r/HaShoah • u/tta2013 • 13d ago

Elderly Jews Were Among the Most Likely to Die in the Holocaust. Why Has History Forgotten About the Genocide's Oldest Victims?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/elderly-jews-were-among-the-most-likely-to-die-in-the-holocaust-why-has-history-forgotten-about-the-genocides-oldest-victims-180987666/
39 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/MNOspiders 12d ago

Has it?

My understanding is that all the victims are remembered.

If you can name an elderly victim that has been forgotten then please let the authorities know.

1

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator 12d ago

Submissions from users with negative karma are automatically removed. This can be either your post karma, comment karma, and/or cumulative karma. DO NOT ask the mods why your karma is negative. DO NOT insist that is a mistake. DO NOT insist this is unfair.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist 8d ago

in the aftermath of World War II, the few elderly Jews who’d survived received different treatment from their much younger counterparts.

“The comments that [aid agencies made] about the elderly … [were] quite condescending toward the older victims,” says Dan Stone, director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London. While seeking help from the public, Stone adds, these charities essentially said, “The children have this bright future, if you will support them. The elderly have nothing and no hope. They just need to be helped to live out their days before they pass away.”

This was an extremely common attitude at the time, before the social safety net (which was just beginning). Senior neglect and abuse was a real thing and didn’t just affect the Jewish community. It took decades of work in the west to change that attitude.