Obituary: Michael Marrus, 81, a globally renowned scholar of the Holocaust—primarily based at the University of Toronto
Michael Marrus, the dean of Holocaust scholars in Canada and part of an international effort to pry open the Vatican’s war-era archives, died in Toronto on Dec. 23. He was 81 and had been in ill health. Recalled for the clarity of his speaking style, formidable scholarship, sense of humour, and sartorial splendor (signature bowties […]
Back to the future for a Toronto couple whose parents all met each other in a displaced persons camp in Ainring, Germany
This is where it all began for us, in this gemutlich Bavarian town of Ainring. Just 30 minutes west of Salzburg over the Austrian border into southern Germany, this sleepy place—verdant, tidy, ringed by splendid snow-topped mountains, home to 10,000 residents—is where my wife and I spoke of coming for all our 40 years together. […]
A worldwide search is on for Holocaust survivors to testify at a war crimes trial as time runs out
A global search is now underway for witnesses to participate in what will likely be one of the last Holocaust-era war crime trials. The accused, who is identified by German law as N.N., volunteered for service with the SS and served as a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp from April 1943 to March 1945. Ravensbruck […]
Trouble begins when a swastika is found on a school wall in one of Gordon Korman’s latest books for younger readers
Forty-four years after one of his Grade 7 writing projects—for an English class assignment at German Mills Public School in Thornhill, Ont.—was published by Scholastic Canada as This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall, Montreal-born Gordon Korman has maintained a storied career. June 2022 saw the publication of The Fort, the 100th book under his […]
Yom ha-Shoah ceremonies returned in-person across Canada after two years in virtual mode
For the first time since 2019, Jews across Canada were able to observe Yom ha-Shoah in person, and unseasonably cold late-April weather wasn’t going to stop them. UJA Toronto’s Holocaust Education Centre held a Yom ha-Shoah remembrance ceremony on the evening of April 27 in front of the Holocaust Memorial at Earl Bales Park. The […]
The CJN’s book columnist Hannah Srour looks at memoirs and fiction that explore the Holocaust
The Boy in the Woods by Maxwell Smart In a memoir published May 3, 2022, this Montreal-based artist recounts his story of survival during the Holocaust. Born Oziac Fromm in 1930, Maxwell Smart grew up in the town of Buczacz (located now in western Ukraine). Following the Nazi invasion in 1941, he spent years hiding […]
Four Winnipeg siblings who survived the Holocaust together in a slave labour camp in Siberia are recording their stories for the future
They may well be the oldest living Holocaust survivor siblings—and they live in Canada. The four Fink siblings—Sally Singer, 100, Anne Novak, 99, Sol Fink, 97 and Ruth Zimmer, 95—live in Winnipeg, where they are in the process of having their stories added to the Last Chance Testimony Collection, part of the University of Southern California […]
‘Offensive’ photos taken at Canada’s National Holocaust Monument have been removed from Instagram: Ottawa photographer
Ed: The CJN has hidden the model’s face and identifying tattoo.
Obituary: Alex Eisen, a Holocaust survivor who raised millions for charities and inspired Megillat Hashoah
People who ran into Alex Eisen, whether on the street or at his “office”—a corner table at Bagel Plus on Sheppard Avenue—would come away wondering whether his suit jacket had been outfitted with extra pockets. That’s where he kept dozens of tickets to virtually every Jewish or Israel-based fundraising event in Toronto—dinners, galas, brotherhood breakfasts, […]
The new book about Anne Frank’s betrayal is no longer available in the Netherlands—and its Canadian author isn’t happy about that
Family of Arnold van den Bergh calls for the publisher Harper Collins to recall the book about who betrayed Anne Frank
