Name

Mr. and Mrs. Ben Newman

Number

OH 19

Subject

Families

Interview Date

4 Jan. 1975

Quantity

1

Interviewer

Stephen Spiesman

Conservation

Copied August 2003.

Notes

Availability of other formats

Use Restrictions

Conditional access. Researchers must receive permission from the interviewee or their heir prior to accessing the interview. Please contact the OJA for more information.

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Biography

Ben Newman was born in July 1920 in St Catharines, Ontario. He married Sheila Gould from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Ben's father, Abraham, immigrated to St. Catharines from Russia in 1909, living with his aunt and uncle and helping them with their junk business. His wife, Mary, and two children followed later. Four more children were born in Canada: Norman, Benjamin, Rebecca, and Gordon. Benjamin took over the company after Abraham’s retirement and turned it into one of the largest steel manufacturers in Canada. Ben Newman was active in all phases of Jewish life in the community and was the first Jewish aldermen in St. Catharines, a position he held for several years.

Material Format

sound recording

Name Access

Newman, Benjamin

Newman, Sheila

Geographic Access

St. Catharines (Ont.)

Toronto (Ont.)

Original Format

Audio cassette

Copy Format

Audio cassette

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Dr. H. Fenigstein

Number

OH 244

Subject

Warsaw (Poland)--History--Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943

Jewish ghettos

World War, 1939-1945

United States--Armed Forces

Concentration camps

Interview Date

24 Feb. 1976

Quantity

2 cassettes (1 copy)

2 WAV files

Total Running Time

58 minutes

Conservation

Copied August 2003

Digitized in 2014

Biography

Dr. H. Fenigstein was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1913. He was raised in an affluent, assimilated neighbourhood. He entered the study of medicine at the University of Warsaw in 1931. He served three years with the Military Academy for Sanitary Officers (i.e., for medical and paramedical graduates) in the Polish army. At the outbreak of the Second World War on 1 September 1939, Dr. Fenigstein worked at a military hospital. In April 1940, he was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto and started to work as the head of the pathology department at the Jewish Hospital. In 1948, Dr. Feningstein published "The History of the Jewish Hospital in Ghetto Warsaw." Some of his research was published in "The Hunger Disease," a collection of research papers that were hidden during the war. With the final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, Dr. Fenigstein was transported to several labour camps and was liberated by the Americans on 30 April 1945. After the war, he moved to Munich, where he worked for UNRA and the University of Munich. Dr. Feningstein immigrated to Canada in September 1948. Dr. Feningstein died in 1993.

Material Format

sound recording

Geographic Access

Canada

Munich (Germany)

Warsaw (Poland)

