Bornstein, Max

We met Max Bornstein at Baycrest Geriatric Centre in Toronto, where he is a resident.  We learned about him through the Azrieli Foundation, as they have published his memoirs.  Crestwood students Emma Myers and Sarah Mainprize interviewed Max at Baycrest in February 2013.

Max’s story is remarkable, and a singular one in many ways.  He and his family travelled back and forth across the Atlantic many times in the prewar years:  much of Max’s early life was spent in an orphanage in Canada, but events in his family saw them reunited in France in the prewar years.  As the war began, the family made their way to southern France, where Max was detained – a 17 year old by then, he was a potential military recruit.  He did manage to escape to Spain, but there he was ensnared by Franco’s government, and he spent a considerable amount of time in a concentration camp.  Eventually he made his way back to England, and later to Canada – a veritable odyssey that saw him settle in postwar Toronto.