Elderly WWII Survivors ( Alicia Kusaka)
"They Survived the Spanish Flu,
Great Depression and Holocaust"
Fact Checked Source: Bellafante Giana, "They Survived the Spanish Flu, Great Depression and Holocaust"
Naomi Rampelsky, and her wife Eva, currently live in New York City. Naomi, 101, and Eva, 95, have lived through far more than this one current pandemic. Just recently they met with Ginia Bellafante, a New York Times journalist, to share their story and shed light on this new normal. Eva explained how her life-saving escape from Austria during WWII ended in 1940 when her family reunited in America. Naomi was born in the Bronx during the outbreak of the Spanish Flu and reoccurring Polio. During her childhood, Naomi's sister was diagnosed with Polio, and later her brother died from mastoiditis. Their story reflects on the historic events our elders have already battled through.Looking Deeper Into the Lifetime of Influences
As the outbreak of COVID-19 began, it was like they were reliving their past-- yet another global disaster.I wanted to investigate this claim of previous quarantine due to Polio, because there has been no talk about that in the recent media. An article by USA Today interviewed several Americans who lived through the Polio outbreaks and confirmed they social distanced in the 1940s, much like they are today.Until a polio vaccine came into use in the 1950s, outbreaks occurred somewhere in the country nearly every spring. Public gatherings were regularly canceled; wealthy people in big cities left for the country.
A year after the Nazi annexation of Austria, in 1939, she fled via the Kindertransport, a series of rescue efforts that placed Jewish children in British homes.
Although this is not a fact of COVID-19, its a fact that adds to the outlook elders have on the current pandemic. This timeline of World War II depicts a previous world event that shaped the lives of millions who are still alive today.
Naomi graduated from high school at the height of the Depression, in 1934.
Not only have many of our elders lived through the Great Depression, but there has been lots of speculation about a new one emerging from COVID-19. Ben Carlson published an article comparing the stats of the Great Depression to COVID-19. He disclaims these two events are extremely different, as the Corona Virus is a global pandemic, but predicts the economy will not regress to its status it had during the Great Depression.
Until the emergence of the coronavirus, Eva and Naomi were out often. On most days they took long walks. They were active in a Buddhist Sangha at a meditation center. They shopped at the farmers’ market and ate vegetarian lunches at Effy’s on West 96th Street.
Like Naomi and Eva, many elders got their daily exercise from walking the streets of their town or swimming in their public pool. But since the stay-at-home orders have been put in place, they cannot continue their daily exercises like they used to. This may cause frustration and further health problems like the CEBM's article explains. They give helpful information on how to do at home workouts to keeps our elders healthy during quarantine.
Her [Naomi] grandparents had escaped the pogroms in Russia, coming to America at the turn of the century when the habits of immigrants — considered filthy and ignorant — were continually blamed for the spread of disease.
This statement is greatly interesting to me because people have been referring to COVID-19 the "Chinese Virus." Although this name hasn't directly effected me, as an Asian-American, I see my community being hurt by the term. Time published an article in march called, "Trump's 'Chinese' Virus Is Part of a Long History of Blaming Other Countries for Disease." It confirms Naomi's claim that blaming another community for the spread of a disease has been part of our history for decades-- and we're living through it once again.
A Lifetime of Crisis's: An Elder's Perspective of COVID-19
The world was shaken in 1918 when the Spanish Flu emerged-- some called it the greatest medical holocaust ever. This virus centered in the United States and China, claiming the lives of upwards of forty million people (Saunders-Hastings, P. R., & Krewski, D. 2016, December 6). Just five years after the Spanish Flu dwindled, my grandfather, Niklous Kalties (aka Opa), was born. Although he didn’t actually live through the first major pandemic, World War II and other past experiences has shaped his, and other survivors’ view on the newest pandemic: COVID-19. Opa lived with his family of ten in Ukraine, but under Stalin’s famine, his father and four brothers passed away due to starvation. Upon World War II beginning, the Soviet Union annexed Ukraine and deported its citizens by train to Siberian death camps. Opa, his mother, and siblings were on one of those horrid trains. With much fear and courage, they took a leap of faith to jump off the train with another family. It was the end of winter, beginning of spring so the weather was anything but cooperative. They walked miles upon miles until they found a family that gave them a home for the duration of the war, ultimately saving their lives (A. Kusaka's Personal Interview, 2020, April 3).
Years later, Opa, Oma (my grandmother), and their four sons migrated to the United States with no money, education, or English-speaking abilities. Through unsteady years, Opa worked as a meat deliverer and then a maintenance man. With endless hard work and dedication, Oma and Opa started an apartment business. They bought several hundred-unit apartment buildings in Chicago and rented them out, creating a guaranteed future for their family (A. Kusaka's Personal Interview, 2020, April 3).
