Liza and Sam Schein

Accession Number: 2019-12-8

Source: Archival Accessions

Accession Number: 2019-12-8

Material Format: graphic material (electronic)

Physical Description: 10 photographs : b&w & col. (jpeg)

Date: 1948-2010

Scope and Content: Accession consists of photographs of the Schein family. Included are Liza and Sam's wedding celebration in Salzburg, Austria (1948), Liza on board the RMS Samaria (1948), family portraits and snapshots of Liza, Sam and their daughter Gilda (1953-1954), their businesses Apex Uniforms (1960) and Apex Textiles (1980), and the front and back of Sam Schein's grave stone.

Administrative History: (Szymon (Sam) Schein (1923-2010) was born in Krakow, Poland, and was the eldest of three sons of Yitzchak and Leia Schein. Szymon's younger brothers were Alek, and Gershon. As a child, Szymon attended yeshiva and enjoyed singing. The Scheins were shopkeepers, and lived a modest lifestyle. Sam's immediate family were all murdered in the Holocaust. Szymon was the only member of his immediate family to survive. At the outset of the war he was sixteen years old. Sam survived four concentration camps – Plaszow, Mauthausen, Melk, and Ebensee. While living in a Displaced Persons camp in Bad Gastein, Austria, he met his wife, Liza Esanu. They were engaged in July 1948, and married a month later. Liza Esanu (1928-2017) was born in Romania in 1928, in the small town Tirgu Neamts, the third of four surviving children of Leib and Chaia Sura Esanu. Liza's father Leib died when Liza was only four years old, from a gall bladder attack. Chaia raised her four children on her own. In 1939, the family was forced to leave their home in the countryside, and over the next few years, were in hiding within Romania. Liza was eleven years old when the Second World War began in 1939. She was given a Singer sewing machine and learned how to sew. Her education as a seamstress progressed in the old European apprentice system, and before long, as a very young teenager, she was supporting her family with the money that she made with her sewing. After the war, she and her sister left Romania and ended up in a DP camp in Austria - Bad Gastein - where she met and married Szymon Schein. Liza and Sam sailed to Canada in September 1948 on the SS Samaria, and settled in Toronto. Although, Sam was accepted as a participant in the Tailor Project, it was Liza who was the sewer in the family. Eventually, they owned several businesses, including "Honest Sam's Cleaners" and a children's wear store. Their final two businesses were strongly related to the sewing –Apex Uniforms, where they manufactured and sold uniforms for gas station attendants and Apex Textiles, where they sold fabrics for clothing and drapery. Liza's sewing expertise was crucial to the success of those two businesses, while Sam handled the finances. Sam and Liza had one child, Gilda, born in Toronto in 1952. Their marriage broke up in 1986, and they each spent the rest of their lives separately. Sam died on New Year's Day, 2010, and Liza on October 15, 2017.

Use Conditions: Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Source: Archival Accessions

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