​245,000 Holocaust Survivors Are Still Alive

245,000 Holocaust Survivors Are Still Alive

仍有245,000名大屠杀幸存者在世

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　　By Dan Novak

　　26 January 2024

　　Almost 80 years after the Holocaust, about 245,000 Jewish survivors are still living across more than 90 countries.

　　A new report found that 49 percent of them are living in Israel. Eighteen percent live in Western Europe, 16 percent in the United States, and 12 percent in countries of the former Soviet Union.

　　The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also called the Claims Conference, which is based in New York City, carried out the study.

　　Before the publication of the report, there were only general estimates about how many Holocaust survivors are still alive.

　　Their numbers are quickly falling. Most are very old and often in poor health, with a median age of 86. Twenty percent of survivors are older than 90, with more women (61 percent) than men (39 percent) still alive.

　　The report is called "Holocaust Survivors Worldwide. A Demographic Overview." It says 96 percent of survivors are "child survivors." That means they were born after 1928. Information in the report is based on numbers collected up until August 2023.

　　"The numbers in this report are interesting, but it is also important to look past the numbers to see the individuals they represent," said Greg Schneider. He is the Claims Conference's executive vice president.

　　Six million European Jews and people from other minorities were killed by the Nazis and their supporters during the Holocaust.

　　It is not clear exactly how many Jews survived the Holocaust. But their numbers were far smaller than the Jewish population in Europe before World War II. 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland in 1939. Only about 300,000 survived.

　　About 560,000 Jews lived in Germany in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power. At the end of World War II in 1945, their numbers had fallen to about 15,000 — through emigration and murder.

　　Germany's Jewish community grew after 1990. More than 215,000 Jewish migrants and their families moved to Germany from countries of the former Soviet Union. Some of them were also survivors. The report said that 14,200 survivors still live in Germany.

　　One of them is Ruth Winkelmann. She survived by hiding with her mother and sister in a garden shed in northern Berlin. Her father was killed in the Auschwitz death camp. Her younger sister Esther died of illness, hunger, and exhaustion in March 1945, just weeks before the Soviet Red Army entered Berlin.

　　Winkelmann is 95 and still lives in Berlin. She said there has not been a day in her life when she did not remember her father.

　　For its new report, the Claims Conference said it defined Holocaust survivors "based on agreements with the German government in assessing eligibility for compensation programs."

　　For Germany, that definition includes all Jews who lived in the country from January 30, 1933, when Hitler came to power, to May 1945. That is when Germany surrendered in World War II.

　　The group deals with claims for Jews who suffered under the Nazis and negotiates compensation with Germany's finance ministry every year. Since 1952, the German government has paid more than $90 billion to individuals for suffering and losses resulting from the Nazis.

　　The Claims Conference has also launched several educational projects to pass on survivors' stories to younger generations.

　　Gideon Taylor is president of the Claims Conference. He said the data the group gathered "not only tells us how many and where survivors are, it clearly indicates that most survivors are at a period of life where their need for care and services is growing."

　　"Now is the time to double down on our attention on this waning population. Now is when they need us the most."

　　I'm Dan Novak.

　　Kirsten Grieshaber reported this story for the Associated Press. Dan Novak adapted it for VOA Learning English with additional materials including the report.

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　　作者：Dan Novak

　　日期：2024年1月26日

　　大屠杀结束近80年后，大约有245,000名犹太幸存者仍然生活在90多个国家。

　　一份新的报告发现，其中49%的人生活在以色列。18%的人生活在西欧，16%的人生活在美国，12%的人生活在前苏联的国家。

　　这项研究是由总部位于纽约市的犹太人对德国物质索赔会议，也称为索赔会议，进行的。

　　在这份报告发布之前，关于还有多少大屠杀幸存者在世只有大致的估计。

　　他们的数量正在迅速减少。大多数人年龄非常大，健康状况往往较差，中位年龄为86岁。20%的幸存者年龄超过90岁，存活的女性（61%）比男性（39%）多。

　　这份报告名为"全球大屠杀幸存者：人口概览"。报告称96%的幸存者是"儿童幸存者"，意味着他们是在1928年之后出生的。报告中的信息基于截至2023年8月收集的数据。

　　"这份报告中的数据很有趣，但也很重要的是看到这些数字背后代表的个体，"索赔会议的执行副总裁格雷格·施奈德说。

　　在大屠杀期间，纳粹及其支持者杀害了600万欧洲犹太人和其他少数族裔的人。

　　目前尚不清楚究竟有多少犹太人幸存下来。但他们的数量远小于二战前欧洲的犹太人口。1939年，波兰有330万犹太人，只有大约30万人幸存下来。

　　1933年，阿道夫·希特勒上台的那年，德国有56万犹太人。到1945年二战结束时，他们的人数已经降至大约1.5万人——通过移民和被谋杀。

　　1990年后，德国的犹太社区开始增长。超过21.5万犹太移民及其家人从前苏联的国家移居到德国。其中一些人也是幸存者。报告称，仍有14200名幸存者生活在德国。

　　其中一位是露丝·温克尔曼。她和母亲、妹妹一起躲在柏林北部的一个花园棚子里才幸存下来。她的父亲在奥斯维辛死亡营被杀。她的妹妹埃丝特在1945年3月因病、饥饿和疲惫死亡，就在苏联红军进入柏林的几周前。

　　温克尔曼现年95岁，仍居住在柏林。她说，她的一生中没有一天不记得她的父亲。

　　在其新报告中，索赔会议表示，它定义大屠杀幸存者的标准是"基于与德国政府的协议，以评估赔偿计划的资格。"

　　对于德国来说，这个定义包括所有在1933年1月30日希特勒上台至1945年5月在该国生活的犹太人。那是德国在二战中投降的时候。

　　该组织处理在纳粹统治下受苦的犹太人的索赔，并每年与德国财政部协商赔偿。自1952年以来，德国政府已向个人支付了超过900亿美元的赔偿，以弥补他们因纳粹而遭受的痛苦和损失。

　　索赔会议还启动了几个教育项目，将幸存者的故事传递给年轻一代。

　　索赔会议的主席吉迪恩·泰勒说，该组织收集的数据"不仅告诉我们有多少幸存者以及他们在哪里，还清楚地表明大多数幸存者正处于生活中需要更多照顾和服务的阶段。"

　　"现在是时候加倍关注这个正在消失的人口。现在是他们最需要我们的时候。"

　　我是丹·诺瓦克。

　　克尔斯滕·格里沙伯为美联社报道了这个故事。丹·诺瓦克为VOA学英语改编了这篇文章，并添加了包括报告在内的额外材料。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　emigration –离开一个国家去其他地方居住

　　shed — n. 主要用于储存的小建筑

　　exhaustion — n. 非常疲倦的状态

　　eligible — adj.有资格接受或做某事

　　compensate — v.为某人的困难或困苦提供有价值的东西

　　double down — v.以更坚定的方式继续做某事

　　wane — v. 随着时间的推移变得更少、更小或更弱