Guta Israel was born in Sandomierz, Poland, where she was one of seven siblings. The Germans invaded her hometown when she was 13, and the full weight of the Shoah hit soonafter. Polish Jews were quickly placed in ghettos, and while many were murdered in short order by the SS, Guta was among those selected […]
Archives: Oral History Project
Cameron, Gord
Gord Cameron was born September 4, 1921 in Toronto, Ontario. Gord lived in the west end with his dad, mom, and sister. Gord went to the University of Toronto school. When the war came, his medical school and internship were accelerated, as the army wanted him in their service. By the time he was ready, […]
Dayton, Charles
Charles Dayton was born in the Prairies, but his family moved to Vancouver when he was a baby, and that is where he would grow up. When he finished high school in 1941, he joined the airforce, and he eventually became a navigator. With the war underway, Charles was stationed in many areas in Canada […]
Eidlitz, Anne
Anne Eidlitz was born in 1936, just before the war started. She was born in Antwerp, Belgium and lived with her mother, her father, and her younger sister Rosa. Her first languages were Flemish and Yiddish. She was the oldest grandchild and had many privileges and was given many things that the other grandchildren were not. […]
Goldstein, Jacob
Jacob Goldstein was born in Lodz Poland on April 12, 1928. Growing up he had 4 siblings, his older brother Ali, his younger brother Yossi, and his younger sister Ettel . The city of Lodz was the second largest city in Poland. There was a population size of around 600 000, of which 250 000 […]
Fine, Shary
Shary Fine was born in Romania in 1927. She is currently 90 years old and is the youngest out of all of the girls in her family. As she was growing up, she lived in a small town in Transylvania. She was a gymnast, mountain climber, and an actor. Shary’s family was Jewish. To Shary […]
Mutabazi, Eugene et Rosalie Uwimabera
Eugène Mutabazi et Rosalie Uwimabera sont les deux survivants du Génocide au Rwanda en 1994. Eugène à passé son enfance au Congo, et puis au Rwanda dans les années 80s. Toute la famille de son père à été assassinée dans les massacres avant le Génocide, entre les années 1959 et 1973. Quand il a retourné […]
Langer, Manny
Manny Langer was born June 6th 1929, in Lodz Poland to a large Jewish family, with three sisters and two brothers. Before the beginning of the Second World War, his family had a successful Kosher dairy business. In the morning he attended Hebrew school, and in the afternoon Polish school. In addition to Hebrew school, […]
Frydrych, Aileen
Aileen Frydrych was born in the early 1930s to a Jewish family living in what was then known as Poland. Aileen who was originally named Hiya lived in Eastern Poland which is now part of Belarus. Aileen remembers the days when she first started school around 1939 when her town as occupied by Russia. Two […]
Yermus, Helen
Helen was born in Lithuania, in 1932. In 1944, after the Kovno Ghetto was liquidated, Helen and her mother were shipped to the Stutthof concentration camp. The men were separated, including Helen’s father Yitzhak, who was taken to Dachau and killed. In January of 1945, Helen and her mother were left behind while the Jews […]
Bloom, Evelyn
Evelyn Bloom grew up in prewar Montreal, enjoying life near “her beautiful mountain”, while at the same time seeing the harsh realities of the Great depression. When the war came, she and her sister decided to enlist. They understood that Canada was under assault, and stories of U-Boats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence only […]
Sanders, Harry
Harry Sanders sailed the oceans of the world during the Second World War. Born in the small seaside community of South Shields, in Great Britain, he answered a Marconi company ad on the topic of wireless operators, and soon his training was underway, as he left school and South Shields behind him. Soon named a […]
Chang, Shiying
Chang Shiying grew up in the Chinese city of Nanjing, where his family held a prominent position in the community. Born in the early 1930s, Mr. Chang was a child of 4 when the War of Japanese Aggression reached his city. Unlike so many others, the Chang family had heard the news of the Japanese […]
Neville, Charles
Charles Neville served with the British Royal Engineers during World War Two. In earlier days he grew up in southern England, near Kent, where he attended the prestigious Cranbrook School. He studied languages, and Charles recalls that his parents a life in the diplomatic corps, but even as a young boy engineering proved to be […]
Bunston, Larry
Larry Bunston was born March 25, 1923 in Saskatoon, but early in his life his father made the decision to take the family to Ontario, hopefully to make a better life for his family. Larry grew up in different parts of Ontario, notably Oshawa and Brantford, where he and his four brothers played sports and […]
Ikeda, Koiichi
