Think This // After Hours

A few days ago I received an email from my friend who lives in Israel. He started a new organization to help poor holocaust survivors - ”Helping Hand Coalition.” One of the ways they are raising awareness is by producing a film “161154 - Chai Life.” This is an amazing true story of a holocaust survivor. Here is his shortened story: 

CHAI “Life”

This is a true story of Izak Goldfinger. In 1939 the Second World War is raging and Hitler is terrorizing Europe with war and ethnic cleansing. Itzhak Goldfinger, a 14-year-old boy from Poland, suffers the gravest penalty for his ‘crime: He is born a Jew… In the following 6 years he survives 11 Nazi labor and concentration camps. At the end of the war his body barely alive, is found in an open mass grave on top of a pile of corpes. Minutes from death, Izak fights for life.

How did Izak find the will to survive for 6 years in the most degrading circumstances the world has ever seen?

It is a miracle that he survived and lives to tell this story. These are the memories of a man who has seen it all. Memories for future generations, so that they will be reminded of the terrible things people do to each other.

In the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz / Birkenau, Izak gets a number tattooed on his arm. A rabbi tells him this number has a special meaning. The numbers correspond with Hebrew letters; those letters spell a word; this word will help Izak to find the strength to survive through his terrible ordeal.

Watch a trailer of this documentary movie. WARNING: This trailer contains shocking WWII images of death and starvation.

 Here is the email in its entirety with an appeal to join hands:

Jerusalem, May 6, 2007

Dear Friends,
Two months ago the  Helping Hand Coalition and the Raise the Praise organized global premiere of the “CHAI - Life” Film and Concert held at Esther House in Tel Aviv.   It was a privilege for all of us to learn about Izak Goldfinger’s dramatic life story and to meet with him personally and all of his dear guests.

It was so sad to learn from them that despite general public knowledge, many holocaust survivors living today in Israel are suffering poverty, lack of attention, even hunger.  The Helping Hand Coalition decided to take immediate action to identify the problem and to find an immediate solution.

Every week new members are joining the HHCoalition, reaching today over 120 independent international or regional organizations, ministries, and individual business associates.  The Coalition quickly earned the public’s trust in Israel and a good relationship with many official and government agencies, including  the Association of Concentration Camps and Ghetto Survivors in Israel, the Association of the Holocaust Children, the Association of the Polish Jews, Centre of the Holocaust Survivors, Immigrants’ Assistant Association, Chama, the Israeli Government Spokesman Office, the Israeli Rabbinical Office, the Jerusalem Post, Palestinian Friends of Israel, Society of Jews from Krakow, Society of Jews from Lodz, Society of Partisans from Warsaw Ghetto, Society of Invalids Persecuted by Nazi, and the World Jewish Council.

Everyone knows of someone who knows someone who has had relatives who were in the Holocaust and did not make it out of the death camps or did not survive. They even know of many who survived.  It is the mission of the founders of the Helping Hand Coalition  to ensure that any remaining Holocaust survivor in need, be it financial or medical, will never, ever again have to worry or decide whether or not they have to chose between eating or paying for their medicine or even a light bill.

Last week the story that appeared on the Yediot Ahronot, Likud Party Web site (5/1/07) and other magazine sites received a wonderful response from thousands of Holocaust survivors in Israel, either directly or through their relatives.  This week support for the first 200 people in the most need will be distributed by the HHCoalition in the form of food packs that will take care of an individual for an entire month.

As of this writing, the HHCoalition has received in trust an extensive list of over 12,000 holocaust survivors with their full names, addresses, ID numbers, contact phones, and description of their need.

Anyone is welcomed to help and to support their cause. Time is extremely short as the holocaust survivors are suffering every minute, many of them dying every day in bitter loneliness, having no real hope for any support, believing that God has forgotten them all.   We need to act fast.

Please join us today to bring relief and hope to those who suffer now. Tomorrow might be too late….

“Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.” Matt. 25:34-36

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God….” Isaiah 40:1

Words sincerely,

Helping Hand Coalition

Dr. Andre Gasiorowski

Israeli Executive Coordinator

 http://www.HHCoalition.com