Holocaust Victims, Suffering Each Day

The Fellowship  |  April 24, 2017

Today, Israel and the world observe Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. To mark this solemn day, Fellowship Senior Vice President writes at The New York Daily News that we must not only honor and mourn the millions who were lost during the Holocaust, but we must help those who survived, many of whom are spending their final years in poverty and isolation:

Holocaust Remembrance Day is again upon us. At a time when denial of Hitler’s crimes is disturbingly resurgent, it’s a time for us not only to honor and mourn the loss of the 6 million victims of the attempted genocide — but to do right by an oft-forgotten population, those who survived the Holocaust and now live in poverty and isolation.

That’s what recently took me to Ukraine. Ukraine’s violent conflict with Russia is taking its toll, economically and in people’s daily lives. But I lie awake at night because of a specific humanitarian crisis — one that news headlines ignore and most of us know nothing about.

I traveled around the outskirts of Kiev and met one Holocaust survivor after another living in terror, but not because of war. These survivors are living in miserable, unimaginable hardship, barely surviving without running water, food or heat, and relying on meager if any assistance from the outside world.

Their stories haunt me…