Much like Opa’s story of the war, The New York Times recently published an interview with an elderly couple, Eva and Naomi, in New York City. Eva grew up in Austria and at the war emerged, she was shipped off to England to live with a foster family. A year later, she reunited in the United States with her family who escaped the holocaust and they built their life in New York City.
Since my grandparents started their lives in America, there hadn’t been a life-altering event for them. But on March 5, 2020 Oma, who is 89, fell and broke her hip. She had a successful surgery but had to stay in a rehab facility for the time being. As COVID-19 began to spread across the world, a trend began to form that older people with underlying health conditions were most at risk (CBC News., 2020, February 27). It was at the same time Oma was in the rehab nursing home, that the Seattle nursing home had its outbreak. Meanwhile, Opa expressed great concern for his wife and her condition, as she was not allowed visitors per COVID-19. For the first time in seventy years, Opa was completely on his own. He had to learn how to cook the simplest meals, grocery shop, and do laundry. I know, this sounds silly, but living in a traditional household, Oma did it all.
As Opa was learning how to live on his own for the time being, he also had to adjust to the new stay-at-home orders. At the start of quarantine, Opa did not really understand the severity of the virus. He would watch the news and say the government was doing this to scare the people (he heard something on the news suggesting this). Growing up, I heard that all the time. He would say every political figure is trying to scheme or scam in some way-- which he has every right to think. After living through WWII, I would imagine it hard to trust what the government says.
But it was interesting, as the virus worsened, he became more and more afraid. Opa likes to pick and choose what facts he believes, although that may be due to him turning off his hearing aids when he doesn’t want to hear anything else. But really, he relays information he hears to us that he heard on the news, which we know to take with a grain of salt. As I mentioned, he is hard of hearing and doesn’t necessarily hear the facts clearly. But regardless of what facts he heard or believed, his worry for Oma greatened.
I began to see this trend form within the elder community; although they were the most susceptible to a serious COVID-19 case, they cared more about the well-being of others than their own health. In the New York Times article, the author writes, “They [Naomi and Eva] worry more for their generation than themselves, even though Naomi had a bout with pneumonia six years ago” (Ginia, G. 2020, March 28). These older generations have grown up in an unpredictable life, so the one thing they do best is care for others with a positive attitude.
I saw this in Craig Lee, an older COVID-19 patient, He tested positive in a Japanese quarantine center after evacuating a cruise ship. Although he had been diagnosed with the awful virus, he worried for the other cruisers who were experiencing life-threatening symptoms (CBC News., 2020, February 27).
Their constant worry about other’s stems from everything they’ve gone through in the past: fighting to stay alive during the war, migrating to America, and building a life from scratch. No matter the origin, each elderly person has been through a lifetime events which shapes their everyday view on the world, especially during a time of crisis.
References
A. Kusaka's Personal Interview . (2020, April 3). A. Kusaka's Personal Interview . St. Joseph, Mi.The purpose of this source is to provide first hand, what elderly people are thinking about COVID-19. It will give insight to everything my grandpa has gone through, along with how that plays into his view on the new pandemic. My grandfather rarely talks about his childhood, but in a time of crisis, he reflects on everything he has been through to help him get through the situation.
CBC News. (2020, February 27). Canadian With Coronavirus Speaks From Japan [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7VJLpVSmx4
Craig Lee is an older COVID-19 patient who recently evacuated a cruise ship in Japan. He is fairy asymptomatic, but CBS News interviewed him to understand his perspective of the outbreak. He talked about how the testing happens, who he is worried for, and the conditions he is living in. Craig expressed great concern for the other Canadian's onboard the cruise ship, as they were in worse condition that he is.Ginia, G. (2020, March 28). They survived the Spanish flu, the depression and the Holocaust. The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/nyregion/naomi-replansky-eva-kollisch-coronavirus.html?smid=fb nytimes&smtyp=cur
Naomi Rampelsky, and her wife Eva, currently live in New York City. Naomi, 101, and Eva, 95, have lived through far more than this one current pandemic. Just recently they met with Ginia Bellafante, a New York Times journalist, to share their story and shed light on this new normal.
Patrick R. Saunders-Hastings, Daniel Krewski. “Reviewing the History of Pandemic Influenza: Understanding Patterns of Emergence and Transmission” Pathogens, vol 5, no.4, 2016.
This is probably not the only epidemic or pandemic they have lived through, and it's important to acknowledge their past. It will give insight the the history they have been through and how it can impact their view on COVID-19.