Original Format

Audio cassette

Copy Format

Audio cassette

Digital file

Transcript

Side 1 00:00: Dr. Fenigstein graduated from high school in 1931 in Warsaw, Poland and studied medicine at the University of Warsaw. 00:26: Dr. Fenigstein recounts some of his earliest childhood memories relating to Russian occupation of Warsaw. For example, he recalls seeing horse-drawn streetcars carrying wounded Russian soldiers, German soldiers coming to Warsaw in 1916, German soldiers confiscating valuables from his home, bad food, etc. 2:18: Dr. Fenigstein’s family lived in an assimilated part of Warsaw, not with the majority of Jews. 3:00: Dr. Fenigstein’s father was a professional electrical engineer, who graduated from university in France in 1909. 3:30: Dr. Fenigstein lists his education history. 4:48: Dr. Fenigstein recalls a military coup in Warsaw in 1926 by Józef Pilsudski. 6:07: Dr. Fenigstein notes that his personal life was not affected until 1939. In 1939, he had been practicing medicine for three years and had served three years with the Military Academy for Sanitary Officers (i.e., for medical and paramedical graduates) in the Polish army. 6:55: Dr. Fenigstein was mobilized to serve in a military hospital when Germans attacked Poland on 1 September 1939. 7:12: Dr. Fenigstein describes his experiences at the outbreak of the war. 8:00: Dr. Fenigstein was wounded on 25 September 1939. He remained hospitalized as a wounded prisoner of war until April 1940. 8:41: Following his discharge, Dr. Fenigstein started to work in the Department of Pathology at the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw. Dr. Fenigstein explains how the hospital functioned. Over time (i.e., by 1941/42 until liquidation in April 1943), the hospital was fully staffed by Jews, and all the patients were Jews under supervision of German military officers. 10:52: Dr. Fenigstein published a book in Yiddish in 1948, “The History of the Jewish Hospital in Ghetto Warsaw.” Copies are available in Yad Vashem. 11:44: Dr. Fenigstein describes the restrictions placed on activities of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. 12:43: Dr. Fenigstein explains his role in the hospital. He was the head of the Department of Pathology until the first liquidation in the summer of 1942. The chief of the hospital was Dr. Josef Stein. Dr. Fenigstein did teaching and research. Some of his work was published in a book, “The Hunger Disease,” a collection of research papers that were hidden during the war. 14:30: Dr. Fenigstein recounts the events that led up to the first liquidation in the summer of 1942. He mentions that, although they were told that the transports were evacuation from the ghetto, there evidence that came to light to support that the transports led to liquidation. 17:03: Dr. Fenigstein explains that, despite hearing stories about liquidation at the time, he did not want to believe the reports could be true. 18:53: Dr. Fenigstein describes the evolvement of the underground clandestine Jewish resistance. The group was able to resist attempts by the Germans to liquidate the ghetto in January 1943 and on 19 April 1943. 21:05: Dr. Fenigstein gives an account of the Jewish population in Warsaw at the outbreak of the war, at the peak of the Warsaw Ghetto, and after the first two liquidations. He suggests that, of those remaining in the ghetto, several hundred put up a brave, strong resistance against the Germans in April 1943. 24:40: Dr. Fenigstein describes his work in the hospital after the second liquidation. Additionally, he worked in conjunction with the underground military force by stockpiling medical supplies in order to look after the wounded. 26:20: Dr. Fenigstein relates what happened to him after the April 1943 liquidation. He was transported first from Warsaw to Budzyn, a camp near Lublin, and later to another camp, where he worked from 30 April 1943 to 23 May 1944. Side 2 00:43: Dr. Fenigstein continues to recount his personal history. He was transported to a camp in Radom on 25 May 1944, where he worked in a factory building small weapons. Moved by foot 29 July 1944 to a moved-in freight cars arrived 5 August 1944 in Auschwitz. The women and weak were removed from the group. The remainder got back on freight cars. Arrived in a camp in Vaihiengen 9 August 1944. 4:43: Dr. Fenigstein describes the harsh conditions of the camp in Vaihiengen. 6:28: Dr. Fenigstein was selected to be a physician on a transport on 14 October 1944. He became the chief physician at Hessental near Schwabish Hall. 8:30: Dr. Fenigstein describes an outbreak of a typhus epidemic. 10:20: Left Camp Hessental on 5 April 1945 by foot and horse-drawn wagon. Arrived on 11 Aplril 1945 in Allach, near Dachau. 25 April 1945 shipped in open freight cars. Liberated by the Americans on 30 April 1945. 13:23: Dr. Fenigstein recounts that one of the Americans approached them speaking Yiddish. 13:52: Dr. Fenigstein explains that he was able to maintain good relationships with some SS officers due to the fact that he was a physician with some military training who spoke German. As a result, he was allowed to keep a few personal belongings (e.g., a photo, pencil, paper) and have some special privileges. 16:00: Dr. Fenigstein’s first wife was killed by Nazis in Majdanek in November 1943. 16:35: Dr. Josef Stein was killed during the final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. 18:05: Adam Czerniakow, head of the Jewish council in the Warsaw Ghetto, committed suicide when he found out that the German were going to liquidate the Jewish population. 18:53: Dr. Fenigstein was thirty years old in 1943. 19:15: Dr. Fenigstein attributes his survival to good luck. He provides some examples. 21:50: Dr. Fenigstein recounts a few examples of how he was able to send messages to his sister amd wife with the help of a few sympathetic Poles. 25:05: Dr. Fenigstein discusses the time of liberation and immediately following liberation. The liberated inmates were transported to SS barracks initially and later sent to stay in SS garrisons in Munich. Then were placed in DP camps. Dr. Fenigstein worked as a physician for UNRA. Worked at the University of Munich. Married his second wife in Munich. Came to Canada in September 1948.

