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- Poland in Serious Need
It is estimated there are between five-hundred-thousand to one-and-a-half million survivors of the Holocaust still alive today. Each month about one percent of these people pass on. Too often, their last years have been spent in nearly the same conditions in which they survived in the camps. These who suffered so much, continue to suffer---don''t they deserve better? We can help ease their last years. We can do something to care for their daily needs, and that we are supporting them in tangible ways.
Currently, a fleet of trucks and vans take food, clothing, and other supplies around the area of Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and other countries of the former Soviet Union. There, local distribution centers give out much needed food, clothing, and medicine.
Chevra means friendship. Our goal is to help our people in their time of need.
As people in the west began to hear of our work, they began to help by sending food, clothing and medicine. Most of this help came from people in England, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland. As quickly as aid came in, the amount of people that approached us for help also increased.
Eventually, people in the United States and Canada began to send help, and others became part of the group of workers. We are actively involved in many countries, and go by different names in each country, as laws regarding humanitarian organizations vary from country to country.
Chevra is the American entity for our international effort. Some countries are "giving countries" while others are "receiving countries." We have been so blessed and are so rich in North America and we have the ability to do much to alleviate the suffering and needs of others.
We have been working with a group of Polish Jewish Veterans who were partisans during the war, fighting the Nazis. They made us aware of fifteen holocaust survivors in Poland who are in dire conditions and need us to supplement their income by $300 each. It would come to a total of $4,500 a month, funds we don''t have. We are making a special appeal for people to help these elderly survivors of the holocaust in Poland. If you can help with a one-time gift, or monthly, large or small, it would go a long way in helping these needy Jewish survivors, and we would be grateful. We are limited in what we can do, but we want to do everything we can.
(December 2011)
In most of my Holocaust studies, there were many facts and figures about Nazi brutality, about the many anti-Semites inside Germany as well as those in “conquered” countries who assisted the Nazis in rounding up and killing Jewish men, women, and children to kill them just because they were Jewish. Secondary to the perpetrators were the many silent witnesses from all these countries who stood by and did nothing. Perhaps they felt helpless and powerless to do anything to save the Jews. On the other hand, maybe they were in agreement with what was happening, but felt by not participating in the persecution and deaths of the Jews kept their own hand clean. Proverbs 24:11-12 says, ”Deliver [those who] are drawn toward death, And hold back [those] stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider [it]? He who keeps your soul, does He [not] know [it]? And will He [not] render to [each] man according to his deeds?” It would have been a hard thing for people to help the Jews, because the Germans told non-Jewish populations if they helped the Jews, they themselves as well as their families would be killed.
Some were active volunteers in helping the Germans. Many Ukrainians lined up to be concentration camp guards. In the city of Lvov, Ukrainian police actively rounded up Jews and beat and killed some before they were handed over to the Germans.
Read more: Righteous Among the Nations
As Passover comes to an end, I have been reading about all the solemn remembrances being observed all over our community for the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. I find it somewhat ironic, when there are over 50,000 elderly Holocaust survivors living in Israel, and many thousands of holocaust survivors living in the former Soviet Union living in abject poverty right now. They don’t have bread to eat, going hungry, doing without needed medicines because they don’t have the money.
