WINNIPEG — A hero is generally defined as someone who shows courage under fire or risks his life to save another.
Belle Millo holds copy of Voice of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors. [Myron Love photo]
But, notes Shelley Faintuch, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s community relations director, a hero can also be someone who exhibits courage and self-sacrifice in hopeless situations, someone who struggles on despite the odds and endures.
“Our parents who survived the Holocaust came to this country with nothing,” said Faintuch, a child of survivors. “They had no money, little or no family, little education and no knowledge of English. Yet, they persisted. They made sacrifices for their children – we who couldn’t understand why our homes were different from our friends’ homes or why our parents didn’t share their stories or their nightmares with us.
“They took care of us and protected us. They were true heroes and this evening is dedicated to them.”
Faintuch was speaking at the April 15 launch of the book Voice of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors, the culmination of years of effort to record the stories and experiences of Holocaust survivors who came to Winnipeg after the war. And attendance was such that a second room at the Asper Jewish Community Campus had to be opened and the program relayed to the overflow crowd via live feed.
The evening consisted of a reading by Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors editor Belle Millo (who is also a child of Holocaust survivors), as well as greetings and remarks from representatives of three levels of government (and Winnipeg South Centre Liberal MP Anita Neville), representation from the (largely Jewish) General Monash Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and a medley of Yiddish songs from the ghettos sung by Jane Enkin, with musical support by Eli Herscovitch, Ariel Posen and Jeff Presslaff.
The origins of the book – which records the stories of 73 Holocaust survivors living in Winnipeg (although some have passed away in recent years) – goes back to the early 1990s, when representatives of Winnipeg’s Holocaust education committee and the federation’s Holocaust awareness committee began collecting memoirs of Holocaust survivors.
“Phyllis Laveman, a member of our committee, suggested that we invite Belle Millo to join,” recalled Lil Zentner, a past chair of the committee. (Zentner’s late husband, Hersh, was an early leader in Holocaust education in the city’s public school system.)
“Belle took over the project of collecting survivors’ stories with the intention of producing a book. She worked tirelessly with unbelievable passion and without seeking any compensation. We are forever grateful for her selfless dedication and strong determination to bring this book to life.”
In her remarks, Millo briefly described her own parents’ – Samuel and Sylvia Jarniewski’s – stories of survival.
“My parents met in Canada after the war and rebuilt their lives together,” Millo said. “But they remained haunted by their losses and their experiences. My mother suffered from depression. Even as a small child, I knew that I had to protect her.”
She remembered her father having a lust for life, but frequently crying out at night.
“My own life has been defined by my parents’ suffering,” she said. “At the same time, I was inspired by their will to survive.”
Millo read one excerpt from the book – an account by the late Jeannette Perlov about trying to save her two-year-old son from the Nazis.
Perlov recounted that the Nazis discovered where she and her son were hiding and demanded that she give up the little boy. She refused to let him go or plead for mercy. She was eventually rendered unconscious by several rifle butts to her head. When she awoke, she was in the arms of her husband (who had been at work in a bakery) and their son, David, was gone. The Gestapo had come for the children.
Millo noted that the book was completed with the support of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, the Freeman Family Holocaust Education Centre, the Claims Conference and donations from the community at large.
She also recognized Gustavo Rymberg, a former Winnipegger now living in Toronto, who designed the book and the cover.
Millo also noted that Manitoba’s department of education is distributing copies of the book in 450 high schools throughout the province.
