Arts & Culture

Shoah’s generational impacts

Robert Krell did not identify as a Holocaust survivor until the age of 41. His evolving realization about his own experience mirrors a larger trend in the understanding of child Holocaust survivors. As a psychiatrist, academic and leading Holocaust educator, Krell has been at the forefront of this evolution.

In a new book, Emerging from the Shadows: Child Holocaust Survivors, Their Children and Their Grandchildren, Krell brings together a number of his lectures and presentations, as well as contributions from other scholars and survivors, to explore the multigenerational impacts of the Shoah on families.

Krell discusses a “hierarchy of survival” consensus that prevailed for decades after 1945, in which concentration camp survivors were perceived as the “real” survivors, followed by hidden adults, partisans, those who fled and others.

“Children caught up in the horrors were dismissed as ‘too young to be able to remember,’” he writes.

Krell was one of those children.

There were dark portents from the beginning of his life. When Krell was born, on Aug. 5, 1940, the Dutch hospital of his birth was already occupied as an SS headquarters.

After successive waves of neighbours and family had been relocated “to the east,” never to be heard from again, the Krell family was ordered to appear for deportation. Instead, they went into hiding.

Young Robbie was given up at the age of 2 by his parents, Emmy and Leo Krell. He was hidden by a Dutch Christian family, Albert and Violette Munnik, who he would come to know as “Vader” and “Moeder,” and their daughter (his “sister”) Nora.

The Munniks remained in Krell’s life until they passed, attending his university graduation, wedding and other simchas. They would eventually be honoured as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem.

“My days in hiding were the best that any hidden child could have had,” Krell writes.

This raises questions for him as a survivor and as a psychiatrist. “From where, then, derived my feeling that something enormous and hideous had occurred? From where came this unsettled feeling of whatever it is that haunts me still? Perhaps from the separation. Perhaps from the fear of discovery or the anxieties of the adults around me. Perhaps from my silence, the absence of ordinary play, the wish not to be disturbing or noticed.”

These feelings, which much later he would discover were common among people who, as children, had experienced similar things, drove him personally and professionally.

Krell’s self-realization that he was not only a second-generation survivor – the son of survivors – but a survivor himself, struck him at the 1981 World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, in Jerusalem. It was a realization that others were coming to concurrently.

Later that decade, the seminal book Love Despite Hate: Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Their Adult Lives, by Sarah Moskovitz, signaled the beginning of a new understanding, and the identity of child survivors as a distinct category of survivors.

In 1991, the groundbreaking ADL/Hidden Child Conference, in New York City, attracted 1,600 participants, mostly child survivors. Krell summarizes the conversations that happened there as: “Thank God, I thought I was crazy. But you were crazy with the same issues. So perhaps we are normal.”

With Prof. Peter Suedfeld, former head of the University of British Columbia’s department of psychology, Krell conducted research into younger survivors and their children. They identified four paradoxes that were common in the families they investigated.

Survivor parents often expressed great pride in their children, but the perspective of the children was that they always fell short of fulfilling parental expectations and were often unaware of their parents’ pride.

Second, while children felt they had been provided with most of the material things, they reported feeling that they had missed out on receiving a set of values. This was belied by the evidence, Krell writes. “But it appears that, despite parental preoccupation with work and security, many second-generation survivors did absorb humanistic values for which the parents, of course, claim credit.”

The third paradox is that “though therapy groups of second-generation survivors emphasize complaints about earlier parenting, noting a relative lack of empathy for their problems, the same group members point out to each other their obvious humaneness, achievements and exceptional personal qualities.”

The fourth paradox has to do with the parental viewpoint that withholding information about their Holocaust experiences was crucial for the normal development of their children. “But from the point of view of the children, that past life was shrouded in an elusive mystery that prevented them from understanding the components of life in play from the Holocaust background,” Krell writes.

“Despite the overwhelming complexity of lives lived in the shadow of the Holocaust, it is remarkable that the havoc wreaked on Jewish children has not irrevocably crippled the next generations,” he notes, adding that 93% of Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Europe were murdered. “It is itself a miracle that so many of the remnants of surviving children and our sons and daughters have contributed so much. Let us be proud of that.”

Second-generation children learned quickly not to ask questions that could spur tears or other responses in their parents. Krell notes that some parents would ask why their children had not seemed interested in their Shoah experiences. In many cases, he urges members of the second generation to designate their children – the grandchildren of the survivors – to investigate the family history.

