About 900 Holocaust survivors in Israel died of the coronavirus in 2020, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) said on Tuesday, a day ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

That is 17 percent of the number of survivors who were infected with the virus, according to CBS.

There was a total of 179,600 people in Israel recognised as Holocaust survivors by the Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority toward the end of 2020.

Some 17,000 died during the course of the year.

All Holocaust survivors are aged 75 and over, and about 17 per cent of them are over the age of 90.

In total, there have been 4,493 coronavirus-related deaths in Israel.

Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, on Monday called on the member states of the EU to ensure that Holocaust survivors have access to a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.

He made the comment at an online International Holocaust Remembrance Day event, co-hosted with the European Commission.

“Throughout their lives, they have shown mighty strength of spirit, but in the current crisis, many have sadly died alone and in pain, or are now fighting for their lives, and many others are suffering from extreme isolation,’’ Mr. Kantor said.

“We have a duty to survivors to ensure that they are able to live their last years in dignity, without fear, and in the company of their loved ones.”

The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial is set to hold a range of online events on Wednesday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, including an annual symposium which Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will address.

The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the World War II genocide of the European Jews.

Per Wikipedia, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews, around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population between 1941 and 1945, across German-occupied Europe.

(dpa/NAN)