Israel: 900 Holocaust survivors died of COVID-19 in 2020

Some 900 people who survived the Holocaust died from COVID-19 in Israel last year, the country's Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

The bureau reported that about 5,300 survivors of the World War II-era mass murder of European Jews and other groups by the Nazis were infected in 2020 with the coronavirus. The pandemic began its global rampage about a year ago.

About 17% of those Holocaust survivors died of the virus, similar to the percentage of others of the same age. All Holocaust survivors are at least 75 years old and COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, is especially lethal to seniors.

In 2020, about 3,000 more Israelis were recognized as Holocaust survivors and about 17,000 survivors died. Of the dead, about 900 died of COVID-19, the government said.

The tally comes on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated by the United Nations in 2005.