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Larry Cohen

Number

OH 302

Interview Date

7 Jun. 2007

Quantity

2 mini DV's, archival and reference copies

Interviewer

Sharon Gubbay Helfer

Notes

Ontario Small Jewish Communities Project.

Availability of other formats: Also available as an M4V video file

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Biography

Larry Cohen lived in Buffalo for many years, where he met and married his wife,, Marlene. He joined the US Army during the Korean War and was stationed in New Jersey. After the army, he began working at his grandfather’s steel business and then in 1959 moved back to Niagara Falls. He held several positions with the synagogue in Niagara Falls including treasurer and president. He has three children—Bobby, Steven, and Michelle—and numerous grandchildren.

Myer Salit, Larry Cohen's grandfather, was born in Brest Litovski, Poland. At the age of twenty-three, he booked passage to America on the SS Norge. On 28 June 1904, the ship struck a reef off the coast of Scotland and sank. Mr. Salit survived, along with approximately 160 other passengers, and made his way to New York and then St. Catharines, Ontario, where his brother-in-law, Harry Rubin, was a scrap metal dealer.

In 1905, Mayer Salit moved to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and set up his own scrap metal business. He was the first Jewish resident of that community. Over time, the business prospered and grew. After the Second World War, his son-in-law, Irvin Feldman, joined the company followed by his grandson, Larry Cohen, in 1955. The company began to diversify, selling new and used steel products to local industry. Myer Salit passed away in 1958 and left the business in the hands of Irvin and Larry. By the 1960s, the company branched out and became a reinforcing steel (rebar) fabricator and changed its name to Salit Steel. During the 1980s, the family sold off the scrap metal division of the company. Mr. Feldman retired, and the responsibility for managing the firm was shared by Larry Cohen and Steven Cohen, Myer's great-grandson. The company has continued to expand and diversify and currently serves the needs of southern Ontario.

Material Format

moving images

Geographic Access

St. Catharines (Ont.)

Niagara Falls (Ont.)

Original Format

Mini DV

Copy Format

DVD

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Norine Fenig

Number

OH 303

Interview Date

19 Jul. 2007

Quantity

2 mini DV's, archival and reference copies

Interviewer

Sharon Gubbay Helfer

Notes

Ontario Small Jewish Communities Project.

Physical condition: The last 5 minutes of CD 1 are missing; it may be worthwhile to redigitize the original media

Availability of other formats: Also available as an M4V video file

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Biography

Norine Fenig (née Revzen)’s father, Morton, came to St. Catharines from Russia in the early 1900s. Her mother, Caroline, came to Rochester, New York with her family. Her father and uncle went into the scrap metal business, eventually starting Niagara Structural Steel. Norine went to the University of Wisconsin and taught elementary school in Buffalo after graduating. She met her husband Leonard in Rochester, New York and they lived there for a year before moving back to St. Catharines so that Leonard could take over the steel business. Norine and Leonard had two children – Abraham and Celia.

Norine was involved in St. Catharines Young Judaea organization, which was founded in the community in 1931. During that time, they had two groups, one of which was an arts and crafts group led by Norine. She recalls attending meetings with members from Niagara Falls and Hamilton. They organized parties as well as other functions. She states that many of the teens met their spouses this way and “that’s how most of the marriages took place.”

Norine Fenig was a member of her local Hadassah and was also involved in the group bat mitzvah at St. Catharines Congregation B’nai Israel, which occurred in 2003, and the preparation it entailed.

