Northern California Holocaust survivor turns 100, credits faith and forgiveness for long life

CALISTOGA – Northern California Holocaust survivor Nick Hope turned 100 years old on Sunday.

Hope, surrounded by friends and family, hosted a birthday party in his hometown of Calistoga to celebrate living one century.

"I don't feel that I'm 100," Hope said Sunday.

CBS13 first shared Hope's full story in a three-part series that aired in May 2024, titled "What Hope can do."

Though his birthday was filled with smiles, there were many days of Hope's life that were darker. On some, he did not even know if he would make it to the next morning, let alone decades more.

"How did I get through this horrible, terrible hell to 100 years?" said Hope.

Just a child, Hope survived the Holodomor, a forced famine on the Ukrainian people that claimed millions of lives.

Then as a teenager, Hope was imprisoned at Dachau concentration camp in Germany for more than two years.

"No more man. Not a name. Zero. When you step in, you are a dead man," said Hope.

Hope during every trial kept his grandfather's words in his heart: "He always said, 'patient. Patient,'" said Hope.

He survived the Holocaust after American forces liberated Dachau. Then, he truly lived after.

"For him to do what he did, it's something beyond himself. Very difficult," said George, Nick Hope's son. "And for him, he doesn't hang on. That's the beautiful thing he wants to keep moving forward. I believe for him to be 100, his famous saying is, 'Just keep going.'"

George is one of Hope's three children.

After World War II ended, Hope found a new life in marrying his wife Nadia, also a Holocaust survivor.

They lived for some time in Germany after the war, then eventually settled in Calistoga.

Hope worked to the age of 97 and retired a renowned Napa Valley builder.

If there is anything that defines his life more than hope, it's faith and forgiveness.

"It helps me to live whole life, to 100 years old. God says, 'Forgive and be forgiven,'" said Hope.

The family is raising money in an online fundraiser with the goal of sending Hope back to Dachau for the 80th commemoration of the camp's liberation in April 2025.