An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who was injured when a man turned a "makeshift flamethrower" on a peaceful protest in support of Israeli hostages has spoken publicly for the first time since the terrorist attack that left a dozen people injured.
Barbara Steinmetz was injured in the attack on Sunday in Boulder, Colorado while walking with the Run For Their Lives activist group.
Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, has been charged with 16 counts of first-degree attempted murder.
Steinmetz, who is continuing her recovery, told NBC News: "It's about what the hell is going on in our country. What the hell is going on?"
She said she "wants people to be nice and decent to each other, kind, respectful, encompassing."
"We’re Americans," she said. "We are better than this. That’s what I want them to know. That they be kind and decent human beings."
She said the attack had "nothing to do with the Holocaust, it has to do with a human being that wants to burn other people."
Steinmetz has had to flee political and religious persecution several times in her 88 years, according to an account she gave to University of Colorado's CU Independent student newspaper. Her family once moved away from Italian-controlled islands off the coast of Croatia to escape the rule of Benito Mussolini, and later fled from France when Adolf Hitler invaded.
Her father applied for asylum in a dozen countries, but only the Dominican Republic would accept them. They fled to the Dominican Republic in 1941, and after the war she was able to move to the U.S. Her parents opened a hotel in New Hampshire. She later moved to Boulder in the mid-2000s.
In addition to reportedly attacking people with a flamethrower, Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at protesters as well.
He was arrested and has been charged with attempted murder, assault and possession of an incendiary device. He is also facing a federal hate crimes charge.
In addition to his charges, his wife and five children have reportedly been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
"We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it," she said.
The attack comes just 11 days after two Israeli Embassy workers were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. In both attacks, law enforcement alleges that the attackers yelled "Free Palestine."
Rabbi Marc Coloway, the leader of Steinmetz's congregation, said that the attacker was "deluded and misguided" and that his actions would not help Palestinians.
"If he thinks that an act of unspeakable brutality and violence is going to help the condition of the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, he is so deluded and so misguided," the rabbi said.
He told NBC News he was concerned what such an experience could do to a Holocaust survivor. “Can you imagine the trauma that that reactivates? It’s just horrendous.”
Steinmetz and five other members of the congregation were injured in the attack and two are still recovering in the hospital, he said.
Coloway said the event was a weekly walk "purely to raise awareness of the fact that there are still 58 hostages in tunnels in Gaza."
