of love, tolerance or understanding.

Knoch Middle School and Knoch High School will be collecting teddy bears for her to distribute until Dec. 19.

Emily Csonka, a sophomore at Knoch High School, is Bastacky’s adopted granddaughter.