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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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And was wondering if there are any here that might be able to relate any furthur information on this subject....
AP - Tue Apr 25, 6:52 AM ET
JERUSALEM - When Gizela Burg arrived in Israel after making it out of four Nazi concentration camps alive, she thought her problems of survival were behind her. But now, at the age of 83, she can no longer afford to pay her growing medical bills. Burg is among about 90,000 Holocaust survivors — a third of the total in Israel — who live in poverty, according to official figures. For the childless widow, her inability to fix her television or afford a taxi meant she was spending Israel's annual Holocaust remembrance day on Tuesday alone and in silence.
I am looking for srticles or information that might possible shed some light on whatever help or assistance these people are receiving....
Also, does this tragic situation extend beyond the boarders of Israel?
It seems to me that these people deserve all the help and assistance available.... To endure such hardship and mindless brutality only to survive to aa eventual life of want is deplorable at best....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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I am not saying that nothing is being done....
I just want to know what it is that is being done....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Check the source, judge accordingly.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5F13CEAB-8FCE-458D-A938-18B66F563322.htm
Poverty stalks Holocaust survivors
Thousands of people have taken part in Holocaust remembrance ceremonies in Israel and elsewhere but official figures reveal that, over 60 years on, around 90,000 survivors live in poverty.
Israelis marked the day, which began at sunset on Monday by closing places of entertainment such as bars and discos.
Stories of survivors were broadcast on radio and television and at midmorning on Tuesday air raid sirens sounded to mark a two-minute silence for the six million Jews killed in World War II.
Israeli officials warned in speeches that anti-Semitism has not yet been eradicated in the world.
In Poland around 7,000 people attended the annual march through the deadly Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
The sounding of a ram's horn signalled the start of the march on Tuesday which was mainly comprised of 5,000 young Israelis and their teachers. They were accompanied by 1,000 Poles and 1,000 other marchers from various countries.
Child victims
The names of a handful of the estimated 1.5 million child victims of the Holocaust were solemnly read out.
Then, the first group of around 10 marchers, carrying the banner of the March of the Living, filed beneath the haunting "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign at the exit of Auschwitz and onto the roads of the southern Polish town of Oswiecim for the 3km walk to Birkenau's gas chambers.
Around 100 metres behind the leaders followed a group of VIPs, including Shimon Peres, the former Israeli prime minister.
But Gizela Burg, who arrived in Israel after surviving four Nazi concentration camps, was unable to take part in any memorial activities.
At age 83 Burg's survival problems continue as she can no longer afford to pay her medical bills.
Israel is having trouble caring for ageing Holocaust survivors, as their medical bills grow each year.
The country has received close to $80 billion in compensation from Germany over the years and, according to figures from the Finance Ministry, gives $326 million to survivors every year.
But many survivors say the money is not nearly enough to live on.
An organisation called the Holocaust Survivors' Welfare Fund distributes government aid to pay medical costs, but its budget in recent years has not grown in proportion to the need.
Cash crunch
Less than 10% of the fund's annual $35 million budget comes from the government.
Up to 85% of the fund's money comes from a New York based Claims Conference, whose funding comes mostly from Germany and Austria.
The Israeli government has increased funding for the organisation in recent years, but most of the funds for 2006 have not yet come through.
About 10,000 survivors who are eligible for medical aid are not receiving it, said the chairman of the fund, Zeev Factor, 80 and himself a Holocaust survivor.
"These people are barely surviving, but the crisis begins when a real sickness befalls them," he said.
"The government of Israel has received money from the German government ... but I think the government didn't use enough for the survivors."
Like many others who survived the war and moved to Israel, Burg took a job with a modest salary, as a doctor's assistant, and had even set some money aside for retirement.
Her husband, a car mechanic, died of cancer 22 years ago. Her savings ran out after three eye operations.
Now she chooses to pay $1,300 for dental treatment instead of putting meat on her table or fixing her TV. The fund had hoped to pay for the work on her teeth but could not, she said.
"I don't pay for medicine because I have to pay for electricity and for gas and property taxes," she said.
© 2003 - 2006 Aljazeera.Net
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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... and I live in a country in which health care is free to everyone. I have no doubt that JFR will explain the situation in appropriate depth. I do however wonder whether this is yet another case of media distortion. There is no way that I - or any other right-minded person - would seek to justify, or indeed mitigate, the horrors of the holocaust. It was a low point in the continually depressing story of man's inhumanity to man. But it was brought to an end 62 years ago. I accept that the trauma would affect survivors for the rest of their lives, but the fact remains that people like Gizela Burg had forty years or more to prepare for retirement. Presumably they were well aware that they were living in a country in which health care was NOT free and that prudent insurance provision was required - as it is in the United States. The Allies (and we should remember that this included Russia) liberated the death camps, and the international community - not least Britain - sponsored the formation of Israel. I would suggest that it isn't reasonable or justifiable for holocaust survivors to expect to be looked after by others for life. The hard and possibly unpalatable truth is that some Muslim communities in the former Yugoslavia suffered equally horrendously, and I don't see any media hype suggesting that the survivors there should be cared for for life. Emotion should not be allowed to distort a realistic assessment of need, and I have to say that in this instance I find it very difficult to appotion blame to the Israeli government.
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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Oh dear, where to start? I think the first comment that should be made is that, despite its provenance, there is truth in the report - even though it is exaggerated. First of all, holocaust survivors in Israel received massive personal reparations from Germany. Secondly, they receive social services as does any other senior citizen. There is a special semi-private organization which deals with special needs of holocaust survivors. Funding for this organization comes both from abroad and from the government of Israel.
However, all social services in Israel have been savagely cut in recent years. The erstwhile finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, introduced a maccabre fiscal regime which out-thatchered Thatcher. The result was that his party was badly mauled in the recent elections and ended up with only 12 seats. Another result was that a new party was created: the Pensioners' Party, which won 7 seats in the election and today will be signing an agreement to join the coalition which is in process of formation. No doubt these ministers, senior citizens themselves, will address the problems with alacrity and give their fellow pensioners the TLC that they deserve. (David, in a first-past-the-post system those pensioners would not have stood a chance.)
The problem of the holocaust survivors was made acute because the government of Israel was not able to transfer its share of the funds to the organization that deals with holocaust survivors with special needs (see above). This was because, as part of the government crisis which brought about the election, the State budget for 2006 has yet to be passed by parliament. Hopefully, a new government will be sworn in within a few days, the budget will be passed and a new era begin for Israel's social services.
My apologies for a very long post which so obviously does not really belong to the ethos of this board; but the question was asked, and Cossie sort of 'goaded' me into a more detailed explanation. A word of caution: I am a private citizen and only know what an informed private citizen can know - not that I think that in this case there is much else to know.
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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I was unaware this board had a specific "ethos".......
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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a major international set of court cases have just finihsed and clais are being finalised, though no more wil be entertained, aganst either the German or Austrain governents for reparations to be made because of Nazi persecution.
This includes financial compensation for loss of earnings, possessions, money, career the lot.
It was held up for years in the US courts where people were trying for more, thus many of the beneficiaries are dead.
In this country, too, certain pension elements are tax free because of Nazi persecution.
I know this because my father was persecuted and my mother now receives the benefits.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I suspect the wrong word was chosen. He means, of course, that we are predominately gay in the issues we discuss. But we are not exclusively gay, as this thread shows. 
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Re: I read a news clip today..... 
