Survivors of Holocaust and October 7 Speak Out

The Fellowship  |  January 31, 2024

First, they survived the Holocaust, and then they were forced to endure the attacks on October 7—and these survivors of both the Holocaust and October 7 are telling their stories.

Survivors in Israel, some helped directly by The Fellowship, are now living to see an all-out war with Hamas in their lifetime, bringing back so many dark memories of their childhood. The Algemeiner tells us more:

At 102 years old, Nusia Bondriansky suffered the atrocities of the Holocaust already as an adult. Bondriansky has a different take about October 7, although she wasn’t directly impacted by the atrocities that unfolded in the Gaza periphery communities. Living in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, Bondriansky’s home, however, has been a target of Hamas rockets for nearly two decades. Beginning on October 8, the city sustained hundreds of direct impacts. Still, Bondriansky says at her age, she’s “not afraid of anything.”

“I actually want to look out the window and see how the Iron Dome manages to intercept the missiles,” she said. Her own house does not have a safe room and she’s too infirm to make it to the nearest public bomb shelter. These days, Bondriansky’s son looks after her and she also receives aid from the humanitarian organization, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

At 19 and pregnant, her life turned upside down overnight when World War II broke out. Her husband, who was enlisted in the Red Army, was killed, leaving her to flee Odessa after the Nazis came. Along with her sister, who was also pregnant, the two fled for many months, while bombs fell around them. She survived for years in Siberia, raising her son alone…

“The most painful thing now is to hear about our young boys dying in the war. I am sad for everyone who died,” she said.