At the invitation of the European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI), representatives from 37 states as well as from NGOs met in Prague to discuss the situation of Holocaust survivors around the globe.

The economic and health situation of the over-80-year-old people affected is a matter of greatest concern. The advisor to the US administration’s Special Adviser on Holocaust Issues, Stuart Eizenstat, reported that half of the 60,000 survivors living in New York are having to spend their old age in relative poverty. The Chair of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, Colette Avital, said that 36% of survivors in Israel live alone. Loneliness and isolation in old age was a particularly heavy burden for the elderly survivors.  There is an urgent need to increase domestic help and care. Throughout the world, two-thirds of the survivors are women who, simply because of their gender, receive lower pension payments. Also, in many states any compensation pensions paid to survivors are taxed.
 
At the close of the conference the Auschwitz survivor and Czech Vice-President of the International Auschwitz Committee, Professor Felix Kolmer, made a dramatic appeal to the governments of these of the countries in question: “Many of us were prepared to give our lives for our countries. We suffered the horrors of the Nazi camps, the ghettos and the slave labour. We are not beggars. We want to complete our lives in dignity and without healthcare poverty. Unfortunately, the biological clock is very reliable. How long do governments want to wait? Until we are dead? We are still alive. Take this opportunity: help us today, not tomorrow. Tomorrow will be too late!”
 
In Prague, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, was emphatic: “The survivors have been the most credible ambassadors for humanity for many decades. Their dedicated involvement against anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia has sensitised young people in many countries for democracy and tolerance. We all owe them our gratitude. It is the responsibility of us all to secure their dignity.”