Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, October 27, 2008
MONTREAL (CNS) -- They are orphans of the Holocaust, the fortunate few who survived the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
In 1947 the Canadian Jewish Congress finally persuaded a reluctant Canadian government to accept 1,123 Jewish children who had spent the war either in hiding or in forced labour camps, ghettos and concentration camps.
Sunday morning, about 50 so-called orphan survivors, almost all of whom originally came from Hungary, gathered to revive old friendships and celebrate the 60th anniversary of their arrival in Canada in 1948.
"The only memories we share are happy memories," said organizer Tommy Strasser, 78.
They gathered to celebrate lives that have been shaped by extraordinary strength, determination and, of course, luck.
"We are not heroes," Strasser volunteered. "We are not smarter. We are just lucky."
Lucky to have survived unspeakable hardships and, as many said, lucky to have immigrated to Canada.
"I'm very proud (to be a Canadian) and very happy to have come here," Myer Gottesman, 77, said who originally came from a small town in Hungary called Szeged.
He sat around a table with his wife Claire, another orphan who came from Budapest, and his old Szeged school friend, Jeff Weiss, who also immigrated as a orphan in 1948.
Myer and Claire, who knew each other in Hungary, met again in Montreal, have two children, one a doctor and the other a lawyer, and five grandchildren.
Weiss has two boys, one a computer expert and the other a teacher at a culinary school.
"I can't think of any other country where we could have achieved with the education of our children, which was mostly free education, what this country offers," Myer said.
Canada, unfortunately, also has a history of anti-semitism which lead to the turning away of boatloads of Jewish refugees before the Second World War and the refusal to accept Jewish orphans during the war. Most of these people are believed to have been murdered in the death camps.
But for Myer and Claire that is all in the past.
"I don't feel good about it but thank God the attitude has changed. The people who are responsible for that are gone," Myer said, adding that people will always be suspicious about immigrants.
"It's human nature to be like that," he said.
Strasser and friends first organized the gathering 10 years ago to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their arrival in Canada. Now they meet again every five years.
They come to talk about family and old friends and simply get reacquainted in an effort to keep bonds of a shared history strong.
Strasser was an only child who originally came from a small town in what is now the Slovak Republic where his father worked as an accountant for the local office of the Phillips Electric Company.
Most of the town's 4,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Only about 100 survived the war.
As a young teenager he worked in a forced labour camp near Budapest building tank traps until 1944 when the Nazis tried to ship him to Auschwitz.
"They were going to deport us but Raoul Wallenberg (the Swedish diplomat responsible for saving many Hungarian Jews) intervened and that's why I'm alive. He arranged for us to be sent back to the Jewish ghetto in Budapest."
Like many of the orphans, Tommy returned to his hometown only to discover that there was nothing left for him. His father and mother, uncles and aunts were all dead. With thousands of eastern Europeans fleeing the Soviets, he joined their ranks and went to Paris.
When he discovered through the Canadian Jewish Congress that he could immigrate to Canada as an orphan, he signed up. The cutoff mark was 18.
"I was 17 and a half so I just made the cut," he said with a chuckle.
The orphans came over in three ships out of Southampton in late 1947 and 1948.
They landed in Halifax. About 790 settled in Montreal and Toronto. Of the remaining, 131 settled in Manitoba, 12 in Saskatchewan, 28 in Alberta and 38 in British Columbia. http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/national/story.html?id=ceeea734-57a3-4629-bac3-3c4ac62d717c&p=1
Published: Monday, October 27, 2008
MONTREAL (CNS) -- They are orphans of the Holocaust, the fortunate few who survived the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
In 1947 the Canadian Jewish Congress finally persuaded a reluctant Canadian government to accept 1,123 Jewish children who had spent the war either in hiding or in forced labour camps, ghettos and concentration camps.
Sunday morning, about 50 so-called orphan survivors, almost all of whom originally came from Hungary, gathered to revive old friendships and celebrate the 60th anniversary of their arrival in Canada in 1948.
"The only memories we share are happy memories," said organizer Tommy Strasser, 78.
They gathered to celebrate lives that have been shaped by extraordinary strength, determination and, of course, luck.
"We are not heroes," Strasser volunteered. "We are not smarter. We are just lucky."
Lucky to have survived unspeakable hardships and, as many said, lucky to have immigrated to Canada.
"I'm very proud (to be a Canadian) and very happy to have come here," Myer Gottesman, 77, said who originally came from a small town in Hungary called Szeged.
He sat around a table with his wife Claire, another orphan who came from Budapest, and his old Szeged school friend, Jeff Weiss, who also immigrated as a orphan in 1948.
Myer and Claire, who knew each other in Hungary, met again in Montreal, have two children, one a doctor and the other a lawyer, and five grandchildren.
Weiss has two boys, one a computer expert and the other a teacher at a culinary school.
"I can't think of any other country where we could have achieved with the education of our children, which was mostly free education, what this country offers," Myer said.
Canada, unfortunately, also has a history of anti-semitism which lead to the turning away of boatloads of Jewish refugees before the Second World War and the refusal to accept Jewish orphans during the war. Most of these people are believed to have been murdered in the death camps.
But for Myer and Claire that is all in the past.
"I don't feel good about it but thank God the attitude has changed. The people who are responsible for that are gone," Myer said, adding that people will always be suspicious about immigrants.
"It's human nature to be like that," he said.
Strasser and friends first organized the gathering 10 years ago to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their arrival in Canada. Now they meet again every five years.
They come to talk about family and old friends and simply get reacquainted in an effort to keep bonds of a shared history strong.
Strasser was an only child who originally came from a small town in what is now the Slovak Republic where his father worked as an accountant for the local office of the Phillips Electric Company.
Most of the town's 4,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Only about 100 survived the war.
As a young teenager he worked in a forced labour camp near Budapest building tank traps until 1944 when the Nazis tried to ship him to Auschwitz.
"They were going to deport us but Raoul Wallenberg (the Swedish diplomat responsible for saving many Hungarian Jews) intervened and that's why I'm alive. He arranged for us to be sent back to the Jewish ghetto in Budapest."
Like many of the orphans, Tommy returned to his hometown only to discover that there was nothing left for him. His father and mother, uncles and aunts were all dead. With thousands of eastern Europeans fleeing the Soviets, he joined their ranks and went to Paris.
When he discovered through the Canadian Jewish Congress that he could immigrate to Canada as an orphan, he signed up. The cutoff mark was 18.
"I was 17 and a half so I just made the cut," he said with a chuckle.
The orphans came over in three ships out of Southampton in late 1947 and 1948.
They landed in Halifax. About 790 settled in Montreal and Toronto. Of the remaining, 131 settled in Manitoba, 12 in Saskatchewan, 28 in Alberta and 38 in British Columbia. http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/national/story.html?id=ceeea734-57a3-4629-bac3-3c4ac62d717c&p=1
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