Program Stories

“My childhood ended in one day,” says Manya, a 92-year-old Jewish woman born in Kyiv. “I was nine years old. My father went to war. My mother stayed with me and my two-year-old brother. When the Nazis started bombing Kyiv, there was nowhere to hide.”

Born to a Jewish family in the Soviet Union, Elena has suffered from diabetes for most of her 63 years. The disease—which in her case is hereditary—has left this poor woman blind, nearly unable to walk, and suffering from failure of her kidneys, lungs, and heart.

When war erupted in Ukraine last year, Evgenia found herself in the middle of the violence. Living in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine with her mother, the two elderly Jewish women found themselves alone, right on the frontlines.

“I am going to tell you my story, and perhaps some parts of it sound like a complaint. However, I am not complaining.” This is what Avraham, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, recently told a Fellowship volunteer who visited him with food and winter items as the cold months set in.

Born in Ukraine as the winds of World War II began to tear across Europe, Rosalia’s earliest memories are of fear and hunger. The struggles she faced as a Jewish child, surviving the Holocaust with her family—somehow, someway, with God’s help—never eased, as she faced a life of poverty.

Born 86 years ago into a large Jewish family in Yemen, Hana made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) with her parents and nine siblings when she was just an infant.

Dunka, a Holocaust survivor who has spent all of her 92 years in Ukraine, has lived a long life. But she never imagined that in her old days, she’d relive the horrors of World War II all over again.

When IFCJ Canada volunteers stopped by Bella’s humble apartment with holiday aid, the 84-year-old Holocaust survivor beamed as if her life had been changed. Sadly, just receiving winter help has changed Bella’s life.

“World War II began when I turned three,” Tzilia tells us, “and my whole life changed.” Born in Zhytomyr—a city heavily bombed during the ongoing war in Ukraine—Tzilia’s life before the Nazis invaded was one of happiness and faith. Her mother ran the city’s Jewish orphanage.

Ludmila is no stranger to hardship. As an infant, an infection impaired one side of her body, and vision in one of her eyes. This led to Ludmila having to figure out how to navigate life despite her disabilities… a life that she learned to love.

Iosif lives in conditions too primitive and decrepit for any climate, much less the winters of Eastern Europe. Next to a dingy parking garage in the capital of Eastern Europe’s poorest country, the hovel that this 82-year-old Holocaust calls his home is made of rough plywood and has no drywall or insulation. His shack also lacks heat or electricity.

Her tiny house is built of cinderblocks and contains just a few things: pots, pans, utensils, a small table for two, a bed. There are no modern devices like those found in today’s homes in Canada — no central heat, no dishwasher, no washing machine, no computer. The walls have no insulation, so old rugs hang from the walls in an attempt to block the cold.