165,800 Holocaust survivors live in Israel
Some 165,800 Holocaust Survivors live in Israel, 90% of whom are over 80, according to data published Wednesday by Israel’s Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Holocaust survivor lights a torch at the ceremony marking the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoa), at Yad Vashem, the world Holocaust center in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, 2019. Photo by Esty Dziubov/TPS
The average age of Holocaust survivors is 85. 19% of them, about 31,000 have passed the age of 90, and over 950 have crossed the age of 100.
60% of the Holocaust survivors are women, about 105,000, and their average age is slightly higher than average and stands at 85.4.
64% of the Survivors are natives of Europe, of which the largest group, 59,900 or 36%, are natives of the former USSR. 19,100 are natives of Romania, constituting 12%, 8,900 are natives of Poland, about 5.5%, 4,500 came from Bulgaria, 2.7%, 2,400 came from Hungary, 1.5%, and 2,300 are natives of Germany.
36% of the Holocaust Survivors are natives of Asia and North Africa. Of these, 30,600 were natives of Morocco and Algeria. The Jewish communities in these countries suffered from anti-Semitic harassment and various restrictions during the Vichy regime. 18,000, 11%, are Baghdad Jews who survived the Farhud pogrom in Iraq in June 1941. About 7%, 11,000, are from Tunisia and Libya they suffered racial laws and were sent to concentration and labor camps.
Only 5% of the survivors immigrated to Israel before the establishment of the state in 1948, 11% of the survivors immigrated to Israel by the end of 1948, about 80,500, 48%, immigrated to Israel by the end of the 1950s, and more than a third, 35%, immigrated to Israel during 1989.
In 2021, 98 more Holocaust survivors immigrated to Israel.
In the past year, 15,324 survivors passed away, an average of 42 survivors a day.
Israel has paid out NIS 5.5 billion in rewards, grants, and benefits in 2021.
Minister for Social Equality Merav Cohen stated that “our shift is the last shift, and it comes with great responsibility. These are the last years we have to serve them, allow them to grow old with dignity and also document their story as soon as possible because soon, there will be no one to tell. With this understanding, we are working day by day before we run out of time.”
TPS
