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Holocaust Survivors Face Coronavirus with Grit and Humor by Marisa Fox-Bevilacqua

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Holocaust Survivors Face Coronavirus with Grit and Humor by Marisa Fox-Bevilacqua GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM YOUR SHABBAT EDITION • MARCH 27, 2020 A printable best-of-the-week curated by Forward editors. Sign up at forward.com/shabbat. Sonia Abiri (left) and Lea Gleit Lorka (right) Opinion ‘We Rehearse For This All The Time’: Holocaust Survivors Face Coronavirus With Grit And Humor By Marisa Fox-Bevilacqua For Cordula Hahn, a Holocaust survivor in Brooklyn, invincibility and even a rush of adrenaline during the first trigger was the lack of toilet paper. moments of crises. Others react more cautiously; for them, the sight of empty store shelves isn’t such a “Oh, no, will I have to go back using newspaper?” she comfort. asks, half chuckling. “That’s what we did when we were in hiding in the Netherlands, and seeing the panic over “It takes me right back to September 1st, 1939,” says toilet paper immediately brought back that memory.” Natalie Scharf, a survivor living in Philadelphia. “My parents had a grocery store where we lived in But rather than a source of trauma, childhood Jaworzno, Poland, right by the German border. They recollections of enduring great adversity are helping knew the Nazis were seizing all Jewish businesses, so Holocaust survivors like Hahn better brace for our they quietly began to bring sacks of flour, sugar, current global pandemic. As Boomers, Gen Xers and beans, barley, onions and potatoes home to live off Millennials race to hoard water, food and yes, toilet after they raided our storehouses. I’m not comparing paper, survivors are meeting the challenge of life in the this to the Holocaust, but seeing everything shut time of coronavirus with signature tenacity and humor. down, hearing of closed borders, food shortages, no “I grew up poor and as a refugee after the war, so I travel, being afraid to go outdoors, see family and know I can live without stuff, which is very comforting even touch anything, it feels like the start of the war. actually,” says Hahn. “I don’t need stuff to survive — But now you don’t see the enemy.” including toilet paper.” Still, that fear of the unseen and the unknown, which Some survivors report feeling a sense of command, can be crippling to most, hasn’t left Scharf feeling ‘We Rehearse For This All The Time’: Holocaust Survivors Face Coronavirus With Grit And Humor 1 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM powerless or doomsday-like. She, like many survivors, living with our parents, and everything was fine one is tough, courageous and resilient, able to navigate moment, and then all of a sudden everything was gone emergencies calmly and with her wits intact. The in an instant.” survivor instinct is a source of hope for many at this Goldstein says her childhood helps her get into coping time, helping fuel their families and those with whom mode, which is a source of pride for her and her they interact during this pandemic. husband Jack, who was also a hidden child. “In a way, The prevailing attitude seems to be “We’ve seen we mentally rehearse for times like this all the time,” worse,” says Greg Schneider, executive vice president she says. “We always think, what do we do if…” of the Claims Conference, which provides 50,000 This foresight, fight or flight instinct and ability to survivors with pensions, in addition to a whole range mobilize, helped Goldstein and her family survive of welfare services through its funding of 300 agencies coups in Brazil and Nigeria, where they were living with around the world. “I was checking in with a survivor their three children during Jack’s tenure as an engineer friend and reminding him to stay in. He said: ‘God working abroad. saved me once, he’ll save me again, but maybe I can give him a little help this time’.” “We were the only Americans who had a runaway suitcase, always packed with clean underwear and Schneider says that the defiance and grit of survivors toilet paper — yes, toilet paper!” she says laughing. is inspiring to him and his staff as they rise to meet the “We kept a level head, we always had a plan, and we challenge of ensuring their safety and wellbeing; always had a runaway suitcase.” survivors are among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. That prescience led her to cancel a Hidden Child Foundation meeting on March 11th. Reading news of “The most devastating part of this is that the specific the pandemic’s spread, she began to question the structures we’ve built over years to provide dignity to wisdom of sticking to their schedule. Others in her survivors are now the ones