Part Of
Rebecca Kamarner fonds
Level
Fonds
ID
Fonds 11
Source
Archival Descriptions
Part Of
Rebecca Kamarner fonds
Level
Fonds
Fonds
11
Material Format
textual record
graphic material
Date
[ca.1900]-[196-?]
Physical Description
4.5 cm of textual records
24 photographs : b&w and sepia ; 21 x 13 cm or smaller
Admin History/Bio
Rebecca Kamarner (née Huenstein) (1882-1975) was born in Russia and lived there until her early adulthood. She married Harry Kamarner (1877- 1962) in 1902 and immigrated to Toronto around 1904. Mrs. Chava Kamarner (1847-1929), possibly Harry’s mother, may have immigrated at a later date and lived with the family in Canada. Rebecca and Harry had three children: Bessie (b. 1903), Anne (b. 1906?), and Jack (1907?-1986). Harry and Rebecca lived on 35 Bellevue Avenue in 1925 and later resided at 72 Barton Street.
From the date of her arrival as an immigrant to Canada, Mrs. Kamarner was involved in charitable work through such organizations as The Hebrew Women’s Convalescent Home established in 1936 (of which she was the President and founder), The Hebrew Maternity Aid Society, and The Women’s Auxiliary Toronto Hebrew Free School. During the First and Second World Wars she was actively involved in social aid and the sponsorship of orphans, and she worked as a nurse during the influenza pandemic that began in 1918 and had its greatest effect on the Jewish community in Toronto in 1919 and 1920. She was one of the earliest members of the Toronto Hadassah-Wizo (Schamira Levine chapter) and was also actively involved in fundraising for the Women’s Auxiliary of The New Mount Sinai Hospital, of which she was listed as a charter member. She served on the Board of Directors of The Jewish Home for the Aged and was a preeminent name in the promotion of convalescent care and social advocacy for the disadvantaged throughout her lifetime.
Harry, Nathan "Nutta" (d. 1956), and Louis Kamarnar were men’s clothing and furnishings retailers and owned the Merchant’s Clothing Co. store on 131 Queen Street West. Harry, his son Jack, and his son-in-law Harry Granger, were also affiliated with the Judean Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order.
Bessie Kamarner married Sam Robins (b.1893) in 1922 and they lived together at 273 Queen Street East. Anne Kamarner was married to Harry Graner (d. 1986) in 1931. Jack Kamarner lived in Toronto and married Jeanne (née Rubin). They had two daughters, Ann and Nancy.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of family photographs, a scrapbook, and other textual records, both of a personal nature and those relating to the volunteer work done by Rebecca Kamarner. These records document her community social work, her affiliation with the Women’s Auxiliary, and her fundraising efforts for the Hebrew Women’s Convalescent Home, later the Mount Sinai Convalescent Home, in Toronto.
Name Access
Kamarner, Rebecca, 1882-1975
Subjects
Immigrants--Canada
Volunteers
Related Material
see also clipping, re. photo #2503, from accession 1978-6-4
Arrangement
The fonds has been arranged in five files: the first file is of family photographs; the second contains one passport; the third contains institutional programmes; the fourth is of personal invitations and correspondence; and, the fifth file contains Rebecca Kamarner's scrapbook and clippings from that scrapbook. These are all kept together in one box and each file is housed in a separate folder.
Creator
Kamarner, Rebecca, 1882-1975
Places
Russia
Toronto (Ont.)
Accession Number
1986-5-5
Source
Archival Descriptions
Part Of
Henry Cassel fonds
Level
Fonds
ID
Fonds 93
Source
Archival Descriptions
Part Of
Henry Cassel fonds
Level
Fonds
Fonds
93
Material Format
textual record
graphic material
Date
[ca. 1900]-2000, predominant 1929-1947
Physical Description
8 cm of textual records
3 albums (ca. 210 photographs)
2 photographs
Admin History/Bio
Heinz Kassel (1912-2009) (later changed to Henry Cassel) was a German refugee during the Second World War who was classified as an enemy alien by the British government. He spent two years in an internment camp for prisoners of war (POWs) in Quebec. He later became a naturalized Canadian citizen and enlisted in the Canadian military.
Heinz was born on October 25, 1912 in Aschaffenburg, Germany to Adolf and Olga Kassel. Adolf owned a successful banking business which he had inherited from his father. The family resided above the bank and lived a comfortable life during these early years. They moved to Frankfurt around 1920 after Adolf sold his business to buy a partnership in a bank there.
Heinz’s parents had hoped that he would one day become a corporate lawyer. In 1931, in preparation for his future career, he began studying law and economics at Frankfurt University. He enjoyed his initial university years. However, after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, he became alarmed when his non-Jewish university friends began ignoring him and when the German government passed laws forbidding Jews from practicing law in court. Determined to leave Germany and seek out a better life elsewhere, he begged his parents to immigrate with him to the United States. They refused to go, unwilling to leave behind the life they had worked so hard to build. In accordance with his parents’ wishes, Heinz relocated to nearby Italy instead of the US in 1934. He learned Italian and eventually secured a job with an engineering firm.
