- Accession Number
- 2023-2-8
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2023-2-8
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Physical Description
- ca. 18 cm of textual records
- 207 photographs : b&w and col. ; 28 x 32 cm or semaller
- Date
- [ca. 1890]-2016
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of records related to Clara and Sándor Rosenbaum, and their extended families. Included are documents and photographs documenting their lives in Hungary prior to the Holocaust, as well as their lives after immigrating to Tangier and, subsequently, Canada. Also includes Holocaust accounts and restitution papers, immigration documents, vital documents, correspondence, paper money, a late 19th- or early 20th-century prayer book, and a book of Shabbat songs.
- Administrative History
- Clara (Klára) Szabó was born in Bölcske on 28 Nov. 1920, the daughter of local lawyer Imre Szabó (born on 2 Jun. 1893 in Bölcske) and Vilma Szabó (née Stern, born in Bölcske in 1892). She had three siblings: Elizabeth (Erzsébet), born on 30 Dec. 1913; Anna, born on 10 Jan. 1915; and András, born on 5 Dec. 1916. The family lived in Paks, where she spent most of her youth. She went to elementary school in Paks, but moved to Budapest in 1935 to attend boarding school, returning to Paks in 1939. Her father committed suicide on 3 Mar. 1940. She married Sándor Rosenbaum in Paks on 14 Jan. 1941. While visiting her sister in Békéscsaba, the whole family were deported to Auschwitz: Clara, her mother, her brother, her two sisters, and her two-year-old niece. From Auschwitz, Clara and her sister Elizabeth were sent to Ravensbrück, and from there to Neustadt bei Coburg, where they worked as forced labourers at a Siemens factory. The rest of her family were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. On 15 Apr. 1945, Clara and Elizabeth escaped from a forced march and headed towards the American advance. After the war, Clara and her husband reunited, and in 1946 relocated to Tangier, where Sándor's brother, Nikolas, had been living since 1940. There, they had two children: André (born on 27 Aug. 1949) and Anique (born on 1 Oct. 1950). They lived there until 1956, when the family relocated to Montreal. There, she was the president of the Dayan Chapter of Hadassah-WIZO from 1980 to 1982. She moved to Toronto in 1997 to be closer to her children. Clara died on 6 Feb. 2016 in Toronto.
- Sándor (Alexander) Rosenbaum was born in Paks on 28 Jul. 1906, the son of Mihály (Michael) Rosenbaum (merchant, born on 1875 or 1876) and Regina Freund (1882-1932). He had three siblings: Hedvig (married to Oskar Barotti), Sari (married to Zoltan Barotti), and Nikolas. During the war, from May 1943 to Sep. 1943, he served at the Jewish labour service squadron No. 104/3, in Budapest, at the post office No. 70 labour service. The squadron was then moved to the Carpathians, and Sándor worked as a farm labourer in the region. He served as a yellow armband labour serviceman in the Carpathians until the end of Oct. 1944. He escaped from the labour camp with a friend, hiding in the Carpathian forests for a few weeks. After the war, Sándor changed his last name to Rostás to sound more Hungarian, later changing it back to Rosenbaum. He immigrated with his wife Clara to Tangier, and later to Montreal with their two kids, having worked most of his life as a businessman. He died in Montreal on 6 Jul. 1987 and was buried at Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery in Outremont.
- Subjects
- Holocaust survivors
- Families
- Name Access
- Rosenbaum, Clara (Klára), 1920-2016
- Rosenbaum, Alexander (Sándor), 1906-1987
- Places
- Hungary
- Tangier (Morocco)
- Montréal (Québec)
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-7-6
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-7-6
- Material Format
- graphic material
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 62 photographs : b&w and col. ; 10 x 15 cm or smaller
- 4 cm of textual records
- Date
- 1920-2018
- Scope and Content
- Accession contains material documenting Gabriella Szanto and her family. Included are family photographs, vital records, correspondence, and a 2018 Baycrest calendar that features a portrait and short biography of Gabriella.
- Custodial History
- Shirley Worth served as the executor of Gabriella Szanto's estate. Following Gabriella's death, Shirley donated the records that make up the accession to the Ontario Jewish Archives.
