Angi Orosz was born December 21, 1944, in Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of a handful of Jewish babies born in the camp who was able to survive. Her mother Vera Bein gave birth to Angela in that terrible place, and as Angi says in her testimony she speaks to honour her mother’s determination and fight to survive, […]
Archives: Oral History Project
Brinberg, Georgette
Georgette Brinberg was born June 10, 1938 in Villerupt, France. Her parents had emigrated from Poland in the 1920s, looking for opportunities. They began their lives in France in Villerupt, a border town in the northeast known for the metal trades. When the war began and the German blitzkrieg fell on France, Villerupt was heavily […]
Mesner, Mila
Mila Mesner was born November 22, 1923 in Zalishchyky, Poland (now Ukraine). She recalls a positive childhood, full of family and good memories. All of that changed with the beginning of the war: Mila’s town was in the Soviet zone of occupation, and she remembers that arrests and deprivation began right away. Mila’s father chose […]
Black, Judith
Judith Nemes Black was born November 15, 1941 in Budapest, Hungary. She grew up against the backdrop of the war and the mounting restrictions that Hungarian Jews were forced to endure, including the conscription of her father into forced labour. In 1944 the situation deteriorated for Hungarian Jews; Nazi Germany invaded and the fascist Arrow […]
McCallum, Neal
Neal McCallum was born March 10, 1927, not too far from Greensboro, North Carolina. His was a large family, supported by his father’s job as a locomotive engineer even during the dark days of the Depression. Neal had just started high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he grew up against the backdrop […]
Hacker, Alex
Alex Hacker was born in Budapest, Hungary on May 7, 1926. His father was a successful businessman in the vegetable oil business, and because of that – as well as Hungary’s alliance with Nazi Germany – Alex and his family and the Jews of Hungary in general were shielded from the immediate brutality of the […]
Johnson, Cheryl
Cheryl Johnson was born July 3, 1951 in Batesville, Mississippi. She grew up on a farm in a rural community, during the era of Jim Crow. Her family owned the land, and they grew cotton, corn, watermelons, sugar cane, and had their own garden, fruit trees, cows, pigs, chickens, and dogs. Her family also grew […]
Tucker, Gloria
Gloria Tucker was born April 14, 1946 in Batesville, Mississippi, where she grew up in a farming community in the Jim Crow South. She remembers that her parents owned their land, and the family was actively involved in their church and 4H Club. The young Gloria worked on the farm and did the farm bookkeeping. […]
Gleeson, Mark
Mark Gleeson was born May 11, 1927 in Kokomo, Indiana, though he grew up largely in the Pittsburgh area, where his father worked for PPG after his return from the Great War. Mark grew up in the 30s, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, but still enjoyed the typical American adolescence of the time. […]
Bozek, John
John Bozek was born August 16, 1924 in Detroit, Michigan. His parents had emigrated from Poland at the turn-of-the-century, and John was the youngest in a family of four siblings. He grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression, but John remembers that his father always had a job, and that the family even […]
Carmichael, John
John Carmichael was born March 29, 1948, and he grew up in southwestern Ontario, living in the London and Chatham areas. John was a student-athlete in high school, with a keen interest in math and physics. Wanting to attend MIT, he made the decision to first go to Canada’s Royal Military College. He was there […]
Webb, Betty
Betty Webb was born May 13, 1923, near the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. She grew up in the countryside, where she remembers long walks picking wildflowers, and she was home-schooled – so she also remembers cataloguing those same flowers! Betty’s mother had had German housekeepers in the 1930s, so Betty learned to speak […]
Villiger, Ken
Ken Villiger was born October 19, 1930 in Montreal, Quebec. He joined the Canadian Forces right out of high school, just as the Cold War was heating up. Ken would see service in Korea, and during his long military career he played on just about every sports team the army had. Ken was a paratrooper […]
Wright, Ben
Ben Wright was born on July 25, 1946, and he was raised in Texas’s Big Bend country, where he and his siblings grew up in 1950s America. Ben graduated high school in 1964, as American involvement in Vietnam was beginning to escalate. Knowing the draft board would soon be after him, Ben opted for the […]
Korkmaz, Evelyn
Evelyn Korkmaz is a residential school survivor, a victim of the notorious St. Anne’s Residential School near Fort Albany, Ontario. Evelyn’s early years did not give any indication of what she would later experience; she grew up among family and friends in her early years, but changing family circumstances led to her attending St. Anne’s, […]
