On eve of world Holocaust memorial day, Israel home to 192,000 survivors

Twelve days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which commemorates the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1945, or 75 years ago, Israeli officials release statistics about the Holocaust survivors who still live among us.

About 192,000 people in Israel are recognized as survivors. Of them, 59,000 survived the Nazi concentration and death camps, were interned in a ghetto, or were forced into hiding during the war, according to the Finance Ministry’s office in charge of disbursing welfare and other benefits to survivors.

Some 14,800 survivors, or 7 percent of last year’s total, have passed away since the last international remembrance day.

About two-thirds of Israel’s survivors, 64%, were born in Europe, half of them (36% of the total) from the former Soviet Union, 18% from Romania and 6% from Poland.

The remainder hail from Arab and Muslim countries, where they faced often brutal knock-on effects from the Nazi onslaught in Europe.

Some 18% of recognized survivors are Algerian and Moroccan Jews who faced persecution under Vichy French rule in those countries. Another 11% are Iraqis who experienced the Farhoud pogrom and faced persecution from the pro-Nazi regime during the war years.

Israeli state benefits to survivors cost some NIS 4 billion last year, including some 493 million for homecare and over 415 million for medication subsidies.