‘The War Must End Soon’
The Fellowship | August 15, 2024
“I am so thankful for your visit. Despite the danger, you came to me and brought a food box.”
Itta is an 89-year-old woman who lives in the city of Hadera in Israel, after making aliyah (immigrating to Israel) 30 years ago from Ukraine. The Fellowship visited Itta during a period of heightened conflict near her city with increasing threats from Iran and Hezbollah targeting civilian areas and infrastructure in Israel.
And Itta lives near the country’s largest power plant—a top target. We met her in the bomb shelter of her building. Itta explained, “I live on the fourth floor and, due to my age, I need a walker to get around. If there were a siren, I wouldn’t be able to reach the shelter in time.” So she waits in her bomb shelter, feeling safer and more secure. But as a Holocaust survivor, this faithful woman knows what it’s like to face danger.
“I Knew Something Terrible and Incomprehensible Was Happening”
At the time of the Nazi invasion in Ukraine, Itta was only six years old. In September 1941, her father worked in a factory where they all lived: her mother, younger brother, father, and grandmother. As the Nazis invaded, they were given hours to evacuate, and everyone was panicking. The factory employed approximately three thousand workers and engineers, and they all had families to evacuate. It was total chaos.
“I knew something terrible and incomprehensible was happening. My grandmother and mother were crying and racing through the apartment from closet to closet gathering things,” remembers Itta.
When they arrived at the train station, it was overflowing with people. There weren’t enough spaces on the evacuation trains for everyone. “My mother made us repeat our names and dates of birth ten times because she was afraid we would get lost in the chaos and she wouldn’t be able to find us.” Itta remembers feeling very scared, but she knew to survive she needed to stay calm. Just six years old, she knew she needed to stay strong.
This strength carried her through. When they made it out of the factory, they arrived at another factory in Russia. Her father quickly got to work, but there were no walls built in the factory and the temperatures were below zero. He just caught a cold that eventually turned to pneumonia, and he lost his life. Itta remembers her mother went white in the face: “That day, my mother seemed to pale as she faced the reality of my father’s death… My grandmother aged rapidly from grief, and my brother and I had to mature immediately.”
And her mom had no choice but to go to work for the family, also finding a job at a factory: “We were entitled to a survivor’s pension, but the authorities discriminated against Jews and delayed the process of collecting documents at every turn. Therefore, my mother got a job at a factory and worked 12-15 hours a day, just like my father.”
They miraculously survived the war years, and Itta had a dream of going to school to be an economist. However, there was still intense discrimination against Jewish people and since she was Jewish, she was banned from day school, and only allowed in night school. So she worked very hard and also hid that she was Jewish. Itta says of her hard work: “I made history in our family by becoming the first to graduate from an Institute. I worked for 30 years as an economist at a factory, and I’m proud of it.”
Surviving Thanks to The Fellowship
Today, she lives in the Holy Land with her younger brother. Itta survives with help from The Fellowship and the groceries we provide each month. This helps her save enough money for the medicine she needs. She knows that she cannot make it to a bomb shelter in time if one were to come suddenly, though, due to poor health and mobility and the fact that she lives on the fourth floor of her building with no elevator.
But she doesn’t worry for herself; she says she’s lived a long life. She worries for her country and all those affected by the October 7 attacks: “I am afraid for the children. I pray that the hostage children stay alive. I pray for the soldiers and for their mothers to be strong. It is unacceptable … the war must end soon.
“I want to thank the people who work at The Fellowship. I admire the Fellowship’s donors who find opportunities and strength to help the elderly and not quite healthy old people like me. May God keep your families safe from harm.”