- Administrative History
- Gabriella "Gabi" Szanto (née Lazlo) was born in Budapest, Hungary on 26 January 1916. Gabriella's parents, Arnold and Ilonka Lazlo (née Diamenstein), were women's clothing manufacturers who employed twenty-five people. Their skills complemented each other: Arnold had studied design in Berlin for two years while Ilonka was a dressmaker. On 18 May 1919, Arnold and Ilonka had their second child, George.
- During the Second World War, Gabi and her mother moved to the outskirts of Budapest where they passed as Catholics, rarely leaving their house. Miklos Szanto—the man Gabriella married after the war—was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp. Gabriella's brother, George, was sent to a camp in Siberia and did not survive. It is not known where or how Gabriella's father survived the war.
- After the war, Gabriella, her mother and father, and her husband Miklos reunited in Budapest. The four lived in the family apartment near the city opera house.
- During the period of Communist rule, Gabriella and Miklos bribed their way out of Hungary and travelled to Vienna. From Vienna, they travelled to Australia, where they lived for five or six years, working as a short order cook and a seamstress respectively.
- At some point, Gabriella and Miklos made the decision to immigrate to Canada. Their first stop—most likely in the 1950s—was Montreal. There, Gabriella worked for a high-end retailer before moving with her husband to Toronto one year later. In Toronto, Miklos worked again as a short order cook at the Noshery Restaurant on Eglinton, holding this job until he retried. Gabriella, meanwhile, worked as a seamstress until she was in her mid-80s.
- In their retirement, Gabriella and Miklos spent two months each winter in Florida. Gabriella died in 2018.
- Use Conditions
- Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA Director prior to accessing some of the records.
- Descriptive Notes
- LANGUAGE NOTE: English, Hungarian, German.
- Subjects
- Families
- Holocaust survivors
- Immigrants--Canada
- Name Access
- Szanto, Gabriella, 1916-2018
- Places
- Australia
- Austria
- Canada
- Hungary
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-8-8
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-8-8
- Material Format
- moving images
- Physical Description
- 2 videocassettes (180 min.)
- Date
- 1986-1997
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of two videocassettes.
- The first videocassette is titled Anguish to Hope: May 1-19, 1997 and records the travels of forty Canadian university students to Hungary, Poland, and Israel. During their travels, the students visited the birthplace of Theodor Herzl in Budapest, took part in the March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and celebrated Yom Ha'atsmaut in Jerusalem. Anguish to Hope was sponsored by the United Israel Appeal of Canada and local UJA/CJA Federations. Participants included: Gary Abenaim, Lesley Arbus, Andrew Bloom, Jessica Blumberger, Aaron Bockner, Shelly Brenner, Jason Brookman, Neshama Carlebach, Jennifer Cohen, Judy Cohen, Shoshana Cohen, Aliza Dwoskin, Alison Engel, Elissa Flagg, Cindy Goldbenberg, Henry Goldstein, Sarah Gonshor, Itai Hammer, Judy Heilik, Jocelyn Heisel, Daniel Hertzman, Gideon Hess, Naomi Hirshberg, Chaim Indig, Muki Jankelowitz, Andy Koltai, Yonina Machlis, Deborah Mervitz, Marla Munk, Oren Ognigwicz, Marla Pinsky, Bryan Rappaport, Eli Rubenstein, Lauren Schwartz, Ilana Sernick, Tammy Sitcoff, Elan Sloim, Noah Solomon, Julie Stevens, Rachel Stys, Nicole Sussman, Andrea Syrtash, Simone Vigod, and Laura Weinrib. The recording, which ends abruptly, is two hours in length.
- The second videocassette is a recording of a Rogers Cable 10 special presentation: The Official Opening of the Baycrest Hospital Ben & Hilda Katz Building. The opening took place on 4 May 1986, where it was broadcast live from the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in North York. The recording is one hour in length.
- Custodial History
- The videocassettes were donated to the Ontario Jewish Archives by Elissa Flagg, one of the participants in the Anguish to Hope trip. She is also the great-niece of Ben and Hilda Katz, the couple honoured in the Baycrest opening.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.
- Descriptive Notes
- Availability of other formats note: Available as DVD reference copies.
- Subjects
- Hospitals
- Name Access
- Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care
- Flagg, Elissa
- Jewish Federations of Canada – UIA
- Rogers TV
- Places
- Canada
- Hungary
- Israel
- Poland
- Source
- Archival Accessions