SPECIAL REPORT: The Jewish Schindler who is saving Syrian refugees

HORRIFIED by the plight and tragic stories of Muslims in Syria, the eccentric millionaire Yank Barry has funded two hotels to house fleeing refugees

By JAYMI MCCANN

PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, Apr 5, 2015

Seventy years after the horrors of Auschwitz, a Jewish businessman is using his fortune to deliver another race of people from annihilation.

Philanthropist Yank Barry is offering Muslims who have fled from the savagery of Isis a refuge in Bulgaria, a country where Jews were once forced to fl ee for their lives.

Former musician Yank, whose grandfather Samuel’s 13 siblings perished in Auschwitz, and his wife Yvette have filled two hotels with refugees.

The 67-year-old, dubbed the “Jewish Schindler”, said: “These are people who have been through the worst kinds of hell. One of our refugees Navine was 15 when she saw Isis chop her father’s head off and then play football with it. We can’t imagine what they have had to endure. It isn’t even on our radar.

“People would be surprised to see a Jewish man helping Muslims, but when I see these people I see the same thing as before. There are incredible similarities.

“Bulgarians hid Jewish people during the war. That was inspiring and if you have any kind of a heart you have to do something about this. The world stood still back then and it isn’t doing enough to help now. Which is why we started this project. I went to the refugee camps and saw desperate people living in squalor. I couldn’t see that kind of inhumanity in this day and age.”

Between 2012 and 2013 the number of refugees entering Bulgaria increased five-fold from 1,387 to 7,144 and last year 11,081 people attempted to do so.

In a country with a population smaller than London, the unexpected surge in immigrant applications meant many refugees were living in filthy conditions in makeshift camps.

To date, more than 850 people have been taken from these camps and housed in the hotel in Bankya, a middle-class suburb of Sofia, and a chalet in the ski-resort of Narechen.

They have been given food and shelter while their refugee status is considered and most importantly the chance to rebuild their lives. Bilal Hasan, 41, was a lawyer in the finance department of President Assad’s regime.

When rebels threatened his family and searched his home in the Syrian capital Damascus he, his wife Dima and their three young children fled the country and walked across Turkey with only their meagre savings and the clothes on their backs.

Dima and his youngest daughter Rama narrowly missed being hit by a bomb. They have lived in Yank’s house in Bankya for 10 months and now aim to run a restaurant in Sofia.

Bilal said: “When an armed group came to the area where I have my house, because I worked in the government they were going to kill us. We ran away to a basement and hid underground for 18 days.

“It was so bad. I remember how my kids were afraid and screaming and tired.

The Hasans from Syria at the hotel in Sofia are some of the 850 people who can rebuild their lives

“It is a crazy war. There are two choices. Assad or these terrorist people. Free Army or Isis. [Isis] kill everybody if you are not with these people, they will kill you for sure. So you don’t have any choice but to run away. I was afraid. You don’t have time to feel anything except feel afraid. Especially when there are children. I still feel afraid now.

“All I want is to see my children go to school, the same as anyone anywhere.”

Isylam Alfateh, 21, fled Syria with his mother and three younger brothers aged seven, eight and 11.

He said: “I left my home in Aleppo because I did not want to be forced to join the fighting. Men and boys are being made to chose sides. No-one lives there by choice any more.

“My uncle was shot by a sniper in the head and my father is in prison. I am now the oldest man in my family and it has to be about my little brothers. I do not want them to be forced to fight when they are older. ”

Yank has invested more than £1million in the hotels, which are run by the Global Village Champions Foundation and funded by his vegetable protein business VitaPro. He was nominated for a Nobel peace prize last year but this is a world away from his past life.

A former singer with one line-up of rock band The Kingsmen, the Canadian was convicted of extortion in 1982 but credits being caught with “inspiring” him to change his life.