Norine is a keen bridge player, playing duplicate bridge in clubs and competitions in St Catharines, Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Florida. She has reached life master status in the American Contract Bridge League.

Material Format

moving images

Geographic Access

St. Catharines (Ont.)

Original Format

Mini DV

Copy Format

DVD

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Harry Waisglass

Number

OH 382

Subject

Canada--Armed Forces

World War, 1939-1945

Interview Date

10 Jun. 2010

Quantity

1 reference DVD (WAV file); 1 archival DVD (WAV file)

Interviewer

Shayla Howell

Total Running Time

29:26

Notes

Harry was interviewed as part of the Memory Project event held at Lipa Green on 13 May 2010 in partnership with the Historica Dominion Institute.

Biography

Harry served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1942 to 1945 as an air frame mechanic. He was stationed in Canada.

Material Format

moving images

Geographic Access

Canada

Original Format

DVD

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Esther Mager

Number

OH 388

Subject

Canada--Armed Forces

World War, 1939-1945

Interview Date

10 Jun. 2010

Quantity

1 reference DVD (WAV file); 1 archival DVD (WAV file)

Interviewer

Stephanie Markowitz

Total Running Time

27:17

Notes

Esther was interviewed as part of the Memory Project event held at Lipa Green on 13 May 2010 in partnership with the Historica Dominion Institute.

Biography

Esther served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1942 to 1945 in motor transport. She was stationed in Canada.

Material Format

moving images

Geographic Access

Canada

Original Format

DVD

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Earle Iverson

Number

OH 408

Subject

World War, 1939-1945

US Army

France

Europe

Field artillery

Infantry

Interview Date

30 Aug. 2010

Quantity

1 reference DVD (WAV file) ; 1 archival DVD (WAV file)

Interviewer

Stephanie Markowitz

Total Running Time

41:02

Notes

Earle was interviewed as part of The Memory Project which was undertaken in partnership with the Historica Dominion Institute.

Biography

Earle served in the US army from 1942 to 1945. He was in the infantry in the filed artillery and instrument and survey sections. His division went overseas to France in early 1945. Earle immigrated to Canada in 1960.

Material Format

moving images

Geographic Access

Canada

France

Original Format

DVD

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Percy Skuy

Number

OH 416

Subject

Canada--Emigration and immigration

Jews--South Africa

South Africa--Emigration and immigration

Interview Date

12 May 2015

Interviewer

Naomi Raichyk

Total Running Time

1 hr. 19 min.

Use Restrictions

NONE

Biography

The child of Latvian immigrants to South Africa, Percy grew up in the small town of Vryheid, South Africa with his parents and two siblings. Years later, when asked what the population of Vryheid was, Percy’s mother replied, “Forty Jewish families.” Those families formed a tight-knit community that was able to support not only a synagogue and a rabbi, but a Talmud Torah school and a butcher’s shop with a kosher section.

At seventeen years old, Percy began an apprenticeship to become a pharmacist. He qualified in 1954 and worked for a year before leaving South Africa to travel the world. He never planned on visiting Canada, but found himself in Toronto for a stopover and ended up liking the city so much he decided to stay. In 1959, Percy became the first South African pharmacist registered in Ontario.

Percy met his first wife, Frances Goodman, in 1960 on a blind date and married her that same year. Together, they had two children: Beth (born in 1961) and David (born in 1963). In 1961, Percy began his thirty-four-year career with Johnson and Johnson Corporation, taking on a number of roles in the company during that time. In 1977, Frances passed away. Two years later, he married his second wife, Elsa Ruth Snider.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Percy is the founder of the only museum devoted exclusively to the history of contraception. The museum is located at the Dittrick Medical History Centre in Cleveland, Ohio.

Material Format

moving images

Language

English

Name Access

Skuy, Percy, 1932-

Geographic Access

Canada

Europe

Israel

South Africa

United States

Original Format

Digital file

Copy Format

Digital file

Transcript

00:30 Percy was born in 1932 in Vryheid in northern Natal, South Africa.

