Expert Analysis
In the Spring of 2022, I wrote a blog entitled, “Russian Invasion of Ukraine Leaves Horrific Toll on Seniors.” The article detailed the horrific stories of how seniors were coping with the war. About two and half years later, the war is raging on.
I recently thought about updating that 2022 blog post. While doing research, my attention gravitated toward an article about Holocaust survivors in Ukraine. My first thought was: “We have people who survived the Holocaust, who now must live through another war. There are no words.”
At the start of the war, about 10,000 Holocaust survivors were living in Ukraine. Obviously, those numbers have changed, with many survivors fleeing to other countries for safety including, Germany, Moldova, Israel and Poland. On a larger scale, more than 15,000 Ukrainian Jews have moved to Israel since the war began, according to Israeli records.
The Claims Conference, in partnership with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a global humanitarian organization, has worked to get survivors out of Ukraine. According to the Claims Conference a nonprofit organization that engages with Germany to provide survivors with compensation for suffering and losses because of the Holocaust, it can take 50 people to evacuate a survivor out of Ukraine. B’nai B’rith was a founding member organization of the Claims Conference and is pleased to have a seat on the board today. Currently, the Claims Conference’s financial resources are used to compensate survivors in the form of pensions or one-time payments to Holocaust survivors, and give local organizations the funds they need to offer comprehensive social welfare services programs. For example, the Claims Conference has worked with JDC for over 20 years to assist local agencies to help aid survivors in Ukraine and the rest of the former Soviet Union.
Transporting survivors from Ukraine is difficult. The process can include such problems as medical and mobility issues, travel through multiple countries and procuring an ambulance. Finding ambulances can be difficult because 90% have been used by the army.
Borys Shyfrin, a Holocaust survivor from Mariupol, Ukraine, evacuated to Crimea. From Crimea, he traveled through Russia and Belarus to eventually arrive in Warsaw, Poland. Upon arriving in Poland, he was transported to Germany by ambulance with the assistance of the Claims Conference. Upon leaving Ukraine, Shyfrin had no water, electricity or gas in his home, and his apartment was damaged, all due to effects from the war.
Convincing Holocaust survivors to leave is another big challenge, particularly when it involves traveling to Germany—a country they associate with past persecution. Ruediger Mahlo from the Claims Conference said in a 2022 PBS interview, “How should you communicate it to the survivor that we will evacuate you to a country that over 75 years ago was persecuting you and wanted you to be dead? It was not an easy sell.” Despite wanting to stay, some survivors left and relocated to nursing homes throughout Germany. Survivor Tatyana Zhuravliova said, “Everyone received us so warmly and paid a lot of attention to us from the first day. I don’t feel like I’m in Germany as a guest of the Germans, but, rather, that I’m here among my own people.”
“This war is a catastrophe. It’s truly awful,” Alla Ilyinichna Sinelnikova, a Ukrainian Holocaust survivor said to National Public Radio (NPR). “I never thought I would live to see such horror for the second time in my life. I thought it was in my past, all over and done with. And now we’re reliving it.”
Unfortunately, not everyone remained safe. In March 2022, a Russian strike killed 96-year-old Holocaust survivor Borys Romanchenko in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Upon his death, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, “Survived Hitler, murdered by Putin.” Romanchenko survived four concentration camps during World War II and later served as vice-president of The Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial Foundation. In 2012, at an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary for the liberation of Buchenwald, Romanchenko, read the inscription of the memorial, “creating a new world where peace and freedom reign.” Sadly, such a world does not exist, however, we must never stop striving to reach those goals.
For Ukrainian Holocaust survivors, it’s déjà vu as they relive the memory of evacuating their homes and fleeing for safety because of persecution. History repeats itself, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is certainly no exception. Thankfully, there are organizations that have been able to evacuate people to safety, yet war claims lives indiscriminately. Sadly, people are lost in wars. What can one say about someone who survived the Holocaust to later die from Russian’s war in Ukraine? Perhaps all we can do is hope—and work—for a better tomorrow.
Evan Carmen, Esq. is the Legislative Director for Aging Policy at the B’nai B’rith International Center for Senior Services. Click here to read more from Evan Carmen.