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Israel, Poland Mark Holocaust Day
But the plight of the Holocaust survivors in Israel has been difficult. Many arrived directly from Europe to fight in the Jewish state's war of independence in 1948, and have since struggled to cope with the physical and emotional burdens of World War II.
Recent data reveals that about a third of the remaining Holocaust survivors in Israel live under the poverty line, drawing widespread outrage.
  An Israeli Holocaust survivor reacts during a ceremony marking the annual Holocaust remembrance day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Monday, April 16, 2007. Sirens sounded across Israel on Monday morning, bringing life to a standstill as millions of Israelis observed a moment of silence to honor the memory of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust of World War II. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) (Oded Balilty - AP) PHOTOS(( Podcast ))World Briefing |
"We must never accept a reality in which even one of the Holocaust survivors in Israel is living without dignity," Acting President Dalia Itzik said in a speech Sunday.
The government announced it was establishing a commission to solve the matter, but hundreds gathered in front of parliament Monday to protest what they called the state's neglect of survivors.
With the passing years fewer and fewer survivors remain. There are some 250,000 survivors in Israel, about half of the worldwide total. Nearly 10 percent of the aging population dies each year.
In Israel, 2,000 die each month, a rate of 65 daily, according to experts cited in Israeli newspapers Monday.
With each passing day, the world loses its last live voices who can directly attest to the horrors of the Holocaust and confront a growing tide of worldwide Holocaust denial.
To this purpose, Yad Vashem has led a vigorous campaign in recent years to complete its database of names of Holocaust victims, encouraging survivors to come forth and fill out pages of testimony for those murdered, before their names and stories are lost forever.
Even so, Yad Vashem has only managed to gather just 3.1 million names. In the museum's vast Hall of Names, half the folders remain empty.
Reading from her list of names on Monday, Michal Beer halted to choke back the tears.
The 78-year-old survivor of the Terezin concentration camp has submitted more pages of testimony than anyone else, documenting the lives of 450 friends and relatives, including her father and almost all the Jews in her hometown of Prostejov, in the Czech Republic.
"I feel as if a great weight has lifted from my heart," she said of the pages of testimony. "No one would have remembered them, if I hadn't done this, who would have? Soon, I will no longer be around. We really are the last ones."
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Associated Press writer Vanessa Gera contributed to this report from Oswiecim, Poland.
