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‘This is not what we expected in this final chapter of our lives’: Holocaust survivors speak out about Hamas invasion
WASHINGTON (JTA) — They spend their days telling students and tourists about the horrors they witnessed as children. They didn’t expect to see them play out again 80 years later.
Fifteen Holocaust survivors who volunteer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum locked arms for photos in front of the museum, which for one night on Wednesday was lit up in the colors of the Israeli flag, what has in recent days become a popular symbol of support for Israel as it reels from the killing of at least 1,200 people in Hamas’s invasion, which started Saturday.
Two survivors stepped forward and read aloud a letter the volunteers had put together.
“We are always gratified to see how much interest there is from young people from every part of the world,” said Dora Klayman, 85 who survived the Holocaust in what is now Croatia. “To hear their comments and questions gives us hope for the future. Today, as we see the murderous destruction in Israel, that hope is dimmed.”
Nat Shaffir, 85, who survived the Holocaust in Romania, took over.
“This is not what we expected in this final chapter of our lives, as we contemplate our legacy, the future of Holocaust memory and education, and the future of our people,” he said.
“We thought that they had a very special message to the world that would carry different meaning than any other organization,” said Sara Bloomfield, the museum’s director. “And we gave them this opportunity to express their voice.”
David Schaecter, the president of the Florida-based Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation – USA issued a similar statement earlier Wednesday. “The barbarity of the Hamas attacks indeed remind us that hatred of the Jewish people, and the infinite capacity for cruelty against our people, is a cancer that will never be eradicated, but must be recognized, protected against, and crushed when it threatens our people,” said Schaecter, 94.
At the museum, after they were done, the small band of survivors asked museum staff for help in calling rideshares and stood in the brisk October evening exchanging pleasantries.
Ruth Cohen, who survived the Holocaust in Hungary and what was then Czechoslovakia and who was deported to Auschwitz, waved back toward the podium and the building bathed in light blue.”Speaking that was wonderful,” Cohen, 93, said referring the recitation of the letter. “But it’s a terrible, terrible situation.”
In January, she had traveled to the United Arab Emirates to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, one of the first times the commemoration was observed in the Arab world. That gave her hope, she said, and it persists. “Even through this, what’s happening.”
Asked what she thought of when reading about the events in Israel, Cohen said, “My life.”
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The post ‘This is not what we expected in this final chapter of our lives’: Holocaust survivors speak out about Hamas invasion appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel Readies for a Nationwide Strike on Sunday
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are calling on for a general strike to be held on Sunday in an effort to compel the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas for the release of their loved ones and a ceasefire. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
The October 7 Council and other groups representing bereaved families of hostages and soldiers who fell since the start of the war declared they were “shutting down the country to save the soldiers and the hostages.”
While many businesses said they would join the strike, Israel’s largest labor federation, the Histadrut, has declined to participate.
Some of the country’s top educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, declared their support for the strike.
“We, the members of the university’s leadership, deans, and department heads, hereby announce that on Sunday, each and every one of us will participate in a personal strike as a profound expression of solidarity with the hostage families,” the Hebrew University’s deal wrote to students.
The day will begin at 6:29 AM, to commemorate the start of the October 7 attack, with the first installation at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Further demonstrations are planned at dozens of traffic intersections.
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Netanyahu ‘Has Become a Problem,’Says Danish PM as She Calls for Russia-Style Sanctions Against Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen said Saturday, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.
“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen told Danish media, adding that the Israeli government is going “too far” and lashing out at the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and announced new homes in the West Bank.
“We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,” she said, specifying she referred to “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole.”
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect.”
The devastating war in Gaza began almost two years ago, with an incursion into Israel of thousands of Palestinian armed jihadists, who perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
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As Alaska Summit Ends With No Apparent Progress, Zelensky to Meet Trump on Monday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the press conference after the opening session of Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 August 2023. The Crimea Platform – is an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine. OLEG PETRASYUK/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – After US President Donald Trump hailed the “great progress” made during a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was set to meet Trump on Monday at the White House.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump told reporters during a joint press conference after the meeting.
Many observers noted, however, that the subsequent press conference was a relatively muted affair compared to the pomp and circumstance of the red carpet welcome, and the summit produced no tangible progress.
Trump and Putin spoke briefly, with neither taking questions, and offered general statements about an “understanding” and “progress.”
Putin, who spoke first, agreed with Trump’s long-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Trump been president instead of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said “many points were agreed to” and that “just a very few” issues were left to resolve, offering no specifics and making no reference to the ceasefire he’s been seeking.