The Aging Of The Holocaust Survivors
"When you are a Holocaust survivor and regress, what you are going back to is darkest point of human history," Mr. Schneider said.
He gave the example of a woman in the program with dementia who requires full-time care. Although she still lives with her husband, who also survived the Holocaust, every time he tries to leave their home she starts to scream, "Don't go! They will take you away, they will get you!"
"She is living in a world where the Nazis are still there," Mr. Schneider said.
New York Times
BERLIN -- The German government is negotiating with Jewish representatives to ensure that the thousands of poorest and weakest Holocaust survivors worldwide receive the intensive care they need to live out their final years at home.
The German Finance Ministry and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany continue to hold regular talks but the effort to reach an agreement has taken on a new sense of urgency, because the youngest of those needing full-time care are already in their 80s -- and many others are over 100 years old.
With an estimated 100,000 Holocaust victims living in the United States, roughly a fifth of survivors worldwide, their plight has raised concern in Congress, and on Thursday representatives introduced a resolution calling on the German government to do more.
Representatives Ted Deutch, a Democrat, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, both from Florida, submitted the resolution to the House asking Germany to "recognize the imperative of immediately and fully funding victims' medical, mental health, and long-term care needs and to do so with full transparency and accountability to ensure all funds for Holocaust victims." A companion resolution was introduced in the Senate.
...as they age, Holocaust survivors face increasing special-care needs, linked to the persecution they suffered and the isolation resulting from the loss of family members in the Holocaust.
The current round of talks, which opened in January and is scheduled to end by June, is trying to find a way to meet those needs, said Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference.
The German government currently provides compensation for survivors to be cared for in their homes for up to 25 hours per week, based on an assessment of an individual's need.
In many cases, however, that is not enough, leaving mentally and physically frail or forgetful survivors without anyone to look after them over the weekend, or throughout the night.
In response to a congressional letter written to Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in December, Jens Spahn, a deputy minister who is leading the negotiations on behalf of the German government, said his country recognized that current levels of care were "insufficient for those in need of intensive long-term care."
"Some survivors require more extensive care, in some cases full-time care," Mr. Spahn wrote in the letter.
Germany has made payments worth more than 73.4 billion euros, about $83 billion, in reparations and compensation, mostly to Jewish victims of the Nazis. The assistance to aging survivors is only a small part of these contributions.
"Many of my constituents are in their 80s, 90s, even 100, and our focus is ensuring that their needs can be provided for," Mr. Deutch said.
"I've been trying to help survivors since coming to Congress six years ago," he said. "While we acknowledge that what is being done by the Germans is incredibly generous, survivors' needs are not being met."
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Interesting article. I do think governments have some responsibility to account for the particular needs of Holocaust survivors as they enter the years of their lives when psychological issues of aging could have a harmful impact.
Older people can become obsessed with their memories. I have seen it with my own family members.
What if someone's most ingrained memories are of Nazis, concentration camps, and gas chambers?
I believe that they should be taken care off. Thy survived hell of earth, they deserve some care and peace in their remaining days.
I totally agree.
And there's another issue here as well: After these people die off, there won't be as much access to accurate information as to what actually happened. There's no substitute for actual eyewitness accounts.
As bad as not taking care of these Holocaust survivors would be, it also compounds the even worse loss of story, context, and culture. This is the loss of some of the strongest and most poignant human experiences in modern history; as well, a loss of very important lessons.
As bad as not taking care of these Holocaust survivors would be, it also compounds the even worse loss of story, context, and culture. This is the loss of some of the strongest and most poignant human experiences in modern history; a loss of very important lessons.
Exactly. After the last of the survivors die, an important "primary source" of historical information will be gone . .
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. "
I just happened to notice this article now - I have to assume it was posted while I was sleeping and almost immediately obliterated by American political articles.
Fortunately, Stephen Spielberg, besides his movie "Schindler's List" which focused on one individual righteous Nazi party member saving Jews from being murdered, produced a long documentary called "Shoah" which I wish I could watch, as it documents the Holocaust using actual survivors to tell the story. That will continue to be a record, although not as effective as meeting an actual survivor.
I can't help but think that since the UN is devoted through UNRWA to support the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and all subsequent generations of Palestinian "refugees" until the end of time, perhaps such a funding for subsequent generations of Holocaust survivors would be equally deserving, in fact, IMO, more so.
We need interview as many of them as possible to get their memories down on tape or paper, as part of history, so that the more first hand accounts we have, the more evidence we have against the deniers.