Helping Holocaust Survivors in Eastern Europe
Millions of people suffered beyond comprehension during the Holocaust. Some were in concentration camps such as Auschwitz or Dachau. But in Eastern Europe they were in lesser-known labor/extermination camps such as Klooga and Pechora or victims of Nazi mobile killing squads that massacred the Jewish populations of countless towns and villages. They endured cold and starvation in hiding, in ghettos, or in forests where they fought as brave Partisans. Millions perished, but what about those that survived? Today these Holocaust survivors have been forgotten by the world. Elderly, ill, and alone, they are in desperate need of help.
It is these survivors that Zane Buzby discovered in 2001 while visiting remote villages in Eastern Europe, searching for her family’s roots. She was compelled to help and founded The Survivor Mitzvah Project [SMP], which provides continuous emergency financial aid for food, medicine, heat, shelter and caregivers for the bedridden. SMP also offers friendship and hope to survivors still suffering over 75 years after the start of the war.
With the help of a small staff and volunteers in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, and most recently Israel, letters are exchanged and funds mailed, wired, or given in person to survivors during SMP’s humanitarian trips across Eastern Europe.
Time is running out, and within ten years there will be few survivors remaining. With this reality comes our commitment to continue to send funds to Zane so that she can reach even more than the 2,300 survivors currently receiving assistance. There are thousands of Holocaust survivors out there waiting.