Valerie Bendersky was only seven years old when the Nazi invasion of Ukraine forced him to flee to Kazakhstan. He was forced to flee his birthplace again about 80 years later, this time in the face of Russian invaders.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces into the former Soviet republic two months ago, Bendersky is one of over 300 Jewish Holocaust survivors from Ukraine who have sought safety in Israel.
“”I was escaping from Hitler then, and now I’m fleeing from Putin,” the 85-year-old stated from his new home in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv: ‘I was fleeing from Hitler then, and now I’m fleeing from Putin.’ It is, without a doubt, difficult “Speaking in Russian, he told Reuters.
According to the United Nations, more than five million Ukrainians have fled the Russian onslaught.
Being a refugee is particularly difficult on the elderly, who believed they would never have to face war again.
‘Oh my God, what a nightmare!’ I thought to myself. Here we go with the war, bombings, evacuation, leaving your home behind, not knowing if you’ll make it out alive or not,’ Dova Govergeviz, who is 100 years old, shared her thoughts.
She is from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and was in her 20s when she and her mother were forced to flee their home for the first time, seeking refuge in Uzbekistan hundreds of miles (kilometres) to the east until World War II ended.
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