Nearly 80 years after the end of World War II, approximately 245,000 Holocaust survivors are still alive.

Almost 80 years after the end of the Second World War, Approximately 245,000 Holocaust survivors are still alive in more than 90 countries, says a new demographic study released Tuesday.

Second Complaints Conferenceorganization that seeks compensation for Holocaust survivors, 119,300 of them reside in Israel, 38,400 in the United States, 21,900 in France and 14,200 in Germany.

In South America and the Caribbean there are around 700 survivors left alive, including 300 in Brazil and 200 in Mexico.

Mexico, for its part, has 100 Holocaust survivors still alive.

“Almost all of the survivors still alive were children at the time of Nazi persecution; they survived camps, ghettos, escapes and life in hiding,” the report reads.

This was despite the fact that children then had “a lower chance of surviving”, the document adds.

Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference, explained: “The data we have collected not only tells us how many survivors and where they are located, but clearly indicates that the majority of survivors are at a time in their lives where their need for care and services are increasing. Now is the time to redouble our attention to this declining population. “Now is the time they need us most.”

Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, added: “The numbers in this report are interesting, but it’s also important to look beyond the numbers to see the people they represent. These are Jews born into a world that wanted to see them killed. “They endured the atrocities of the Holocaust in their youth and were forced to rebuild an entire life from the ashes of the camps and ghettos that destroyed their families and communities.”

Schneider was emphatic: “The data forces us to accept the reality that Holocaust survivors will not be with us forever; in fact, we have already lost most survivors.”

This report is the most comprehensive in recent yearsaccording to the organization.

Founded in 1951, the Claims Conference was a signatory to the so-called Luxembourg Agreement, in which Germany took responsibility for Nazi atrocities and paid reparations.

The signing of the agreement was seen as the first major step towards returning to the community of nations after World War II.

Since then, the German government has paid more than $90 billion, according to the group.

In total, six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

At the presentation of the report this Tuesday in New York, some elderly survivors of the Nazi horror were present.

Reha Bennicasa, daughter of Rose Girone, the oldest living Holocaust survivor, spoke at the Claims Conference. “As a survivor and the daughter of a survivor, I cannot stress enough how important it is to share our testimonies. “I am personally happy that my mother turned 112 and that she is the oldest Holocaust survivor,” she said.

Bennicasa filled the auditorium with emotion: “My mother and I survived German and then Japanese oppression. Her strength during this horror and in all other aspects of her life is amazing. For me, she is a wonderful example and, “I hope, for the world. Given the declining population of survivors and the rise of anti-Semitism, we must encourage the world to learn about our collective history so that the Holocaust will never happen again.”

Source: AFP and Clarin