Daraius Bharucha is a past president of the Zoroastrian Association of Canada, and a winner of the 2012 Governor-General’s Award for Teaching Excellence. In November 2014 he visited us at Crestwood, when he sat down with a group of students from Mr. Masters’ World Religions class, sharing his insights into this ancient faith. Daraius is […]
Archives: Oral History Project
Patil, Raj
Dr. Raj Patil is a representative of the Jainist Society of Canada. He spoke to the World Religions class in October 2014, sharing his insights about this ancient faith. The students in the class completed this oral history project as a group, and they and Mr. Masters thank Dr. Patil for his generosity. […]
Lewis, Chris
Chris Lewis is a member of the Taoist Tai Chi Society of Canada. He visited Mr. Masters’ World Religions class in October 2014, sharing his insights on Taoism and taking the students through a few Tai Chi movements. […]
Wallace, Al
Al Wallace was born in Toronto in1920 on Brock Avenue (which was off Bloor Street). Al and his family lived on Gladstone Avenue. He went to Dovercourt Public School, which was on Hallam Street, and he graduated in 1938. After this, he went to Central Tech for one year. However, Al was unable to go […]
McCarney, Rosemary
Rosemary McCarney is President and CEO of Plan International Canada Inc. (Plan Canada), an international and humanitarian development organization. Founded as Foster Parents Plan, this NGO now works in more than 45 developing countries helping children and their families achieve lasting improvements in their lives. That includes the notable “Because I am a Girl” campaign. […]
Anderson, Ron
Ron Anderson is Crestwood student Andrew Gdanski’s grandfather. In October 2014 he sat down with Andrew and shared stories of his formative years in Toronto, describing how the city has changed so much in a short period of time. Mr. Anderson especially recalled the power of Hurricane Hazel, which tore through southern Ontario in the […]
Rosenberg, Freda
Freda Rosenberg is a Holocaust Survivor from Radom, Poland. She survived the full weight of the war years, passing through a number of ghettoes and camps, including Auschwitz Birkenau. When the Red Army was approaching, she was forced on a death march, which she recounts in detail here. Surviving that ordeal too, Freda was liberated […]
Orlan, Norma
Norma Orlan is a Holocaust Survivor from Jaworsno, Poland. A child when the German invasion began, she managed to survive a succession of labour camps during the war, including Gross Rosen. With the conclusion of the war she found herself in the Fohrenwald DP camp. She and new group of friends made their way out […]
Shtibel, Adam
Adam Shtibel was born in the small Polish town of Komarow. Early in the war his town was occupied by the USSR, and later by the Germans. At that time, he served as herdsmen for a local farmer. With the death of his father, Adam continued as labourer for a Polish farmer. Adam saw the […]
Shtibel, Rachel
Rachel Shtibel, nee Milbauer, a vivacious and outgoing music lover, lay hidden and silent in an underground bunker in Nazi-occupied Poland for nearly two years. A young child, she managed to survive the war, through her determination and good fortune. After the war, a recovered violin, case and photos hidden away by Rachel’s beloved Uncle Velvel […]
Rudd, June
June Rudd was born in Northumberland, England and raised in Manchester in 1924. June shares her story of wartime life in England, including evacuations, air raid shelters and rationing. Like many young British women, June contributed directly to the war effort by serving as a WREN, or member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service, beginning […]
Stewart, William
William Stewart was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1944. In 1952, William and his family left Northern Ireland to avoid the growing unrest associated with “The Troubles”. William’s interview discusses his early life in Ireland, his journey to Canada on the Georgic, and his family’s resettlement in Winnipeg. He contrasts his schooling in a […]
Burningham, Grant
Grant Burningham served in Canada’s mission to Afghanistan in 2013, helping to train the Afghan national police force and working alongside fellow police officers from an array of nations. Deployed for thirteen months, he was able to experience the many facets of this country in crisis, reminding us that military and overseas service remains a […]
Fairbloom, Esther
When Esther Fairbloom’s mother was pregnant she went to a ghetto in Tarnopol to deliver Esther. Her mother knew the Germans would come after them, so she sat down with her sister and made the choice to have her two children hidden. She had known the people at the local church and they agreed to […]
Rival, Peter
Peter Rival was born in Bratislava in modern day Slovakia in the earliest days of World War Two. For almost 5 years, Peter and his mother lived as Roman Catholics, hiding their true identity from the Nazis. In April of 1944, he was sent to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. While Peter’s extremely young age at the […]
