20 | FEBRUARY 11 • 2021
A
bout 170 Holocaust
survivors received
the first dose of the
COVID-19 vaccine on Friday,
Jan. 29, at the Jewish Family
Service (JFS) building in West
Bloomfield.
Brother and sister Alfred
Zydower and Anna Lindemann,
ages 91 and 89 respectively,
were among those at the JFS
building receiving the vaccine.
Born in Germany, the sib-
lings fled to Shanghai, China, in
1940 by way of Siberia.
“I feel fine,
” Zydower of
Madison Heights said after
receiving the vaccine.
“No problem,
” Lindemann of
Oak Park added.
Neither Zydower nor
Lindemann thought they’
d see
anything like the pandemic at
this point in their lives, but as
Holocaust survivors they have
lived through much worse.
“You cannot really compare
to the Holocaust era when
all that suffering went on,
”
Zydower said. “Today, if you
obey all the rules, you wear
your mask and you stay at
home, you’ve got nothing to
worry about in a way.
“Nobody is really bothering
you here, you’ve got all your
freedom, and nobody will ever
call you ‘dirty Jew’ like they did
in Germany, even if they didn’t
know you.
”
Zydower thinks the develop-
ment of the vaccine is a good
sign.
“I believe it’s going to help
tremendously,
” he said. “If you
do catch it still, it will not kill
you and stuff like that. It will be
more like you’re having a flu.
”
The clinic came about when
JFS contacted the Oakland
County Health Division
(OCHD) to see if their staff and
volunteers could get vaccinated
as essential workers. JFS, which
helps Holocaust survivors year-
round, also inquired about the
survivors getting vaccinations,
and the ball started rolling from
there.
JFS CEO Perry Ohren said
they did some pre-work before
receiving the go-ahead, with
JFS geriatric case
managers reach-
ing out to every
survivor they
knew in the area,
amounting to over
400 in total. They
asked the survivors
about their interest if they were
to have a vaccination clinic, as
well as if they needed a ride.
JFS also got the word out
through social media, the
Holocaust Memorial Center
and through the Holocaust pro-
gram at Jewish Senior Life.
That Monday, JFS got the
call: The clinic for the first dose
would be that Friday.
“We scrambled,
” Ohren said.
“I work with lots of amazing
people who figured out the
logistics, and today the Oakland
County Health Division is
scheduled to vaccinate 170 or
so Holocaust survivors. Maybe
50 of them are getting rides here
through JFS transportation.
”
(Some of the survivors served
by JFS had already been vacci-
nated prior to the clinic.)
About 75 JFS employees were
also vaccinated, along with
about 50 Meals on Wheels vol-
unteers.
While the pandemic has
affected everyone, being able to
help facilitate vaccinations to
the Holocaust survivors, with
all they’ve been through, ren-
ders Ohren nearly speechless.
“Of all of our sacred work,
working with survivors any-
where from 75 to 105 years old,
there’s nothing more important
than to help survivors,
” Ohren
said. “For us to be able to do
a homey clinic at a place that’s
familiar to them, I don’t have
words. I could cry.
”
Holocaust survivors now focus on surviving the pandemic.
DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER
Glad to Be Vaccinated
Perry Ohren
COURTESY OF JFS
OUR COMMUNITY
Nina Serenko gets
her initial dose of the
COVID vaccine.
Edith Bernstein gets
vaccinated at JFS.