Anna, who is 67 years old, lives in a Soviet-era apartment in Ukraine. During the Holocaust, her hometown of Kryvyi Rih was the site of a massacre of local Jews by the Nazis. Jews were taken from the synagogue to an iron mine outside the city and shot.
Anna grew up hearing these kinds of stories from her parents and other Holocaust survivors. Her father’s side of the family suffered especially devastating losses. His parents, grandmother, and two sisters were murdered in the massacre. His brother suddenly disappeared while being treated at a hospital in Leningrad and was never seen again. Anna says her father searched for him throughout his life.
Despite how much the community suffered during the Holocaust, Jewish life survived in Kryvyi Rih. Anna’s parents spoke Yiddish, and the family celebrated Jewish holidays. Her aunt would fast on Yom Kippur, while elderly members of the community kept track of important dates on the Hebrew calendar.
Still, Anna encountered anti-Semitism when she entered the workforce. While working in a factory, she recalls a coworker telling her to “go back to Israel.” Such attitudes were common in the Soviet Union. When communism collapsed, people began practicing their faith more openly—and so did Anna. She took an active role in Kryvyi Rih’s Jewish community, volunteering as a healthcare worker for elderly Jews. She delivered meals and groceries and made trips to the laundromat for those who needed help.
Today, Anna needs the same kind of help she gave others. Conditions she has had since childhood have worsened, and she now suffers from spinal problems, painful joints, stomach ailments, and heart issues. In the winter, she often avoids going outside for fear of slipping and falling. In the early days of the Ukraine war, Anna tried to reach her building’s bomb shelter during air-raid sirens, but living on the eighth floor made the repeated trips nearly impossible.
She says, “As soon as you climbed to the eighth floor, the siren would come and you’d have to go down again. It’s very scary.”
Thanks to The Fellowship, Anna is not only able to get the food and medicine she needs amid rising costs and strained supply chains, but she can also pay her utility bills during the winter so she can stay warm. She has received an ultrasound and MRI to monitor her health conditions, as well as a cane to help her walk, and is also able to attend community events twice each month with transportation assistance.
Anna sends her thanks. “They give us confidence,” she says, “confidence that we are not alone, that if we are having a hard time, someone will come and help us, that we are not abandoned.”