Lettieri, Santino
Santino Lettieri was born in Calabria, Italy in the middle of World War 2. Like many Italians of this time period, his family sought a better life in North America after the conclusion of the war, settling in Chicago. In the early 1960s, Santino and a group of high school friends enlisted in the United […]
Rosenbaum, Hank
Hank Rosenbaum was born into a comfortable Jewish family in Warsaw in 1936. The German invasion of Poland turned life for the Rosenbaum family upside down. He and his family would spend the next 6 years in and out of ghettos- escaping and evading the Germans on multiple occasions. He spent the final years of […]
Baranek, Martin
Martin Baranek was born August 15, 1930 in Starachowice, Poland. His was a small family, just him, his mother, his father, and his younger brother. In his early years, he was often bullied at school for being a Jew: anti-Semitism was a fact of life in Poland. Martin was 9 when the war started; as […]
Rosenbaum, Helen
Helen Rosenbaum was just under two years old when her family decided to escape the brutality of anti-Semitism in Poland by fleeing to the Soviet Union. Her family’s decision to flee would spare Helen the horrors of the death camps, but it wasn’t without struggles and terror. From the horrors of Nazi-occupied Poland, to the […]
Steiman, Esther
Esther Steiman immigrated to Canada from Poland in 1935- a move that would forever alter her life and the life of her family. Arriving in Toronto, Esther and her family experienced many of the traditional hardships of the immigrant experience. Estherís story also gives a glimpse as to what it was like to learn about […]
Lampracos, Athena
Athena Lampracos was born on the 18th of October 1938. She was raised in a small village with a large family, she grew up with five sibling, her two parents, and her grandparents. Athena never experienced a normal child hood because she was raised into the war, and fear. The Germans invaded and took away […]
Piil, Asta
Asta Piil was born in 1935 in northern Estonia. When the Soviet occupation began, she and her family were able to relocate to Sweden. Eventually they made their way to Canada, on board the British ship The Walnut. After an arduous journey, they arrived at Pier 21, in Halifax. Asta and her family came to […]
Goldberg, Mel
Mel Goldberg was born in the summer of 1942, in Baila Rawska, Warsaw. He was born into a family with two brothers and one sister, but none survived the war. Mel’s town was liquidated in 1942 , and the family was sent to Treblinka, a death camp located in Poland. As Mel’s father had given […]
Ma Jiexian and Su Jianye
Mr. Su Jianye and Mrs. Ma Jiexian have lived through some of the most monumental changes in 20th century history. As residents of Mao’s China, they were firsthand witnesses to the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the economic reform that has transformed communist China into one of the central nations in the 21st […]
Temou, Flora
Flora Temou was born in Statitsa, Greece in 1936. She witnessed first hand the civil war that spread through Greece in the aftermath of World War 2. She describes the impact of witnessing the combat with her region, and her harrowing evacuation to Poland, along with other local children. In her interview, she describes the […]
Vermes, Sophie
Sophie Vermes was born into a successful middle-class family in Mezocsat, Hungary. Although her father died in 1938, she describes her childhood as comfortable and filled with interactions with non-Jewish residents of her town. In March of 1944, her life was thrown into disarray by the Nazi-occupation of Hungary. In 2014, Sophie sat down with […]
Bibla, Harry
Harry Bibla was born in 1930 in Miedzyrzec, Poland. As a 9 year-old boy, Harry witnessed the Nazi invasion and the immediate impact it had on his country. While Mr. Bibla initially was hidden with a Gentile family, when conditions became too dangerous he took to the forest to hide. When conditions in the forest […]
Lv Faxue
Lv Faxue grew up in postwar China. He shared his memories of the 1950s and 1960s with Crestwood student Victoria Xu in March 2014; they are here overdubbed in English by Victoria. Mr. Xu’s memories include growing up against the backdrop of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, as well as the changes […]
Mowbray, Clint
Lt.-Col. Clint Mowbray is an active member of the Canadian Forces, serving with the RCAF in the Air Sea Rescue division. He has served all over Canada and has been involved in numerous rescue missions across the country; he has also served overseas in Afghanistan as part of the ISAF force. Lt.-Col. Mowbray was stationed […]
Seiler, Paul
Paul Seiler is the grandfather of Crestwood student Ben Sharer, who interviewed him for this project in February 2014. Paul grew up against the backdrop of wartime Romania, where he and his family were fortunate to survive the Holocaust. Paul remembers wearing the yellow star, and the deportation of many family and friends to the […]