Yvonne Singer, a Toronto artist who was saved by Wallenberg as an infant, is still on a voyage of self-discovery
As an artist herself, Yvonne Singer can well appreciate the esthetic merits of the open-air monument to Swedish Second World War hero Raoul Wallenberg that was unveiled over the summer at Churchill Park in Hamilton, Ont. Though she had not, as of this writing, personally viewed the installation, dubbed “Be:longings,” Singer spoke admiringly of the […]
A DNA test reunited long-lost cousins who were separated by the Holocaust
For 80 years, Raymonde (Ray) Fiol believed that her mother and all her mother’s family had been murdered in the Holocaust. That all changed when a Montreal woman contacted her after their DNA matched on an online genealogy platform. Fiol was born in Paris, France, and is a Jewish child survivor of the Holocaust. She […]
Ruth Panofsky on how the TV series ‘Little Bird’ also evokes the suffering of Holocaust survivors
I teach a graduate seminar on Holocaust Literature. I’ve taught the course a number of times in our Master’s program. My students have always come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Last winter, one student identified herself as Indigenous. She expressed a deep interest in the Holocaust and admitted that she was drawn to […]
Obituary: Alex Buckman, 83, a tireless force for Holocaust education in Vancouver
Alex Buckman, a tireless stalwart for Holocaust education in British Columbia and steadfast advocate for his fellow child survivors, died in Warsaw on April 21. He was 83. Buckman had been on a trip to Poland accompanying the Coast-to-Coast Canada March of the Living delegation. Described by those who knew and worked with him as […]
Shael Rosenbaum, a member of the third generation of survivors, takes over ‘the Holocaust business’ at the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem
Rosenbaum feels Holocaust education and commemoration is his duty and responsibility.
Henry Wellisch, a Toronto Holocaust survivor who was interned on Mauritius, witnessed the tumultuous founding of Israel
Henry Wellisch survived the Holocaust because of an extraordinary run of good fortune and a restrictive policy on immigration to British Mandate Palestine, that saw him exiled to the tropical island of Mauritius. The centenarian, who now lives in Toronto, reflected on the twists of fate during the war years. “It wasn’t the best place […]
Treasure Trove: David Matlow explains why the Lodz ghetto currency was a Nazi tactic to defraud and persecute Jews
The Lodz ghetto currency was another tool used by the Nazis to defraud and dehumanize their Jewish victims. The ghetto in Lodz, Poland, held 160,000 Jews who were forced to live in the 1.6 mile-area, surrounded by barbed wire. The currency (referred to as the rumki because they were signed by Jewish Council head Mordechai […]
A Holocaust survivor’s story is finally told by her grandson in Montreal musician Roger White’s avant-garde show, ‘Because You Never Asked’
Roger White got his start in Montreal’s underground music scene, and he bears the tattoos from bands like Dead Messenger and Rhythm Mercenaries to prove it. White is 42 now and his artistic expression has matured, along with a deeper understanding of his obscured Jewish heritage. He was almost 20 when he became aware that […]
A group of survivors in Toronto contributed to the process of restoring a Torah scroll hidden during the Holocaust
In 1939, the rabbi of the Polish village of Filipów hid a Torah with his non-Jewish neighbours, prior to him being deported to Treblinka. And some 84 years later, Holocaust survivors in Toronto were invited to contribute letters to the scroll during a Feb. 12 event at Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue. From the Depths is the […]
A graphic novel that creatively and respectfully tells the story of three child survivors
But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust, by Miriam Libicki and David Schaffer; Gilad Seliktar, Nico Kamp, and Rolk Kamp; Barbara Yelin and Emmie Arbel; edited by Charlotte Schallié German philosopher Theodor Adorno famously said that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” The meaning of this statement has since been […]
