Helping Holocaust survivors during the pandemic

NEW YORK - 75 years after the horrors of the Holocaust wiped out 6 million European Jews and millions of other victims, the pain for so many survivors is still so raw. 

Monday and Tuesday mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is also called Yom HaShoah. Memorial services are being held across the New York area. But Evan Rosenberg, a local entrepreneur, is honoring Holocaust victims in a different way. He is even more inspired now because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's basically a story of survival and how the family came back together," Evan said.

Evan's grandmother, Ronnie, 92, was born in New York but her aunts, uncles, and cousins were all stuck in Czechoslovakia when Hitler waged war on European Jews. After hearing the story, Evan started a charity called 333, a number that holds a bittersweet meaning for his family.

"333 was the building number where my great grandfather worked and when my great aunt and great uncle were in the Holocaust with their kids," Evan said. "They had told their kids that if they were going to find their salvation to come back to New York and they would find my great-grandfather here at 333 7th Avenue in New York City."

Two of Grandma Ronnie's young cousins did manage to survive the war and made their way to New York.  And now, ever since a new war began here, the COVID-19 pandemic, 333 Charity has worked with the nonprofit UJA-Federation of New York to provide hundreds of meals for local holocaust survivors.

"What we are focused on is Holocaust survivors living in poverty, at or below the poverty line," Evan said. "Those people, not only can they not get out, but they are having trouble affording meals."

He said this is a small token of appreciation and a way to make sure he and future generations never forget history as the number of survivors dwindles each day.