that are the most group from the Tri-State area also began to feel dangerous,” he says. “We have a very robust network anxious about traveling into the city and gathering. for homecare attendants that cater to 75,000 They each asked their doctors, who advised them to survivors around the world, which enables them to live postpone the affair. in their homes independently. But now those two to three aids who come in to clean, shop, provide “At first I thought, are we overreacting?” Goldstein company, medical care, etc, are introducing risk factors recalls. “Once our doctors said, ‘Absolutely not,’ I felt to that survivor. So every day, the agencies that validated, that I wasn’t crazy.” provide that care have to reevaluate.” She also began to self-quarantine and advised Jack to For instance, if a home aide reports sick, agencies have do the same, though she says he was more cavalier to weigh the plusses and minuses of foregoing a about going to work. It took a government shutdown service versus introducing a new person into their to keep him at home. home. “If the attendant is washing the floor, let the floor remain unwashed for a week,” says Schneider. “Interestingly, Holocaust survivors aren’t very anxious right now,” says Eva Fogelman, PhD, a New York- The uncertainty of the present, whether not being able based clinical psychologist who specializes in to rely on a trusted home healthcare worker, hug a Holocaust survivor and second and third generation grandchild or gather for a regular kaffeeklatsch is post-trauma. “There’s a sense that this is nothing unsettling, even for the most unflappable survivor. compared to what they went through.” “The insecurity of life is a trigger for me,” says New But that doesn’t necessarily make the present reality Jersey resident Rachelle Goldstein, co-director of the easy for them. For survivors like Lola Israel, who lives Hidden Child Foundation at the Anti-Defamation independently in Haifa, moving in with her daughter’s League. “Because of our pasts, we know that every family turned stressful. good thing in life is ephemeral. They can be gone in an instant, because this is what happened to us. We were “Not having her things around, not being in her own ‘We Rehearse For This All The Time’: Holocaust Survivors Face Coronavirus With Grit And Humor 2 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM element made her feel uprooted and that made her than anything, he says, survivors inspire his staff with anxious,” says daughter Zahava Seidner. “Then my their courage and steadfastness. daughter, who works in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, “My mother in law is a Holocaust survivor and is going decided to come home, and we couldn’t risk having her through chemo, so she’s immune suppressed and exposed. So I decided to stay with my mother during elderly, but she’s amazingly strong, physically and this time.” emotionally,” he says. “She’s going stir crazy for sure. While Israel isn’t on complete lockdown, the elderly She wants to get out, but the face time with her have been ordered to remain inside, which is a hard grandkids is her chicken soup, it’s the best medicine. proposition for an active 92-year-old like Lola. And she gives us hope, because this is traumatic for all of us.” “I’m not supposed to leave the house, but I needed some air, so we took a walk around the block,” she A mix of humor, music and art are other good soul says. “I can endure anything.” salves. Hahn recommends Chilean musician Violeta Parra, whose song “Gracias A La Via” [Thank you, Life] For Sonia Abiri, a survivor from Katowice who resides helped her get through the death of her sister a few in an assisted living facility near Tel Aviv, life goes on years ago. Without missing a beat, she adds, “She even with characteristic irreverence. She may be [Parra] killed herself, by the way.” relegated to eating meals solo in her apartment and only having virtual visits with her family, but there is For comic relief that’s lighter on the dark irony, singer one real-time ritual she won’t forego: her daily bridge and YouTube sensation Randy Rainbow’s “The game with three of her neighbors. Coronavirus Lament” seems to be hitting all the right notes. “She says she’s had her share of life on this planet and wants everyone else to have it as well,” says her son “We circulate a lot of jokes, too, many about toilet Roni. As for the card game, he says they sit a meter paper,” says Goldstein. “The important thing is to stay apart, they don’t play for money and if it helps keep connected, despite social distancing.” her spirits up, that works for him. For survivors, who lost so much in life, family carries Marisa Fox-Bevilacqua is a New York-based journalist extra weight.
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