75th anniversary of the Holocaust, Survivors... between loneliness, disease and COVID-19

About 240,000 people survived the Holocaust of World War II over seven decades ago. They are already old. Since they were deprived of proper nutrition when they were young, they suffer from many diseases today. According to foreign media, many of them live isolated lives, having lost all their families and suffering psychologically as a result of their persecution by the Nazis. More than six million European Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Third Reich. The vast majority of those killed in the Auschwitz death camp were Jews from all over Europe, but there were other non-Jewish prisoners, including Poles, Roma and Soviet soldiers, who were also among the victims. About 192,000 Jews lived in Austria before World War II. After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, which was enthusiastically supported by many Austrians, more than 100,000 Jews fled the country. Tens of thousands were killed in the death camps and by the end of the war in 1945, only a very few Austrian Jews remained in the country, most hiding from the Nazis. Only about 20,000 Holocaust survivors still live in the EU. Holocaust survivors in Austria and Slovakia today are receiving the first dose of coronavirus vaccine as a gift on the 75th anniversary of the commemoration. They were honored in a special way on the 75th anniversary of their liberation from the death camp at Auschwitz, where the Nazis killed more than a million Jews and others. More than 400 Austrian survivors, most in their 80s or 90s, are being vaccinated today at Vienna's largest vaccination center in the convention center of the Austrian capital. About 128 received the first vaccine today and another 330 across the country will receive it in the coming days. In Israel, home to Holocaust survivors, more than 80 percent of those over the age of 70 have received at least one dose of the vaccine and nearly 60 percent have received the second dose. Because the vaccination campaign in Israel has moved so fast, there was no need to single out Holocaust survivors. About 900 Holocaust survivors died of COVID-19 in Israel last year before vaccines became available, and about 5,300 survivors are infected, according to Israel's national statistics office.