Israel-Hamas war: Holocaust survivor says ‘fighting in Israel has hit a nerve’

David Schaecter, 94, survived Auschwitz and three other concentration camps during the Holocaust, according to WFOR. He said that the fighting that started over the weekend “hit a nerve that causes constant pain.”

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“Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed on one day,” the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog on X, formerly known as Twitter, said on Monday.

“Why do you kill children,” Schaecter said, according to WFOR. “Why do you kill Jews? I’m reliving my horrendous past after we arrived in Auschwitz. I promise you I didn’t need to be reminded of that. I’ve lived it. I’ve seen it. I saw my mom being beaten and pushed with 900 people downhill and at the bottom of the hill there were two big mega holes in the ground. The Nazis had dogs biting them to run downhill and as they were running (the Nazis) were mowing (the prisoners) down with guns and they were falling. We saw them falling into these holes.”

Schaecter was asked by WFOR if it seems like people in the modern day have forgotten about all of the lessons during the Holocaust and World War II.

“It’s more than that,” he said, according to the news station. “It seems like people don’t care. In spite of everything they don’t care. Humanity doesn’t mean anything anymore. The world at large doesn’t give a good God damn. Let me tell you, the only person I’ve told it to is my wife. I had a nightmare last night. I said it’s hurting me because God is not listening. (The rabbi in the dream) says to me maybe he’ll hear us this time. I said rabbi how many memorials do we need to build for God sakes? I wish I wouldn’t have any more nightmares.”

Schaecter helped found the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach, Florida.

“The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is outraged by Hamas’s unconscionable attack on Israel, killing hundreds, and targeting Israeli citizens for kidnapping, including a Holocaust survivor, according to the U.S. Department of State,” the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said in a statement.

“These vile acts by this terrorist organization must be universally condemned and all hostages immediately released. Our prayers are with all Israelis, including the many Holocaust survivors who helped build the State of Israel, where they could finally live in the freedom and security they deserved after centuries of persecution, and ultimately genocide,” the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Chair Stuart E. Eizenstat said in a statement.

One of three accredited museums in the United States, the Florida Holocaust Museum, said its mission to teach members of all backgrounds “the inherent worth and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocides,” according to WFLA.

“I am living proof of the wonderful things that happen when people who don’t have to care, who could’ve turned their backs, don’t,” the board chair of the Florida Holocaust Museum Mike Igel said, according to the news outlet. “Today, it’s me. Tomorrow, it could be you, and you deserve me, as a fellow human being, you deserve to have me by your side.” Igel’s grandparents were helped by non-Jews in Germany during the Holocaust by hiding them from the Nazis.

“This, a massive terrorist attack on Israeli civilians -- indiscriminate firing of rockets against civilians, thousands of rockets; men and women and children dragged across the border into Gaza, including a Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair; people gunned down in the streets, civilians. So, you can imagine the impact this is having on Israel, and it should be something that revolts the entire world,” Secretary Antony Blinken said in an interview Sunday on CNN, according to a news release from the U.S. State Department.