The average age of Holocaust survivors is currently 87, the oldest of whom is a 111-year-old native of Tunis, the youngest 78, born about 10 months after the end of World War II.
By JNS
Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) falls on May 6 this year. On Wednesday, the state’s Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority released up-to-date data on survivors in Israel.
A total of 133,362 Shoah survivors and victims of antisemitic harassment during World War II live in Israel, according to the authority.
About 96% of the survivors were children (under the age of 18) at the time of the Holocaust and were born after 1928.
“The average age of Holocaust survivors is currently 87, the oldest of whom is a 111-year-old native of Tunis, the youngest 78, born about 10 months after the end of World War II,” the authority said.
“About 61% of all Holocaust survivors in Israel are women,” it added.
A total of 35,436 of the Holocaust survivors were born in Europe, of whom 13,881 were born in Romania. They constitute the largest group among the survivors in Israel (39%).
Fourteen percent, or 4,965, were born in Poland, 3,579 in Bulgaria (10%), 1,645 in Hungary (4.6%) and 5,647 in the former Soviet Union (15.9%). Only 2.8% of survivors, 1,016, were born in Germany.
Haifa is the city with the most survivors, (9,060), followed by Jerusalem (8,468), Tel Aviv (7,033), Ashdod (6,747), Netanya (6,642) and Beersheva (5,633).
Counted as survivors are 40,287 people who suffered antisemitic harassment during WWII from the Middle East and North Africa.
Of those, 25,588 were born in Morocco and Algeria and endured various restrictions under the Vichy regime, and 14,699 were Iraqi Jews who were exposed to the Farhud riots in Baghdad and Basra in June 1941.
In 2023, the Survivors’ Authority awarded grants and benefits totaling more than NIS 5.5 billion (~$1.5 billion), of which approximately NIS 4.2 billion ($1.1 billion) went to direct awards and grants to the survivors.
Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on the 27th of the Hebrew month of Nisan (shifted by a day if the 27th is adjacent to Shabbat).
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on Jan. 27, the date in 1945 when the Red Army liberated Auschwitz.