Larry Rafferty was born May 30, 1932 in Blackpool, England, where he grew up against the backdrop of World War Two. Larry has many engaging memories of the time, from the Blitz to the rations and Blackpool FC! Larry grew up in Blackpool and Manchester, returning to the latter after the bombings had subsided. His […]
Joe Samuels was born December 31, 1930 in Baghdad, Iraq: he was actually uncertain of his birthday but knew that he was born during Hanukkah and upon his emigration to Israel he chose the December 31 date – to coincide with an international celebration! Joe grew up in a Baghdad that he remembers as multicultural […]
Khitam Alkhaykanee was born in Baghdad, Iraq on September 22, 1980, the same day that the Iran-Iraq War started. Growing up in a time of war, she would use that experience to foster peace, later emigrating to the United States and starting up an NGO, the Global Jothoor Foundation. Khitam grew up normally, attending school […]
Howard Pfeifer was born September 22, 1923 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, so as a teenger he worked many jobs, delivering newspapers, pumping gas, and so on. When the war came, a cousin of Howard’s told him about the merchant marine; Howard liked what he heard, […]
Rod White was born in Trenton, Ontario in 1925. Rod’s father died when he was only four, and some of his early memories are of his mother struggling to raise her seven children in difficult economic times. Rod was a sickly child, suffering from bouts of tuberculosis and jaundice; combined with wearing glasses from an […]
Meng Fan was born in 1926 in Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, which now is Indonesia. Later he moved to Hong Kong. When war came, Hong Kong had to support in war efforts. However, Hong Kong was lacking resources such as food. Meng Fan volunteered to join the army. He started with training and was barely […]
Norman Cohen was born in the east end of Toronto in 1923. Growing up Jewish in the Beach neighbourhood, Norman dealt with the anti-Semitism of the era, as well as the economic pressures that led him to quit school at age 16. Norman found work around the neighbourhood, and he fondly remembered working for Charlie’s […]
Zbigniew Gondek served in the Polish Army during World War Two. Born in Szemysyl in 1923, he and his family found themselves in the Soviet Zone of occupation after the 1939 Nazi Soviet Pact. Zbigniew’s father, a police officer, was murdered, and Zbigniew and his mother were transported to Siberia, where they ended up in a […]
Mr. Scott Masters and the Crestwood Social Studies Department have been working on compiling a Historical Archive for several years now. This initiative came into being because of the numerous World War Two Veterans and Holocaust Survivors that have spoken to Mr. Masters’ students. Through their generosity and to make sure that their memories are […]
Marina Nemat was born in 1965 in Tehran, Iran. At the age of 16, she was arrested on false charges and spent more than two years in the infamous Evin prison, in Tehran, where she, along with many of her friends, was tortured. She was condemned to die, but survived because one of the Revolutionary […]
Michael Lustgarten was able to get out of Poland as the Nazi onslaught began in 1939. He made his way to Russia, where he was on the move, sought by both German and later Soviet authorities. His travels eventually took him to a Soviet work camp and later to Kazakstan and then finally on to […]