00:41 Percy's parents emigrated from Latvia to South Africa in 1929.

00:53 Percy discusses his parents and their early lives in South Africa and the Jewish community in Vryheid.

04:10 Percy discusses his family's practice of Judaism while growing up.

05:02 Percy's father ran a small business. Later he worked with his brother-in-law to run a mill. At age fifty-nine, his father was killed in an automobile accident.

06:00 Percy discusses his mother. Percy has two siblings: an older brother, Max, and a younger sister, Rita.

07:19 Percy shares some of his childhood memories.

09:29 Percy was involved in the Habonim youth movement.

11:27 Percy reminisces about the establishment of the State of Israel.

13:23 Percy discusses his impressions of apartheid. He discusses his relationships with Black men and women.

15:15 Percy discusses his involvement with an anti-apartheid group.

17:19 Percy shares a story that illustrates his opposition to apartheid. His parents were not politically active.

19:06 Percy discusses how he became interested in pharmacy and the training for pharmacists.

21:21 Percy describes his two years of travel following graduation from pharmacy.

26:58 Percy relates how, en route to a pre-arranged job in the Arctic, he serendipitously secured a job with Glaxo as a medical sales representative on a stop-over in Toronto.

29:49 Percy describes his sales route.

30:46 Percy explains how he became the first South African registered pharmacist in Ontario.

32:31 Percy describes some of his early social/business pursuits in Canada.

34:12 Percy married his wife, Francis, originally from Sudbury. She graduated from the University of Toronto in nursing.

34:26 Following travel to Europe, Israel and South Africa, Percy and Francis decided to return to live in Canada.

35:35 Percy discusses the importance of maintaining family connection despite distance.

36:41 Percy describes the slow trickle of relatives who emigrated from South Africa. He notes that he has no close relatives remaining in South Africa and comments on the disappearance of the Jewish community in Vryheid.

38:39 Percy discusses some of the challenges he faced integrating socially into the Jewish community.

40:36 Percy explains how he became involved with working for the company Ortho.

45:15 Percy explains the factors that guided his integration into Canada.

47:08 Percy discusses his involvement in the Jewish community in Toronto.

48:30 Percy contrasts his own upbringing with how he raised his own children in Toronto.

52:00 Percy discusses his grandchildren.

52:26 Percy is the founder of a museum of the history of contraception. He explains how he developed an interest in the history of contraception and how he collected artifacts.

58:18 Percy describes his work history, his involvement in professional committee work, and his pursuits following his retirement in 1995.

1:00:11 Percy explains how he found a permanent location for the museum at the Dittrick Museum at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

1:02:50 Percy married Elsa in 1979. He discusses their range of hobbies.

1:03:38 Percy discusses the three documentaries he created. The topics included the formation of the Jewish pharmacy fraternity, the history of Jewish pharmacists in Canada, and the extracurricular involvement of Jewish pharmacists in Canada.

1:06:47 Percy addresses some of the issues faced by South African Jewish pharmacists who integrated to Canada.

1:09:20 Percy lists the languages he speaks.

1:10:00 Percy reminisces about his mother. He recalls his mother's relationship with their family servant.

1:13:14 Percy describes his training in pharmacy in South Africa.

1:15:27 Percy shares stories about their family's Black servants.

1:17:40 Percy reminisces about the opportunities that came his way since his arrival in Canada.

Source

Oral Histories

Becoming Canadian

The History of Contraception

40 Jewish Families

Not Long Before the Police Arrived

Name

Shane Teper

Number

OH 421

Subject

Canada--Emigration and immigration

Jews--South Africa

South Africa--Emigration and immigration

Interview Date

3 Nov. 2015

Interviewer

Gail Freeman

Total Running Time

46 min.

Use Restrictions

Written consent is required prior to the publication of all or any portion of this video/oral history on the internet.

Material Format

moving images

Language

English

Name Access

Teper, Shane, 1965-

Geographic Access

Canada

South Africa

Original Format

Digital file

Source

Oral Histories