[Click the photos for larger images. Opens in a new window.]

Name of the exhibit: Jewish Refugee Life in Shanghai – Family of Rabbi S. Robert Morais

Submitted by: Rabbi Rob Morais

Date of origin: 1940’s

Description: An estimated 20-25,0000 Jews fled to Shanghai from the beginning of Nazi persecution of Jews in 1933 until late in 1941. These refugees usually immigrated to Shanghai as families. Stripped of most of their assets before fleeing, the refugees swarmed into Hongkew (a poor section of Shanghai) because they could not afford to live anywhere else in the city. Following the Japanese takeover of Shanghai, Honkew was established as a Jewish and Foreigner’s ghetto. This is where the Handke family lived from 1941-1948.
Because Armando Salinas held Italian citizenship, he was allowed to live outside the Ghetto with his new wife Eva Handke and their daughter born in Aug of 1943. In October of 1943 they were arrested by the Japanese and imprisoned in a Japanese enemy alien concentration camp in inner China. They remained there living in very poor conditions until the camp was liberated by the American Army.
The Jacket, prayer book and book of bible passages were among relief packages that the US Air Force dropped into the camp. Included in the relief packages were much need food and medicines that saved many lives until the US army arrived.

Voyage to Ottawa: The entire Salinas and Handke families immigrated to Canada in 1948 as refugees fleeing communist China.

From left: Fritz Handke, Eva Salinas, Liliana Salinas, Kate Handke and Armando Salinas Shanghai, 1946.

[Click the photo for a larger image. Opens in a new window.]

[Click the photo for a larger image. Opens in a new window.]

Name of the exhibit: The Sprechers of Cologne

Submitted by: Marlene Wolinsky

Date of origin: March 7, 2018

Origin of the object: This book is a compilation of records and personal accounts relating to my father and his families struggles as German Jews living in Cologne Germany. It is a collaboration by the second generation of holocaust survivors to remember and record our family history.

Description: This book contains historical documents, family letters, official records (deportation, expulsion, death notices), family photos and first-hand accounts of the treatment of Jews in Germany from 1936, prior to the war until 1944. It tells of the painful road of survivors during and after the war and their struggles to create a new life in Canada, England and Israel.

Voyage to Ottawa: The records within this volume were sourced from Germany, England, the United States, Israel and Montreal. It was published in the USA and then distributed to members of the Sprecher family at a reunion of first and second cousins and grandchildren in Toronto in June 2018.

The following are some pertinent documents and correspondence from this book, which chronicle Arnold and his brothers’ journey from Germany to England to Halifax and on to Sherbrooke, Quebec. They provide timelines and correspondence with Refugee Organizations that assisted them to escape from Germany and eventually settle in Canada.

Letter from National Refugee Service to Arnold Sprecher (May 9, 1941)
Letter from Arnold Sprecher to National Refugee Service (May 17, 1941)
Letter from National Refugee Service to Sprecher family (June 9, 1941)
Letter to Arnold Sprecher from London Jewish Refugees Committee (June 4, 1941)
Jewish Refugee Committee Statement (June 19, 1941)
Letter from Dominion Clothing Mfg. Co. (June 12, 1942)
Letter to Dominion Clothing Mfg. Co. (June 18, 1942)
Refugee Status card
“Ettrick” ticket (July 3, 1940)
Camp “N” Release Dates
1942 Montreal Article “Regains Citizenship Lost For Two Years”
Reference Letter for Arnold Sprecher from the Department of National Defence (July 4, 1942)

Arnold Sprecher (click to enlarge)

Arnold and Herman in Cologne (click to enlarge)

Book excerpt (click to enlarge)

Final book excerpt (click to enlarge)

[Click the photo for a larger image. Opens in a new window.]

Name of the exhibit: Yiddish book: “Der Goldener Tremf” (The Golden Triumph)

Submitted by: Elliot

Date of origin: October 5, 1939

Origin of the object: The book was published in New York in 1939. The stories in the book may go back to East European shtetl life.

Description: This object was published in 1939, the year that WWII started. The Yiddish anecdotes in the book could be relics to forgotten worlds.

Voyage to Ottawa: Unknown

[Click the photo for a larger image. Opens in a new window.]

Name of the exhibit: Illustrated book on Warsaw before and after WWII

Submitted by: Elliot

Date of origin: October 18, 1956

Origin of the object: Warsaw, Poland

Description: This is a book that illustrates what Warsaw looked like before and after Nazi bombings. There are illustrations and descriptions of Jewish areas and synagogues, but it is written in Polish.

Voyage to Ottawa: Unknown; found in the attic of a relative.

[Click photos for larger images. Opens in a new window.]

Name of the exhibit: Postcard from the train to Auschwitz, June 4, 1944

Submitted by: Anna Hercz

Date of origin: June 4, 1944

Origin of the object: This is the goodbye postcard written by my mother to Karcsi, her future husband and my father, from Kosice en route to the unknown. My mother and her family, mother, father, sisters, and a 5-year-old nice, along with thousands of other Jews, were en route from Oradea, Romania (then Hungary) to Auschwitz. Written on the official Hungarian Army postcard addressed to Dr. Mozes Karoly (away in the Ukraine with the Hungarian Army Labour Service), was thrown from the cattle car in Kosice and was forwarded by a good-willed railway worker. My father brought this card home and I still have it. It was included in my mother’s book Remaining Human through the Holocaust published in English by the University of Calgary Press in 2005.

Description: The postcard is a unique reminder of my family’s tragic past. Grandparents from both sides, three aunts, and a 5 year old nice were murdered in Auschwitz. My mother, father, one aunt and an uncle survived. See the attached book and document for the photo of the postcard and the exert from the book offering more background on the significance of the postcard.

Voyage to Ottawa: My mother, Terez Mozes, author of the Holocaust memoir Staying Human through the Holocaust gave me the original postcard in 1997 to be included in the publication of her book in Canada. She is 99 years old and is living in Israel.

Additional Information: Click to read an excerpt from the book “Staying Human through the Holocaust”.