“They return with names, places of origin, descriptions of life (and of death), stories of defeat and loss, and of courage and heroism,” he writes. “They are enriched forever by knowing, for they are alive because their grandparents, against all odds, made it.”

Krell’s life has had multiple encounters with horrific history. In 1961, he was visiting Israel and his aunt got them seats in the courtroom of Adolf Eichmann’s trial.

In 1969, he was on TWA Flight 840 out of Rome when the plane was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The plane and its hostages spent several days in Damascus before being freed in Athens, after which he flew on to Israel.

“So, by age 30, I was a Jew who had survived two deadly enemies,” he writes.

Krell became an academic and a clinician, the director of child and family psychiatry at the UBC Health Sciences Hospital and director of residency training for 10 years. He was founding president of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, on whose board he remains an active member.

Krell is the author of 11 books, two dozen book chapters and many journal articles. His interests include the care of aging survivors of massive trauma. His memoir, Sounds from Silence: Reflections of a Child Holocaust Survivor, Psychiatrist and Teacher, was published in 2021, in which year he was also inducted into the Order of Canada. He and his wife Marilyn have three daughters and nine grandchildren.

Emerging from the Shadows includes lectures and speeches from Krell, as well as writings from Vancouverite Ed Lewin, Robert Melson, Harry Penn, R. Gabriele S. Silten, Leo Vogel and Zev Weiss.

In an epilogue, Krell reflects on the Oct. 7 terror attacks through the eyes of a Holocaust survivor.

Whereas the Nazis made some efforts to hide from the world their atrocities, the Hamas terrorists perpetrated their brutalities in broad daylight and livestreamed them online.

“It was done in daylight, recorded and distributed! How shall we ever rest again, given such knowledge?” he asks. “How shall a Jewish child/adolescent deal with this? And who can heal this fresh wound when the old wounds had only just begun to close after three or four generations?”

His conclusion: “May I suggest that we remain moral, courageous, and worthy of being a ‘a stiff-necked people,’ strong, proud, and determined.”

Power Metal a reality check

Clean cars humming down quiet streets. Solar panels shimmering on rooftops. A world powered by sunlight and wind, freed from the smoke and pollution of oil rigs and coal plants. The age of carbon, we’re told, is drawing to a close, and a cleaner, greener future is within our grasp. But what if that future lies on foundations just as dirty – and just as deadly – as the fossil fuel era we’re striving to leave behind?

In Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future (Riverhead Books, 2024), investigative journalist Vince Beiser delivers an exposé that cuts through the promising façade of the green revolution. As a seasoned journalist and with the narrative drive of a storyteller, Beiser reveals the secret supply chains behind today’s electric cars, wind turbines and solar panels – chains marked by extraction, exploitation and environmental ruin.

The materials at the heart of this transformation – lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements – are mined in staggering volumes. However, this increase in extraction comes at a cost that far exceeds dollars and cents, according to Beiser.

From the salt flats of Chile to the cobalt mines of Congo, from scrapyards in Canada to geopolitical flashpoints in China and Russia, Beiser introduces readers to a cast of characters who live on the frontlines of the resource race: child labourers sifting toxic waste for cobalt, Indigenous communities resisting mining on their ancestral lands, and powerful nations jockeying for control of tomorrow’s metals.

Beiser also brings to light the often-overlooked complexity of this electro-digital age, where minerals once obscure – like rhenium, crucial for jet engines, or rare earths that enable smartphones – have become linchpins of modern life. The race to secure these metals has sparked environmental havoc, political upheaval and rising violence worldwide, he contends.

In Power Metal, Beiser refuses to streamline or sensationalize. This is not a diatribe against technology, nor a rejection of the urgent need for clean energy. Rather, it’s a sobering reality check. As Beiser bluntly states, “There’s no such thing as clean energy.” The machines themselves may be green, he points out, but the systems that create them remain deeply flawed, still reliant on a resource-hungry, extraction-driven model that mirrors the very industrial forces we hoped to transcend.

If we are serious about building a sustainable future, Beiser argues, we must rethink not just how we power our lives, but how we source, use and value the raw materials that underpin our modern world. Simply swapping gas tanks for batteries is not enough, he says. We face a difficult question about what we’re willing to sacrifice – and which injustices we must confront – in pursuit of the green dream, he contends.

