Coronavirus pandemic stretches resources of Connecticut’s Holocaust survivors

More than 300 Holocaust survivors live in Connecticut. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the needs of this aging, fragile population were considerable: help with utility bills, health care costs, food, translation help for those with limited English.

The COVID-19 health crisis has stretched their resources even more.

“A number of them got COVID. They weren’t the same after,” said Miriam Brander, chief operating officer for Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford. But even the healthy struggled. Jewish Family Services gave both financial support and logistical help.

“Some of their support systems were not there for them. We needed to increase caregiver hours, but there were concerns whether their caregivers could carry [the coronavirus],” she said. “They needed to set up Instacart accounts. They were not equipped to do that. … When Eversource raised the rates by 30%, survivors called us. They couldn’t afford to turn on their air conditioners and it was 90 degrees outside.”

JFS is expecting another influx of aid requests when the pandemic subsides, vaccinations are complete and survivors feel safe going to the doctor again and, even more important, to the dentist.

“Many clients haven’t gone to the dentist in a year. One of the most common bills they have is dental bills because of malnutrition during the Holocaust. More than other seniors, they have a lot of dental issues,” Brander said.

Surviving

Boris Barishpolsky of West Hartford is one of Connecticut’s survivors. Born in 1936, Barishpolsky barely recalls his father, who enlisted in the Soviet army with two of his brothers. None made it back. They did not die in action but were captured with their fellow soldiers.

“The Germans didn’t know who was Jewish and who was not. The other Ukrainians [soldiers] helped them and they were separated,” he said. “All the men in our family were killed except one who was in prison for being an anticommunist.”

Barishpolsky’s wife, Irma, also was born in 1936. As a girl in Kiev, Ukraine, with her father frequently away on business, Irma was shuttled from town to town by her mother, often one step ahead of the German forces. Sometimes the Germans got there first and Irma, her brother and her mother had to turn back. After the war, she wound up in Kiev.

Meanwhile, Boris moved to Stalingrad. “I went from one fire to another fire,” he said. His mother, a hospital director, had to move the hospital to a town away from the battle. One of the two ships carrying doctors and patients sank. Boris was on the other ship. Eventually, they wound up in Kiev, too.

Even after the war, the feeling of oppression remained. “Antisemitism, this is the nature of the world. We grew up very fast because we had to know what was going on,” he said.

The couple, with their daughter, emigrated in 1978 with $45 each to their name — all the Soviet Union would let them take. After stops in Italy and New York, they settled in West Hartford.

‘Age at home with dignity’

Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford and Greater New Haven are two groups that provide continuous support to Connecticut’s Holocaust survivors. Survivors include those who were detained in concentration camps, as well as any Jew who lived under Nazi domination for any period of time and survived.

Germany’s reparations program provides up to $1.5 million annually to the Jewish Family Services’ fund for survivors and has for 22 years. The fund was boosted recently by a $40,000 matching grant from Survivors of the Holocaust Emergency Fund Initiative, created by the philanthropic organization KAVOD.

The goal of the fund is to help survivors “age at home with dignity,” according to Miriam Brander, chief operating officer for Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford.

“Someone who has been in a concentration camp does not want to go into an institutional setting. What will that do to their trauma?” Brander said. “To that end, care is the most expensive need. … It’s not safe for them to be at home without any care.”

The Barishpolskys are luckier than many other victims of Nazi atrocities. “We were not in occupied territory. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have survived,” Irma Barishpolsky said. They also are more fiscally stable than many recipients of JFS’s help. But they still need a boost sometimes. They get help for health care and cleaning, and they enjoy visits by Erica Kapiloff, senior case manager for JFS’s Holocaust Survivor Program.

“Nobody who lived through this has been left without trauma. Some clients have nightmares, depression,” Kapiloff said.

To donate to the aid fund, visit jfshartford.org/ways-to-give-to-jfs-hartford.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.