About 900 Holocaust survivors in Israel have died from COVID-19 out of the 5,300 who were infected during the pandemic last year, according to the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
The bureau reported that about 17 percent of those Nazi-era survivors died of the virus, similar to the percentage of others of the same age.
Last year, about 3,000 more Israelis were recognized as Holocaust survivors and about 17,000 died, including the 900 virus victims, according to the report.
At the end of 2020, there were 179,600 people defined as Holocaust survivors living in Israel, the Times of Israel reported.
Israeli agencies define as survivors anyone “exposed” to the Nazi regime, including those who lived in countries conquered by the Nazis or were under direct Nazi influence in 1933-1945, as well as refugees who fled.
Today’s survivors are all over age 75 and about 17 percent of them are over the age of 90.
Some 850 Holocaust survivors living in Israel at the end of 2020 were aged 100 or older.
The tally came on the eve of Wednesday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated by the United Nations in 2005.
The Jewish state officially marks its Holocaust remembrance day, Yom HaShoash, in the spring.
With Post wires
