Holocaust survivor draws parallels between her childhood and Gaza children

By Hakan Copur

WASHINGTON (AA) – Marione Ingram, an 88-year-old Jewish German activist and Holocaust survivor, expressed deep concern about the situation in Gaza, drawing parallels between her childhood memories and the current Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave.

In an interview with Anadolu outside the White House, where she has been protesting to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, Ingram said she does not see any justification for wars.

While Ingram expressed sadness that 1,200 people were killed in a Hamas attack in Israel in October, she stressed she agreed with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' remarks that the attack "did not happen in a vacuum."

In late October, Guterres said the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

"I have experienced what the children in Gaza are experiencing now," the Holocaust survivor said, adding, "So it is something when I see what is going on in Gaza, it has an immediate identification with my life as a child."

She recalled that Jews were barred from entering shelters in Hamburg, Germany, where she was born and raised until the age of 14, and that the US and England bombed civilian areas of Hamburg at the time.

- Biden's support to Netanyahu

Turning to US support for Israel, Ingram slammed President Joe Biden for helping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continue brutal attacks on Gaza.

"Netanyahu tells the world, and Biden dances to Netanyahu's tune, and tells us that this is self-defense. Killing children is not government self-defense. So what Israel is doing now is starving people, bombing them, having told people to go to a safe zone, and then killing them," she said.

"And this has been going on for five months now. Biden, unfortunately, is helping Netanyahu. He has sent multiple packages of money, and weapons are there to kill. They are not defending Israel," she added.

Ingram also believes that Israel's war on Gaza will backfire on it, and sympathy for Israeli Jews is waning.

"I think it's already happening," she said, adding, "It is evident from what they're (Israeli government) doing. This is not about self-defense. It's about the land grab. They want Gaza, they want the West Bank. They want to get rid of every Palestinian in that area."

She said Adolf Hitler did this "to get Jews out of Germany, and after Germany out of the world, their thing was eradication of Jews".

- Gaza's children

Ingram also commented on the plight of Gaza's children under Israeli bombardment and blockade, saying she could not even drink water because the Israeli government did not allow food and water.

"And it was at the beginning of this war. I went to my kitchen and poured a glass of water, started to drink it, and I vomited. Because I suddenly realized that it was not just... that I couldn't reconcile my drinking water. So I have had trouble sleeping, eating drinking water, but that's nothing compared to what the children in Gaza are experiencing," she added.

There must be a permanent cease-fire now, Ingram called on Biden to tell Netanyahu, adding, "You will not get another penny or another bomb. We will not sell. I don't want Biden to send another weapon, small or large, to Israel. I also want him to stop this immediately because what he is doing is alienating us in the world."

Israel launched a destructive military campaign in the Gaza Strip in response to an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, which Tel Aviv said killed less than 1,200 people.

More than 30,000 Palestinians have since been killed with the majority of the 2.3 million residents displaced and many starving amid a worsening humanitarian catastrophe.

*Writing by Servet Gunerigok