An elderly Jewish couple was viciously assaulted and robbed at their home in Holland in an apparently anti-Semitic attack.
An elderly Jewish Dutch couple, both of whom are Holocaust survivors, was brutally assaulted and injured in what appears to be an anti-Semitic attack, Israel’s Ynet reported on Sunday.
Samuel (87) and Diana (86) Blog were attacked a month ago at home in Holland by two men who, they said, appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. One of them had a beard.
The two assailants knocked on the apartment door, claiming to be police and demanding to be let in.
Diana, sensing something was wrong, pleaded with her husband not to open the door. The moment he did, the assault began, and the two men, clad in black, beat the couple severely.
The attackers threw them on the floor and kicked them, shouting “Dirty Jews” and saying that they had come to take all their possessions.
After tying up the severely wounded couple, they ripped Diana’s jewelry off her body. She said they almost ripped off her finger because the ring did not come off quickly enough.
Threatening Diana with a gun, they forced the couple to tell them where the rest of the valuables in the apartment were hidden and stole a lot of property, including family heirlooms.
Samuel was blinded by the assault and suffers from a broken femur. He and his wife are now dependent on care and confined to wheelchairs at a rehabilitation center in Amsterdam, after having lived independently before the attack.
“Those evil men have ruined our lives,” Samuel told Ynet.
“I have severe pain. I’m completely broken inside,” Diana added. She is a survivor of Auschwitz and still carries scars from dog bites.
Dutch police have launched a search for the attackers, and Emmanuel, the couple’s son, is offering a 10,000-euro prize to anyone who comes forward with information. Enraged citizens have contributed to raise the sum of the award.
He also circulated photos of the beaten couple so that “the world can see what they have done to my parents.”
The Dutch Embassy in Israel stated it was shocked by the “brutal robbery,” adding that the motives for the attack were yet unclear and that it is investigating the incident “with the fullest severity.”
“We will not accept incidents of discrimination or anti-Semitism… The war on anti-Semitism is part of the defense of the basic values of freedom and security for all. The Dutch government has remained clear on its position: we will not tolerate anti-Semitism in our society,” the embassy stated.
By: United with Israel Staff