BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — Buffalo remains home to a large Jewish population with about 10,000 in Western New York. Some are immigrants who escaped the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.
Senior Reporter Eileen Buckley spoke with the leader of Buffalo's Holocaust Resource Center and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.
“That's where we are struggling — that this could possibly happen again,” reflected Wendy Weisbrot.
Weisbrot is a second-generation Holocaust survivor. Her father, Joe Diamond, escaped the persecution and murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany, but he lost his mother and brother in the Holocaust.
“That is my dad's mom and brother — were immediately sent to the gas chambers because she was a woman not deemed strong enough to work and his little brother, obviously, was not a value to the Nazis,” described Weisbrot.
Weisbrot's dad died in 2017. I asked her how he would have responded to the Hamas attack against Israel.
"Honestly, I think it would have broken him. He gave his retirement years to educating the public simply because he wanted them to know the horrors of intolerance and segregation and racism and antisemitism and he wanted them to take that forward,” remarked Weisbrot.
I also spoke with Lauren Bloomberg, director of the Holocaust Resource Center of the Buffalo Jewish Federation, who tells me there are about 45 remaining holocaust survivors in our region and the vicious attack has been a trigger for them.
“This is hard for our survivors because it brings back memories of what they experienced - the atrocities they experienced during the Holocaust,” Bloomberg explained. “Nightmares, terror, post-traumatic stress. These are all feelings that they are all experiencing right now.”
“I’ve heard some that have lost loved ones to this say they compare it to what the Nazis did?” Buckley asked. “I think you know not since the Holocaust have, we lost that many Jewish people in a single day, but also, I think the comparison is who is being targeted — it is the young, the elderly, the vulnerable — just like in the Holocaust,” replied Bloomberg.
“What is your message to our community as we watch these events unfold?” Buckley questioned. “My message is to just support our community, know that the Jewish people and the greater community are suffering. We all stand in solidarity with Israel,” answered Bloomberg.
Weisbrot notes the difficult parallels between the Holocaust, which extended from 1933 to 1945, and the Hamas attack on Israel.
"It's hard not to make those parallels. Something that we've said after the holocaust is you know — never again and today we have to say never again is now,” responded Weisbrot.
“What message do you have for our community?” Buckley asked. "We thank you for standing with us. If you have Jewish friends, check in on them. They're probably not okay. This is a lot on many different levels. They're really hurting,” responded Weisbrot.
