Holocaust Survivors To Receive Aid Through New Funding
BALTIMORE (WJZ) --- Holocaust survivors in Maryland are getting much needed care and attention with the help of new funding.
Pat Warren reports the need for care for these elderly victims continues to increase.
The Baltimore Jewish community includes more than 300 survivors of the Holocaust.
"I am one of the youngest survivors," Holocaust survivor Felicia Graber said.
Graber was two years old when she and her family hid from the Nazis in Poland. In her memoir, she tells of tidbits of memories, of mobs and trains and shouts and screams.
"As we get older a lot of the trauma we went through as very young children that we thought had been forgotten come back to haunt us," Graber said.
There's help for that. Baltimore Jewish community services is receiving a $1.4 million share of claims against Germany collected to help elderly Holocaust survivors around the world.
"That God I do not need any help," Graber said. "However, you really never know what the future will bring and it's really a relief for me and people like myself to know that if a need does arise, help is available."
The funds are applied mostly to home care and the special needs of survivors as they age. There are more than 300 Baltimore area survivors getting help.
"These services are so important in ensuring that Holocaust survivors can stay in their own homes as long as possible, get the help and support they need to live out their lives safely and with dignity," Barbara Gradet with Jewish Community Services said.
"It's also a very good, wonderfully feeling to know that we have not been forgotten, that people have not said this is ancient history, let the past be forgotten and forget and it, that survivors are important," Graber said.
Survivors in 47 countries are to receive additional aid.
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