Power Metal challenges readers to rethink the green energy revolution. Beneath the promise of clean power lies a hidden world of environmental damage and human cost. Beiser doesn’t offer easy answers – but he shows why understanding this complex reality is essential if we want a truly sustainable future. For anyone ready to see beyond the surface, Power Metal is an essential, eye-opening read.

Uriel Presman Chikiar is a student at Queen’s University and serves as executive vice-president of external relations at Hillel Queen’s.

Traveling as a woman

Caryl Eve Dolinko, author of A Woman’s Guide to World Travel, has been to 93 countries and counting. (photo from caryldolinko.com)

Caryl Eve Dolinko’s A Woman’s Guide to World Travel literally covers everything you need to know when traveling, from choosing where to go through to reacclimatizing when you get back home. Anyone, but especially women, about to take their first international trip should have this book handy. For people who have been a few places, and even for seasoned travelers, Dolinko’s latest also has snippets of history, many short, informative travel stories, an interesting perspective – and likely at least one point you’ve not thought of before.

Dolinko, who is a member of the Vancouver Jewish community, has been exploring the world for more than 40 years. She has been to 93 countries and counting. She has journeyed on her own and with others, as a young person and as an older person, as “a working professional, a mother with kids, as a straight and gay woman, and a daughter caring for an elderly parent.”

A Woman’s Guide to World Travel, published by Whitecap Books earlier this year, is Dolinko’s third travel book, but the first as sole author. She co-wrote both The Complete Guide to Independent Travel (self-published) and The Globetrotter’s Guide: Essential Skills for Budget Travel (Red Deer Press), with Wayne Smits. The latter was a Canadian bestseller, notes Dolinko.

In the 25-plus years since The Globetrotter’s Guide came out, much has changed.

“The world’s population has almost doubled from over 4 billion in the early 1980s when I started to travel, to just over 8 billion today, putting a strain on finite resources,” writes Dolinko. “Many tourist attractions are now overused, overrun and exploited as a result of global tourism’s exponential growth. I believe it is past time for us to reconsider how we travel and become more aware of the impact we have.”

Her own approach to travel has changed since she started, at age 18, with a planned four-month trip to Europe that turned into “an epic eight-year odyssey.”

“When I first started traveling around the world in 1982, there was very little information available, especially for women, as very few were traveling the world alone,” she writes. “The internet didn’t exist, and neither did smartphones, digital cameras, selfies, social media, travel and hotel apps, GPS or texting. Lonely Planet was just starting to publish travel books and National Geographic was about the only magazine that showed exotic places around the world. Travel guides and literature were written with men in mind and, with so few women traveling, there was no need to address our particular issues and concerns. Only a small selection of useful advice was available to address women’s needs.”

That situation continues to change, with some studies estimating that “women are the primary decision-makers for travel in households, influencing up to 80% of all travel decisions. That’s a tremendous amount of buying power and it has influenced the tourism industry to change to meet our needs,” points out Dolinko, whose guide takes readers through some of the history leading to this development.

She briefly highlights six women “who dared to travel in their day,” starting with Ida Pfeiffer, who was born in Vienna in 1797. While Pfeiffer’s “travel stories and books inspired future generations of adventurers … her ethnocentric views frequently led her to be critical and intolerant of other cultures,” writes Dolinko. “As a result, she could be a harsh traveler, lacking the ability to appreciate other cultures on their own terms.”

Dolinko places great emphasis on what can be learned from other cultures, and stresses the importance of traveling with humility, not just for our own education, personal growth and safety, but for the benefit of the people and communities we encounter.

“Through our spending habits, we have the power to influence local economies and cultures, so it’s crucial to make informed decisions and be mindful of our impact,” she writes. “By supporting local businesses and organizations that prioritize sustainability and conservation efforts, we can make a positive difference and be a catalyst for change. Your actions have real consequences, so aim to leave a positive impact and a gentle footprint wherever you go.”

Elsewhere, she shares warnings, like “It’s strictly a cultural taboo or against the law in some cultures to be gay, and open displays of affection are discouraged”; “In some cultures, it’s expected and even considered impolite to accept the initial price offered by the seller without attempting to negotiate”; and “When communicating nonverbally, it is important to be aware of cultural differences and the meanings behind certain gestures. Pointing with your finger, for example, can be seen as rude or confrontational in many cultures.”