Johnson, Wallace
Wallace Johnson was born in Taft, California on April 18, 1925. His father worked for the Standard Oil Company, and he worked in Havana, Cuba, where Wallace spent his early years. Political instability fell over Cuba in the early 30s though, and the family relocated to Houston, where they found themselves in the midst of […]
Fairbrook, Paul
Paul Fairbrook was born into a Jewish family on August 21, 1923 in Berlin, Germany. His first ten years were spent in that country, but his father saw the writing on the wall and made arrangements for his young family to get out in 1932. First they made their way to France, and then to […]
Haley, Frank
Frank Haley was born January 25, 1925 in Cheadle, Alberta. He grew up in that small rural community, going to a one room school and having fun however and whenever he and his friends could. As Cheadle was a farming community, the impacts of the Depression were severe; the price of wheat crashed, and dust […]
Gladstone, Sidney
Sidney Gladstone was born July 18, 1925 in Toronto. He grew up in the city’s old Ward neighbourhood, though he remembers moving around a lot when he was young, and attending many different schools. Sid’s grandparents had emigrated to Canada at the turn of the century, leaving behind the limitations and pogroms of Poland to […]
Lummiss, William
William Lummiss was born April 21, 1929 in Toronto, where he grew up in the Beaches neighbourhood of the city. He attended Adam Beck Public School, and then Danforth Tech, and then pursued an apprenticeship in graphic design. Impacted by the events of the war, the young William remembers scrap metal drives and rationing, and […]
Atkinson, Ken
Ken Atkinson was born April 18, 1925 in Sunderland, England. His father was a veteran of the Great War who enrolled his son in the Air Cadet Corps between the two wars, and Ken’s father remained part of the Home Guard once the Second World War began, watching the skies for signs of the Luftwaffe. […]
Axworthy, Tom
Tom Axworthy was born May 23, 1947; he hails from the Canadian Prairies, and presently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Tom remembers that he did not come from a strongly political family, but the fact is that he and his brother Lloyd would go on to be very politically involved throughout their lives. Tom attributes this […]
Gord, Marvin
Marvin Gord was born December 31, 1920 in Toronto, Ontario. Marvin grew up with his mother, raised in a secular Jewish family, first in New York and then back home in Toronto. Marvin delivered papers and worked at a local Loblaw’s, and after he graduated high school he began an apprenticeship to prepare for a […]
Colhoun, Jack
Jack Colhoun was born in Philadelphia on February 9, 1945, but moved to upstate New York when he was quite young, growing up mainly in the small town of Sacket’s Harbor and experiencing 1950s small town America. He saw the beginning of the tumultuous changes of the 60s, events which would challenge America – and […]
Freeman, Bradford
Bradford Freeman was born in Mississippi on September 4, 1924. He grew up on a farm, where the family was insulated from the worst effects of the Great Depression. Brad remembers being at a neighbor’s house when the news about Pearl Harbor broke; he ran home to find his mother crying. Still in high school, […]
Spiridigliozzi, Marc
Marc Spiridigliozzi was born May 11, 1948 in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a large family, in a largely rural area, and he remembers well the idyllic days of his boyhood, which he experienced against the backdrop of the 1950s-60s postwar boom. His father was a member of the WW2 US Army National Guard; […]
Cameron-Kelly, Mary
Mary Cameron-Kelly was born January 5, 1962 in North Sydney, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Her father had served in the CAF during the Korean War, and she made the decision to enlist herself after she completed high school. Her air force career began when she became an airframe technician, and at this time Mary […]
Kleihauer-Ward, Elke
Elke Kleihauer-Ward is from southwestern Ontario, in the Stratford area. She attended high school there, and a guidance counselor saw something different in her, encouraging her to think about the trades, and to become an apprentice. At the time this was an unusual path for a young woman to follow, and it wouldn’t be easy. […]
Purvis, Rob
Rob Purvis was born May 16, 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He grew up in a working class neighbourhood, against the backdrop of Canada’s postwar boom and the emerging Cold War. He and 3 of his friends, the sons of World War Two veterans, made the decision to head south to join the American army – […]
Reid, Roy
Col. Ernest “Roy” Reid was involved in one of the famous moments – and photographs – of the Second World War, after he landed his B-17 at Hickam Field, Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941. Col. Reid is deceased, so his story is told here by his daughter Joan Ahrens and her husband Buzz, showing […]