Central Bureau of Statistics: 17,000 Holocaust survivors died in 2020, 900 of them from Corona | Israel today

Special report ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day indicates the extent of corona morbidity and mortality among Holocaust survivors • About 5,300 Holocaust survivors contracted the virus during the year • The percentage of deaths is particularly high and stands at 17 • All data

• Data on the situation of Holocaust survivors in Israel

  Photography: 

  Joshua Joseph

On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which will be marked tomorrow, the Central Bureau of Statistics published a report today (Tuesday) regarding the situation of Holocaust survivors in Israel. According to a report, as of the end of 2020, there are 179,600 Holocaust survivors living in Israel.

The report shows a particularly crooked figure, according to which about 900 Holocaust survivors died of the corona virus in the past year, out of 17,000 survivors who died in the past year. This percentage is 17%, similar to the percentage of Jews and others of the same age who stood at 16%.

Among women, the percentage of deaths among the verified was lower than that of men: 15% compared with 21%, similar to the Jewish and other population with 14% and 19%, respectively. 

About 5,300 Holocaust survivors became infected with the virus during the year.

Nearly half of the verified infections in the group of Jews and others aged 75 and over are Holocaust survivors with 46%, similar to their share in this population, which constitutes about 44%.

The percentage of those verified among Holocaust survivors is similar to the percentage of those verified among all Jews and others - 2.77% and 2.84%, respectively.

The percentage of those verified increases with age both among Holocaust survivors and among all Jews and others.

Among Holocaust survivors, the percentage of verified people aged 95 and over is 4.85% and is double the percentage of verified people aged 84-75 with 2.24%.

All Holocaust survivors are adults aged 75 and over, of whom about 17% are over the age of 90. From the beginning of 2020 until the end, about 3,000 additional Holocaust survivors were recognized.

60% of all Holocaust survivors are women (108.1 thousand) and 40% are men (71.5 thousand).

The relative share of women is higher than that of men of all ages and increases as the age increases: in the age group 84-75 women are 58% and in the age group 85 and over - 63%.

The median age of men was 83.4 while that of women was 84.0.

About 850 Holocaust survivors living in Israel at the end of 2020 have reached the age of 100 and over.

Their share of all Holocaust survivors is 0.5%, compared with 0.2% among the entire population of foreign-born Israelis aged 100 and over.

Among Holocaust survivors, about a third of those aged 100 and over are men and about two-thirds are women, compared with a smaller gap among all foreign-born persons aged 100 and over in Israel, where 45% are men and 55% are women.

In the population of Holocaust survivors of all ages, the percentage of married women is higher than the percentage of married women, while the percentage of widows is higher than the percentage of widows.

About 68% of the survivors were married in 2019 compared to 25% of the survivors and about 22% were widows compared to 61% widows.

These data reflect the higher life expectancy of women.

According to the population register in about 21,000 families, both spouses are recognized as Holocaust survivors.

About 35% of the survivors were born during World War II, in the years 1945-1939, and are 81-75 years old at the end of 2020. Another 48% of all survivors are 89-82 years old, and the rest are over the age of 90 (about 17%).

63.8% of Holocaust survivors living in Israel are natives of Europe, ie 114.5 thousand.

The natives of the USSR (former) are the largest group with 36.4%, ie 65.3 thousand. 11.8% are natives of Romania, ie 21.1 thousand and 5.6% are natives of Poland, ie 10,000.

16.4% of Holocaust survivors are natives of Morocco, ie 29.5 thousand and 2.1%, ie 3,700 are Algerian natives who suffered from various restrictions during the Vichy regime, 10.9% are Iraqi natives who experienced the Farhud events, i.e. 19.6 thousand. The remaining 6.7% are from Tunisia and Libya.

About 40% of the survivors immigrated to Israel by 1951 in the first wave of immigration and more than a third in the last wave of immigration in the 1990s.

5% of the survivors immigrated to Israel before the establishment of the state, in the years 1947-1933.

About a third (34.7%) of the survivors immigrated to Israel in the great wave of immigration (1951-1948) after the establishment of the state.

Another 31.4% immigrated in the years 1989-1952, and more than a third (36.4%) immigrated since the 1990s, during the last wave of immigration from the USSR (former).

About 63% of Holocaust survivors from Germany and Austria immigrated to Israel before the establishment of the state Most of the survivors from Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Iraq and Libya immigrated to Israel in the first wave of immigration (1951-1948). Most of the Moroccan and Tunisian immigrants immigrated in the 1950s and 1960s, while most survivors from the (former) Soviet Union immigrated from 1990.

About 95% of the survivors live in urban localities and about 5% in rural localities, similar to the rest of the Jewish and other population in Israel.

About 41% of the survivors living in urban localities live in the large cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, about 73,000 survivors.

About half of them are concentrated in the three major cities: about 12.4 thousand in Haifa, about 11.1 thousand in Jerusalem and about 9.9 thousand in Tel Aviv-Yafo.

In cities with between 50,000 and 199,999 inhabitants, about a third of the survivors (57.9 thousand) and the rest, 40.4 thousand survivors, live in smaller urban localities.

About 4.9 thousand survivors live in moshavim and another 2.3 thousand in kibbutzim.

10% of all Holocaust survivors live in institutions, compared with 8.6% among Jews and others aged 75 and over.