NEW YORK (JTA) – When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Toby Levy thought: “I’m a miracle. I will make it. I have to make it.”
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That’s because Levy, as she explains in a New York Times op-ed published Sunday, is an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor from what was then Poland and is now Ukraine. She survived by hiding in a cellar and then later a 4-by-5-foot spot in a barn during the war.
As she writes:
During the war, we didn’t know if we would make a day. I didn’t have any freedom. I couldn’t speak loudly, I couldn’t laugh, I couldn’t cry.
But now, I can feel freedom. I stay by the window and look out. The first thing I do in the morning is look out and see the world. I am alive. I have food, I go out, I go for walks, I do some shopping. And I remember: No one wants to kill me. So, still, I read. I cook a little bit. I shop a little bit. I learned the computer. I do puzzles.
I still sometimes feel that I am missing out. A full year is gone. I lost my childhood, I never had my teenage years. And now, in my old age, this is shortening my life by a year. I don’t have that many years left. The way we have lived this year means I have lost many opportunities to lecture, to tell more people my story, to let them see me and know the Holocaust happened to a real person, who stands in front of them today. It’s important.
Read the rest of the sobering op-ed here.
Many people, confined to isolation and even solitude during these touch times of coping with the Corona virus, often compare themselves with Jews who spent months and years hiding from the Nazis who hunted and killed Jews in 21 countries during World War II.
-“For those of us that are children of Holocaust survivors, we know well the hell our parents went through to survive.
They hid, had no food, no clothes, no medical attention, and NO TOILET PAPER.
They were cramped in hiding places with no fresh air and couldn’ t make a sound or Nazis would kill them.
It lasted a lot longer than this will last, some for up to 4 or 5 years.
They lost their education, their souls, their youth.
There were no supermarkets,no cell phones, no radios and no outside interference.
I would prefer that the media stop scaring us to death which leads to fear and panic.
Just tell us what to do, no choices.
IF one violates the directive that person should be punished.
During the Shoah there were the weak and the strong, the young and the elderly,the good, the bad and the ugly. Some shared others did not. Say Tehillim (Psalms) and pray .
I do not fear for myself , but I fear for my wife, children and grandchildren . Let us remember the horrors our parents suffered and not be so afraid. Let us have hope and not panic. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG
I have been yelling this for a long time. Extended lock downs are killing people. its like chemo. Its not practical for the long term. We need to end this madness.
I do say that for the elderly like her , she should be able to get the vaccine over the next week or two. Then I believe its a 30 day wait for second dose. But after that no more OCD.
Since the end is near now a short 30 day lock down for the elderly makes sense. However, Once she has the vaccine you must tell the elderly yes take the risk and go outside and mingile in as much of a social distant fashion as feasible. You cannot keep them locked up forever.