Part Of

Maurice Berg fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

41

Material Format

multiple media

Date

[191-]-[ca. 1989]

Physical Description

29 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Maurice "Moishe" Berg (1913-1993) was a Toronto businessman who devoted much of his life to Jewish communal work and particularly to Zionist work. He was born on July 29th, 1913 in Russia to Rachel and Jacob Hochberg. He came to Canada in 1920, with his mother, two brothers, and one sister.

Berg was educated in Toronto and became president of Maple Leaf Press, a printing and office furniture company that was founded in 1945. He was also an active member and leader of Canadian Young Judaea and past president of Ajalon Lodge. He became president of the Central Region of Young Judaea, and later, national president. He was also chairman of the Regional Young Judaea Committee and chairman of the Biluim Committee. Berg was instrumental in starting up Camp Shalom. He also served on the Board of Directors of the YM & YWHA and was active with many other Jewish groups and organizations. He was affliliated with Adath Sholom Congregation. Maurice Berg died on February 27th, 1993.

Scope and Content

The fonds consists of records related to the personal and professional life of Maurice Berg and his involvement with various Zionist organizations. These organizations include Ajalon Lodge and Canadian Young Judaea. The records include scrapbooks, correspondence, photographs, certificates, programmes, ephemera, clippings, bulletins, and an award certificate.

Notes

Includes 111 photographs : b&w and col., 3 scrapbooks, 1 album of philatelic records, and 1 artifact (Artifact #291).

Name Access

Berg, Maurice, 1913-1993

Subjects

Zionism

Physical Condition

Good.

Related Material

See also photo #4627, 4628, and 4650

See also fonds 2 : 6 : 62 : Item 1

See also fonds 28-1 : 4 : 12

See also fonds 28-1 : 7 : 22

Arrangement

The fonds has been arranged and described as 21 files and 1 item by the archivist. The original order was maintained where it was discernible. The scrapbooks were kept intact though some were taken out of their original physical enclosure where possible for conservation purposes. The records have been placed in acid-free folders

Creator

Berg, Maurice, 1913-1993

Accession Number

1988-11-14

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