Russia is drawing condemnation from Jewish groups around the world after Ukraine reported an airstrike hit land beside Babi Yar, a ravine where Nazis killed an estimated 33,000 Jews in 1941.
The historical memorial site, damaged by Russian aggression, serves as a dark reminder of the Holocaust, just as new funding gives survivors in Ukraine, New York and throughout the country, new hope.
As war rages on around them, there are 10,000 Holocaust survivors living in Ukraine, and the trauma they suffered all those years ago is getting triggered by what is happening in their home country now.
"I spoke to someone who said I hid in the basement in 1941, and here I am, back in the very same basement. They never thought they'd have to re-live this trauma," said Greg Schneider, who represents the Claims Conference, an organization that connects Jewish victims of the Nazis with compensation and restitution from the German government.
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On Wednesday, the group announced $720 million in new funds for 3,000 social welfare organizations across the globe to help support Holocaust survivors, including $47 million for social welfare services in Ukraine.
"What's amazing is the heroism we've seen in Ukraine in general applies to home care workers also ... Even when there were curfews, home care workers agreed to stay within the home of Holocaust survivors, even leaving their own families," Schneider said. "A few said they can't leave their family, but then they brought the Holocaust survivor into their own homes."
More survivors live in New York than any other city in the world. An estimated 30,000 call the Big Apple home.
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Among those survivors is Sonia Klein, a 96-year-old from Marine Park in Brooklyn, who escaped Auschwitz — but lost her entire family
"Not a soul was left, no family whatsoever," she told NBC New York.
Klein gets around-the-clock home health care from Selfhelp Community Services, one of the 20 groups from the tri-state area that just received millions in new grants. Nine New York groups, 11 New Jersey groups, and one Connecticut group received part of the $720 million in grants, including $30.7 million to Selfhelp Community Services and $36 million to the Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island.
"It means the world to me because I have no one left," Klein said of the help she receives. "I don't know what I would do without the Claims Conference and Selfhelp, I really don't."
Another Holocaust survivor, Robert Brajer, lives alone in Manhattan. He said the assistance he gets from Selfhelp allows him to pay for the basics, like food and rent.
"I cannot tell you the help — the people, the staff, the social workers — that are lined up to help my life be easier, and better, and keep going," Brajer said.
Just a child during the Holocaust, Brajer was separated from his father at age 4.
"Once the war ended, my mother got the letter, my father was missing, dead," Brajer said.
"It was a time in history no one can comprehend and understand," Klein said.
The Claims Conference believes today's survivors deserve the dignity that they were robbed of in their youth — especially now as they grow older and are faced with reminders of war breaking out in Europe.
"There's lot of talk about Nazis and the war and invasion, the deprivation — it's scary for survivors, an emotional trigger that brings up tremendous anxiety," Schneider said.
Of the 10,000 Holocaust survivors living in Ukraine, 5,000 receive home care and 500 are bed-bound. For them, escaping is not an option, and makes assistance the funds provide that much more crucial.
But with each year that goes by, more is needed.
"People say, 'Holocaust survivors are dying. There are fewer survivors around so why do you need more money?' The answer is simple: Those around are getting older and sicker they deteriorate, they need more help," said Schneider.
