Virus sends Holocaust survivors behind doors, back in time
- By DON BABWIN Associated Press
- Apr 11, 2020 Updated Apr 11, 2020
OAK PARK, Ill. (AP) — For Olga Weiss, the order to stay at home is about much more than simply locking her door to the coronavirus. It has awakened fears from decades ago when she and her parents hid inside for two years from Nazis hunting down Jews in Belgium.
“It is almost an echo of when we were young, when we were children, the same feeling of not knowing what will happen next,” said Weiss, 83. “We aren’t thinking about the virus; we are thinking of what happened to us” back then.
Close to 400,000 survivors of the Holocaust are believed to be alive worldwide, and for many elderly Jews the coronavirus pandemic has dredged up feelings of fear, uncertainty and helplesness not felt since they were children during that dark period...
