Jewish War Orphans Gather In Montreal To Remember And Reminisce

Montreal Synagoge

From The Canadian Press:

MONTREAL — It's been 60 years since the Canadian Jewish Congress helped bring Jewish war orphans to Canada.

In Montreal, about 20 of the orphans - now in their 80s - reunited Sunday morning to reminisce over the good times and the bad.

"You look at it like a party," said Mendy Jozsef, one of the orphans.

"But each and everyone here has a story that would fit more than a book. And it's not an ordinary story."

The vast majority were brought to Canada as teenagers, remnants of European Jewish youth. Only 37 of the war orphans were under 10 years old.

Many had spent the war in concentration camps - Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen - and lived against unimaginable odds.

Only about one per cent of Jewish children alive in Europe at the beginning of the war survived to its conclusion because Nazis specifically targeted Jewish youth, explained Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

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