“THEY’RE JUST holding back until there’s no one left to deal with. I promise you that’s what it’s all about. At this rate, they won’t have to wait too much longer,” Holocaust survivor Gidon Lieber, a retired pilot, lamented at the weekly meeting of fellow survivors in Pardes Hanna, a quiet town south of Haifa.
The subject of delays in receiving payments, the sometimes insurmountable bureaucracy, and the disturbing reports highlighting many hundreds of millions of dollars of unallocated funds under the management of the New Yorkbased Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany raised many a hackle among the gathering of elderly pensioners.
The Holocaust ended in May 1945; but for many of the survivors of the world’s worst man-made atrocity, the suffering still continues almost 70 years later. Time is running out to put right the injustice of so many survivors living without sufficient means to support themselves. Every day, an average of more than 30 die in Israel alone – a rate of more than one every hour. How can Israel, of all countries, a regional financial powerhouse, allow so many Holocaust survivors to die in poverty? It’s a troubling question that despite the best efforts of many hardworking organizations and charities has yet to be properly addressed by the powers that be, although, and albeit belatedly, some progress is being made.
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