Sensing that the political climate in Italy was becoming dangerous for Jewish people, Heinz applied for immigration to the US in early 1939. Eager to leave Italy, he relocated to London to await the approval of his US visa. He left just in time: Britain declared war on Germany less than a week after his arrival. His parents, in turn, managed to escape to Holland. Soon after Britain’s declaration, all immigrants from enemy countries were considered enemy aliens and suspected of being spies.
On May 12, 1940, the British military arrested Heinz and interned him with other German immigrants and POWs. He believed his detainment was only a precautionary measure and that he would be cleared within a few days. However, the British shipped him to the Isle of Man where he remained for several months. Fearing an invasion, the British shipped 3,000 of the POWs, including Kassel, to Quebec, where he was briefly interned at a POW camp set up at the Plains of Abraham. In October 1940, he was moved with 736 other refugees to an abandoned railway yard (later known as “Camp N”) in Newington, near Sherbrooke, Quebec. While there, he confronted a great deal of antisemitism from the guards.
While he was interned in Quebec, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) interviewed him and other Jewish prisoners in order to lobby for their release. Realizing that the internees were not POWs, the Canadian government declared the camp a refugee camp in 1941. By October 1942, the CJC was successful in helping Heinz secure employment with Benjamin Pape & Company in Toronto.
Heinz met Reta Freeman in Toronto and they were married in November 1944. Reta was born and raised in Toronto. After their nuptials, they were both briefly classified as enemy aliens and had to report to the RCMP on a regular basis. Shortly thereafter, Heinz enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army and was sent to basic training in Manitoba. On January 21, 1946 he was granted landed immigrant status, and in April of that year, he became a citizen.
After the war, Heinz learned that his parents as well as other relatives had been transported to concentration camps and had not survived. He was certainly one of the few fortunate ones to leave the country, despite the circumstances of his removal. He resented being interned for so long, but did not blame the British for rounding him up with other Germans based on their initial fears regarding enemy aliens. His feelings about Canada's treatment of him during that time, however, were not as sympathetic.
The couple lived their lives in Toronto. They first resided at 2346 Yonge Street. Heinz legally changed his name to Henry Cassel. He worked as an accountant and later was a controller for the United Jewish Welfare Fund. The couple had two children: Andrew (b. 1947) and Richard (b. 1951). Reta passed away in August 1962 and Henry later remarried Esther Cassel. He passed away at the age of 96 on February 15, 2009.
Custodial History
Records were created and accumulated by Henry Cassel. His sons donated them to the OJA after his death.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of records documenting the life of Henry Cassel, particularly his attempt to emigrate from Europe prior to the Second World War and his internment in Canada as a German prisoner of war (POW). Included is personal correspondence between Cassel and his parents; correspondence written by Cassel to potential employers and Canadian Jewish agencies; legal documents and certificates, such as Cassel's birth certificate and passport; family photo albums documenting the family and lives of Henry Cassel and his wife Reta; Cassel's autobiography; a journal and notebook written by Cassel during his internment; and, other internment records, such as government forms and poems and songs written by internees. Also included are newspaper clippings, articles, financial statements, genealogical research, and antisemitic ephemera collected by Cassel. Of particular note are newsletters that were produced during the 1990s by ex-internees who had kept in touch over the years. Records are arranged into 16 files.
Notes
Textual records in the fonds were reduced from ca. 20 cm to 8 cm. Please see accession record for further details about the culled material.
Associated material notes: for related records at other archives, please see: the UJRA case files at the National CJC Archive in Montreal and the holdings at Library and Archives Canada (such as, the Directorate of Internment Operations series in the Department of National Defense fonds R112-0-2-E)
Name Access
Cassel, Henry, 1912-2009
Subjects
Europe--Emigration and immigration
Prisoners of war
Access Restriction
Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.
Related Material
See: Canadian Jewish Congress case files in RG 282 and accession #2005-10-1.
Creator
Cassel, Henry, 1912-2009
Accession Number
2010-4-5
Source
Archival Descriptions
Part Of
Henry Cassel fonds
Level
File
ID
Fonds 93; File 5
Source
Archival Descriptions
Part Of
Henry Cassel fonds
Level
File
Fonds
93
File
5
Material Format
textual record
Date
1921-2000, predominant 1935-1939
Physical Description
1 folder of textual records
Scope and Content
File consists of correspondence and legal records documenting Henry Cassel's emigration from Germany and attempt to immigrate to the United States of America. Included is Henry's passport, nationality identification card, birth certificates, driving certificates, USA immigration sponsorship application, correspondence regarding his application to enter the USA, criminal background checks, a citizenship visa for Italy, and a registration card indicating Henry's place of employment. Also included are newspaper clippings that were collected by Henry regarding the Jewish community of Ferrara, Italy (a region that Henry had travelled through).
Notes
Photocopies of some Italian and German records with translated titles are attached to the accession record.
Access Restriction
Closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing the records.
Accession Number
2010-4-5
Source
Archival Descriptions