Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This is the true story of Izak Goldfinger.
In 1939, a 14-year-old boy from Poland
suffers the gravest penalty for his "crime":
He is born a Jew.
In the following 6 years,
Izak survives 11 Nazi labor and concentration camps.
When the war is over, his body is found in an open mass grave,
but Izak is not dead.
He lives to tell his story.
In Auschwitz, Izak gets a number tattooed on his arm.
Today in Israel
there are 210,000 Holocaust survivors alive.
It is 65 years after the war.
All those who survived the Holocaust, aged.
In many cases,
husbands have died, and wives live alone,
or vice versa.
When we look at the statistics
we can see
that during the last three years of his life
before a human being dies
he takes more medicine
than during his entire lifetime.
Over 50% of those Holocaust survivors
live with the assistance
of social insurance
and additional allowance.
They live in poverty.
Many survivors live until today
in the shadow of the past.
They were traumatized then,
but up till today they cannot forget the pictures of then.
They live with their memories from then
with terrible things that their eyes have seen.
And mostly that they were left alone.
They have subjective feeling of loneliness.
We don't let them alone.
More than 300 therapists,
physicians, psychologists, social workers,
but also 700 volunteers --
altogether we see on the weekly basis
12,000 survivors in the different centers of Israel.
This is the reason that we come to you.
We need urgently your help
for these elder survivors to help. Now.
Thank you.
Our main activity is to, like is written in Isaiah:
"Comfort, comfort my people."
We are working with all people which are in need.
Today in Israel, every 30 minutes
one Holocaust survivor is dying.
Time when we can do something is running very fast.
Helping Hand Coalition is providing help,
bringing love to people.
We would like that they will know that they are important for us.
It is about dignity for these people.
On January 27, 1945,
the concentration camp in Auschwitz was delivered.
Since January 27, 2005
the European Union has established its annual
Europe-wide holocaust commemoration day on this date.
We as "European Coalition for Israel"
are encouraging since then Christian churches all over Europe,
under the motto: "Learn from History,"
to make use of that Sunday next to the memorial day.
In the past, thousands of churches all over Europe
from many different denominations have used this Sunday:
Number 1: to remember the holocaust,
and secondly to find expressions of solidarity
to the Jewish people and to Israel,
who are still under existential threat today.
"Holocaust-Sunday" in 2011
is the Sunday of the 30th of January
and builds upon this experience.
This year though,
we want to bring a very sensitive
and a very special focus to your attention:
The fate of the more than 200,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel.
All of them are in old age.
Many of them are facing difficult circumstances,
they face medical problems, psychological problems,
financial problems, to name just a few.
And, above all,
they face together with the whole people of Israel
the continual threat of extinction from their deadly enemies around.
Please imagine,
these very real threats are for those people
who have lived through the horrors of the Holocaust,
especially painful to cope with.
As a German, as a Christian,
and as the chairman of the European Coalition for Israel,
I want to challenge all of us:
These dramatic circumstances of the Holocaust survivors in Israel
offer to us as Christians from Europe
a very unique opportunity:
An opportunity to show our concern, our love,
and our support
in a way that will deeply impact many of them.
Please consider:
As long as those survivors are still with us,
the last chapter of the Holocaust has not been written.
And we together have the opportunity
to influence this last chapter.
If on the ground of that great scale of Christians from Europe
find ways of practical support to those very special people in Israel,
this last chapter may end on a redemptive note,
on a note of reconciliation, of friendship, and of brotherhood.
So, what can we do?
Number 1: Please pray for those dear people.
Please pray prayers of blessings, of encouragement
and of hope from above.
Number 2: Please distribute this information to as many people
as you find appropriate.
Number 3: Please look for ways in your churches,
in your ministries and in your groups
to make best use of that "Holocaust-Sunday",
January 30th, 2011.
Number 4: Please contribute financially.
For further directions on different finances,
please see below at the end of this clip
or visit our homepage.
And Number 5: Dear friends,
please visit our website for further information
on this project and on the European Coalition for Israel.
Because we, as ECI,
would very much appreciate your ongoing interest,
your prayers, and your support.
See, if all of us do the little each of us can do,
together we can make a big, big impact.
Together in this hour, we can build a bridge of redemption
between Christians from Europe on the one hand
and Holocaust Survivors in Israel on the other.
Thank very much for your attention and for your open heart.
God bless you.