Ikeda Koiichi was connected to the Japanese military during the Second World War, serving in a procurement capacity for the overseas army. He was born in the Maijuru region, where he remembers growing up poor. When the opportunity came, he began his time overseas, originally serving in Manchuria, and that is where he spent most […]
Grossmann, Gerry
Gerry Grossmann was born May 8, 1925 in Dusseldorf, Germany, into a prosperous Jewish family. Gerry remembers his childhood in fond terms, as his parents created a home where he and his brother had so many opportunities. 1933 saw a dramatic change though; with the election of Hitler, things changed for the Grossmanns and for […]
Boggild, Carl
Carl Boggild was born November 3, 1922; he originally came from Denmark, but his parents moved to Canada when he was only one year old, so his real formative experiences took place in Nova Scotia, where his parents settled. Carl grew up in the southern part of the province, where he and his family lived […]
Kerr, George
George Kerr hails from Glasgow, Scotland. He grew up in a working class neighbourhood between the war, when he remembers a life playing football and enjoying his friendships against the backdrop of the Great Depression. When the war came, George chose the Royal Navy, where he was trained as an engineer and became an officer. […]
James, Alex
Alex James was born in 1920s Toronto, and he grew up largely in the city’s east end. Alex shared with us his memories of interwar Toronto, and what it was like growing up against the backdrop of the Great Depression. He remembered it as a time when everyone was the same, not knowing that they had […]
Rowe, John
John Rowe was born in 1925 in Toronto, and he grew up in the city’s east end, in the Beach. John shared with us his memories of interwar Toronto, and what it was like growing up against the backdrop of the Great Depression. He remembered it as a time when everyone was the same, not […]
Short, Norm
Norm Short served in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Born in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland, the young Norm moved to Quebec along with his family when they settled in Shawinigan Falls. When the war came, Norm joined up in Montreal, as part of the Essex Scottish Regiment. he completed his basic training and waited […]
Armstrong, Beatrice
Beatrice “Babs” Armstrong hails from Tring, not too far from London, England. She was the oldest of five children, born in 1923. She remembered life in Tring as being fairly commonplace, and she and her friends spent most of their time on their bicycles, or going to the cinema when they had extra change, something […]
Wang Rui Lin
Wang Rui Lin is a member of Crestwood student David Huang’s extended family. While home in China during the summer of 2017, David had the occasion to interview him about his memories of the War of Japanese Aggression, as well as the time of China’s Civil War. Mr. Wang recalled intense memories of his own […]
Boeki, Jack
Jack Boeki’s World War Two story is a unique one. Born May 31, 1924 in Rotterdam, Jack grew up with fond memories of the city and its people, and of his family and childhood. All of it was shattered in May 1940, when the German blitzkrieg turned west towards the Netherlands, and Jack’s city came […]
Matsuoko, Tamaki
Tamaki Matsuoka began her career as an elementary school teacher in Osaka, Japan. As she taught her students about Japan’s past, she became aware of the many gaps in her and their knowledge; this led her to become an advocate for remembrance and recognition of the real history of Japan’s World War Two aggression, notably the […]
Ratcliffe, Richard
Richard Ratcliffe was born on the 16th of June 1928, in Haileybury, Ontario. After his father died in 1938 his family moved to St.Catharines, Ontario. He joined the Navy in 1945 when he was 17 years old. He went to Naval College in Royal Rhodes in BC and graduated as a midshipman. He went to […]
Kaneko, Eishi
Kaneko Eishi served in the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two. From a working family near Kyoto, he grew up learning the traditions of interwar Japan, and he was imbued with the Shinto faith and an ardent athlete. When the war came, he was identified as a strong math student, so the army prepared […]
Prideaux, Mel
Mel Prideaux was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. He grew up during the Great Depression, and had to face many challenges that an average family had to face. He enlisted in the army with a couple friends before they were to go to university , but Mel was encouraged to become a training officer instead of […]
Gador, George
George Gador was born in Czechoslovakia in 1925. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia, it was split into two areas. The area near Hungary was where George and his family lived. When George grew up he learnt how to speak both Hungarian and Czechoslovakian. Later on, he was captured by Nazis and was taken to a […]