Hundreds of Holocaust survivors in Austria and Slovakia received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday, an acknowledgment of past suffering and a tribute to resilience 76 years after Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz’s extermination camp in occupied Poland by the Nazis.
More than 400 Austrian survivors, most in their 80s and 90s, were expected to be shot at the convention center in Vienna. Some were brought by bus or ambulance, while others were accompanied by their children. The fittest among them took the subway.
“We owe it to them,” said Erika Jakubovits, who organized the vaccination campaign for the Jewish community in Vienna. “They suffered so much trauma and felt even more insecure during this pandemic.”
Jakubovits organized the vaccination campaign with the support of the Austrian Ministry of Health and officials from the city of Vienna. Twelve doctors, all members of the Viennese Jewish community, offered to administer injections to older Jews.
Although the event took place on International Holocaust Memorial Day, vaccinations were not limited to Shoah survivors. All Jews in the area over the age of 85 were eligible to receive them during the special tribute campaign.
Some of the 8,000 members of Vienna’s Jewish community were vaccinated in December, when residents of a Jewish nursing home received their first doses, said Jakubovits.
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A Holocaust survivor receives the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 disease at a vaccination center on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, January 27, 2021. Hundreds of Holocaust survivors in Austria and Slovakia were about to receive their first coronavirus vaccination on Wednesday to acknowledge their past suffering with a special tribute 76 years after the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, where the Nazis killed more than 1 million Jews and others . Vaccines were also offered to all other Jews in the area over the age of 85. (AP Photo / Ronald Zak)
Last month, most Austrian senior citizens living in nursing homes received their first dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, the Austrian news agency APA reported.
Earlier this week, the president of the European Jewish Congress called on all countries in the European Union to ensure that Holocaust survivors have access to coronavirus vaccines as soon as possible.
More than 6 million European Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Third Reich. The EJC estimates that today only about 20,000 Holocaust survivors still live in the European Union.
“Throughout their lives, they have shown great strength of spirit, but in the current crisis, many have unfortunately died alone and in pain, or are now fighting for their lives, and many others are suffering from extreme isolation,” said the President of Congress European Jewish Moshe Kantor said. “We have a duty to the survivors to ensure that they can live their last years with dignity, without fear and in the company of their loved ones.”
Vaccination efforts in the 27 EU nations have started off slowly, with insufficient doses available, which has sparked much criticism from the authorities.
In a similar project to Vienna, the Jewish community in Bratislava, Slovakia, also vaccinated Holocaust survivors on Wednesday.
“We are very, very grateful that vaccinations are taking place on this symbolic day,” said Tomas Stern, head of the Jewish community in Bratislava.
About 128 survivors received their first shot at the Jewish community center in Bratislava on Wednesday and another 330 in Slovakia in the coming days.
In Israel, home to many Holocaust survivors, more than 80% of people over 70 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 60% have received the second dose. As Israel’s vaccination campaign progressed very quickly, officials said there was no need to deploy Holocaust survivors.
Still, about 900 Holocaust survivors died of COVID-19 in Israel last year before vaccines were available and about 5,300 survivors were infected, according to Israel’s national statistics office.
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Roses with a note saying “#weremember” are placed at the Holocaust Memorial on International Holocaust Memorial Day in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, January 27, 2021. (AP Photo / Markus Schreiber)
The vast majority of those killed at the Auschwitz death camp were Jews from all over Europe, but other non-Jewish prisoners, including Poles, Gypsies and Soviet soldiers, were also among the victims.
About 192,000 Jews lived in Austria before World War II. After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, which was enthusiastically supported by many Austrians, more than 100,000 Jews fled the country. Tens of thousands were killed in extermination camps.
With the end of World War II more than three quarters of a century ago, the approximately 240,000 Holocaust survivors in the world are all elderly. Since many were deprived of adequate nutrition when they were young, they suffer from several medical problems today.
In addition, many live in isolation, having lost their entire families and also suffer from psychological tensions because of their persecution during the Nazis.
None of those who were shot in Vienna wanted to be interviewed by reporters, a fact that Jakubovits attributed to persistent anxiety among Holocaust survivors.
“People are afraid to be recognized,” she said. “We know that we are living in a time when anti-Semitism is growing. Therefore, people are much more careful about what they do.”