Welcome to Canada: Theme OverviewBetween 1947 and 1949, 1,123 Jewish orphans came to Canada as part of the War Orphans Project. As stipulated bythe Canadian government, the Jewish community assumed full responsibility for their support. Finding foster homes,schooling and jobs for these new arrivals was a large undertaking for the relatively small Jewish population of the time.

At first call, people were hesitant to open their homes to these young people who had witnessed such terrible things.After several appeals, a sufficient number of homes were found. For many, these young people were seen as a renewedhope, the first tangible result of many years of efforts to open Canada’s doors to Jewish refugees.

Most of the orphans entered the country through the port of Halifax at Pier 21. Members of the Halifax Jewish communi-ty and representatives of Canadian Jewish Congress met the ships to welcome the newcomers and facilitate their immi-gration procedures. Some of the orphans remained in Halifax but most boarded trains for thirty-eight communities acrossthe country.

The majority of the orphans, over 790 of them, settled in Montreal and Toronto. Manitoba received 131, Saskatchewan,12. Twenty-eight went to Alberta, and 38 to British Columbia .

The task of settling these young people was immense. Most foster families were expecting young children, preferablygirls. The harsh reality was that the majority of those who had managed to survive were older boys. Of the 1,123orphans who arrived, seventy percent were adolescent boys and only 37 of the children were under ten years of age.

The orphans came from fifteen different European countries, 783 from concentration camps and 229 from hiding.Socially they were a diverse group. Some were from farming families, a large number from comfortable middle-classhomes. There was little time to do a full assessment and carefully match children with prospective families.

ContentsWelcome to Canada: Theme Overview 1Artifacts

Newspaper article 2Regina, 1948 4Immigration ID card 5Foster family, Vancouver 6Vancouver, 1948 7Pamphlet 8ID tag 9

Welcome to Canada

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Newspaper Article

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Newspaper article from the Congress Bulletin. Montreal, September 1947.Courtesy of Canadian Jewish Congress Archives.

The goal of the Canadian Jewish community was to find adoptive or foster homes for the orphans. Canadian JewishCongress (CJC) was the agency assigned to deal with the various federal, provincial and municipal authorities acrossCanada. The Executive Director of CJC, Saul Hayes visited every province except Prince Edward Island and everyDepartment of Social Welfare in the effort to secure permission from each of the different jurisdictions for the imminentarrival of the young refugees.

Appeals for homes were first circulated by word of mouth at all Jewish service group meetings. This was followed by amore organized and concerted campaign to find the needed foster homes. These front-page articles in the CongressBulletin were part of that campaign which included booklets, pamphlets and heartfelt letters of appeal.

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Newspaper Article

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Photograph: Regina, 1948

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Photograph belonging to Celina Lieberman. Regina, Saskatchewan, February 1948.

After we landed in Halifax on February 14, 1948 we all had to stand in line in this huge hall for passport control. Theimmigration people had to approve us. I remember being a bit frightened because of all the authority figures aroundus. I was worried that perhaps we didn’t have the right papers. By the time we were put on the train by members ofthe Jewish community, we were all rather wild. Some of the children just got off the train wherever they wanted to.

When I arrived in Regina I was 17 years old. All the orphans were met at the train by several prominent people fromthe Jewish community who took us to breakfast. I remember our surprise at being served half grapefruits. None of ushad ever seen grapefruits before. We didn't know what to do with them.

After breakfast Sam Promislow took us to his dry goods store and told us to take whatever we needed. I felt so grateful.I picked out this pale grey suit that I am wearing in this photograph. I remember that the long skirt was the height offashion. It was the new look from Dior. Here I was straight from war-torn Europe and wearing the latest fashion. I wasso grateful to be in Canada. Suddenly life had promise again.

Celina Lieberman

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Immigration ID Card

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Immigration Identity Card belonging to Robbie Waisman. Halifax, 3 December 1948.

When we landed in Halifax on December 3rd 1948, I was seventeen years old. I was handed this card just as wedisembarked from the Samaria. I had to show this card to an official as I walked down the ramp onto Canadian soil.I guess it proved that I was legitimate now. I was a landed immigrant. For a while it was the only Canadian identifi -cation that I had. Later on, I used it as identification to apply for my first driver's licence.

Robbie Waisman

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Photograph: Foster family, Vancouver

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Photograph belonging to Leo Lowy. Canada, 1947/49.

This is a picture of the foster family, Sarah and Max Fox, who took me in when I came to Vancouver. They are standingin front of their home on Cambie Street. I was welcomed into their home just hours after arriving in Vancouver. It wasan unbelievable experience to walk into their beautiful home after where I had been during the Holocaust. Evenbefore the war, my home with my parents in the Ukraine had been a very modest one.

My twin sister Miriam went to live with Isaac Chernov’s family. I stayed with the Fox family for over a year. They hadtwo children: a son my age, Ernest, and a married daughter, Priscilla. I spoke a few languages when I came, mainlyYiddish and Hungarian, but not a word of English. The parents spoke Yiddish, so I felt right at home because I couldconverse. They were wonderful to me. They introduced me to all of their family and friends.

Leo Lowy

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Photograph: Vancouver, 1948

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Photograph belonging to Mariette Rozen. Vancouver, 3 January 1948.

I arrived in Halifax in December 1947, along with my older sister Esther and brothers Henri and Jacques. We werethe sole survivors of our family of eleven children. The first thing I remember upon arrival in Halifax was that we weresearched and guarded like we were in a camp. Eventually, we were put on a train to Winnipeg and a nametag wasattached to my clothes with a safety pin.

I remember how very cold it was in Winnipeg. When I saw all the snow I decided that I didn't want to stay. After a fewdays, we were allowed to go on to Vancouver. This photograph shows us with the social worker Jean Rose, just aswe arrived at the train station in Vancouver. We are wearing the winter clothes they gave us in Winnipeg.

People from the Jewish community met us at the train station. One of them, Mr. Satanov saw me and said, "I wantthat little girl." He and his wife had been married for thirty years but had no children.

In Vancouver, all the orphans were placed in different Jewish homes. My brothers and sister and I could not betogether because there was no family that could take in all four of us. My siblings and I had already been separatedthroughout the war, so we were already like strangers. In Vancouver we were separated once again.

Mariette Rozen

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Pamphlet

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Pamphlet recruiting homes for orphans. Canada, 1947/49. Courtesy of the Canadian Jewish Congress National Archives.

After years of working to convince the Canadian government to permit Jewish war orphans to come to Canada, theirarrival came quickly. The Jewish community scrambled to make all the necessary preparations. The most pressingneed was to find foster homes for the new arrivals.

This pamphlet was part of the campaign to find homes for the new arrivals.

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ID Tag

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ID tag given to Bill Gluck. Halifax, 23 June 1948. Courtesy of Bill Gluck.

According to my diary that I kept aboard ship, I arrived in Halifax at 10 am on June 23, 1948. A group of Jewish peoplewere waiting for us with presents of cigarettes and chocolates. They bought stamps for those of us who had letters tomail.

I remember being given all sorts of documents along with this orphan identification tag, which was intended forthe much younger children. But by then I was perfectly capable of looking after myself. I could even speak someEnglish. There was no way I was going to wear something like this. The tag was O.K. for the little kids or those whocould not speak any English. I was always the independent sort. I had survived alone from the age of 13 and certainlydid not need to be tagged now.

If you look closely at this tag, you will notice that the string on it is perfectly new. That is because I refused towear it. I think that the letters CN must have stood for the Canadian National Railway and 28 was my identificationnumber on the train trip. I went first to Montreal, then to Toronto and finally Winnipeg.

Bill Gluck