Dolinko spends time on photography in this context – reminding readers that some religious sites may prohibit photography, some people may not want to be on your social media feed and some cultures believe that a camera can steal a person’s soul. She talks about selfies, camera types and photo composition.

There is not a stone left unturned in A Woman’s Guide to World Travel. She covers factors to consider when deciding where to go (like safety, cultural norms and accessibility), budgeting (don’t forget admission fees, tips, snacks, SIM cards and so on), choosing luggage (suitcase vs backpack, for instance) and packing (she gives detailed lists of clothing, footwear, toiletries and medical supplies to bring, plus a host of other items to consider). She suggests where you should be in your preparedness two months out, one month out, a week before you leave and the day before you leave. She explains and lists the documents you’ll need, the insurance and vaccinations, how you should leave your home and office, and what the people you leave behind might need if something were to happen to you on your trip.

Specific to women, Dolinko talks about how to interact with men (“being aware of cultural differences that may affect communication and behaviour, as well as keeping an eye out for red flags and listening to your intuition”) and how to safely have a travel romance (with men or women), as well as what to do if, God forbid, you are sexually assaulted or raped. She lays out how to deal with some common gynecological issues while traveling. She offers advice on visiting religious buildings. She makes suggestions about traveling with kids. And she shares so much more.

To say that the 384-page A Woman’s Guide to World Travel is comprehensive is an understatement. It encompasses 40 years of experience traveling around the world, lots of photos (which I wish had been captioned, with some in colour) and relevant anecdotes. It’s a one-stop “shop” for anything you might want to know – and lots you didn’t know you needed to know – about travel.

Thriller delves into AI world

Daniel Kalla commands readers’ interest from the first sentence of his latest thriller, The Deepest Fake. And he keeps us turning pages straight to the end, not only as we contemplate who might be the culprit(s) of our hero’s apparent demise, but also as we consider the ideas Kalla puts forward about artificial intelligence, intellectual property, relationships, trust, measures of a successful life, and more.

Jewish Independent readers will be familiar with Kalla, who, in addition to being a writer of many international bestselling novels, is an emergency room physician here in Vancouver. The JI interviewed Kalla in 2023 and has reviewed of a few of his previous novels.

The plot-driving topic of The Deepest Fake – artificial intelligence – is new territory for the doctor-writer, who has penned many medical and science thrillers, using his physician’s knowledge to powerful effect. But he also has written an historical fiction trilogy set in Shanghai during the Second World War, where thousands of Jews fleeing Europe found safe haven, even as China and Japan were at war, so we know Kalla’s not afraid to do the research necessary to create a realistic-seeming fictional world centred around places and concepts less familiar to him, and to most readers.

As much as The Deepest Fake highlights some of the moral issues surrounding AI, it also explores other big issues, like medical assistance in dying (MAiD), fidelity in marriage and business partnerships, the foundations of trust, and where the creative process begins and who owns it. Kalla manages to cover all this ground and raise so many relevant questions while telling a great story. The Deepest Fake begins with a bang – “Liam Hirsch never seriously contemplated dying before his forty-ninth birthday – until today” – and keeps up the pace throughout.

Liam, founder and chief executive officer of a thriving AI company, TransScend, is suffering from a mysterious medical condition that’s first diagnosed as an aggressive form of ASL (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). His symptoms – twitches and challenges with movement – have been getting worse, and he’s likely to lose basic motor function within months, maybe a year.

Despite the seriousness of his illness, Liam hesitates to tell his wife and kids, the former not only because of the pain it will cause, but because, weeks before, he discovered, with the help of a private investigator, that his wife was cheating on him. Adding to Liam’s stresses and the book’s adventure are some accounting irregularities at his company, the competitive nature of the tech world and the potentially manipulative AI app that he helped create. So, when it becomes obvious that someone wants Liam gone, the suspects are numerous, including his wife, all his staff, an aggrieved former business partner, and the technology itself.

The Deepest Fake is a fun, satisfying read.

Two different kinds of magic

It’s almost a new year. We’ve been taking stock more than usual throughout the month of Elul. It’s a valuable skill – being able to do regular cheshbon hanefesh, accounting of the soul, reflecting on our views and actions, with an eye to self-improvement, maybe even creating a positive ripple effect that extends beyond ourselves.

Two new children’s picture books introduce – or reinforce – the Jewish values of Shabbat (taking a break from work and technology, thereby recharging our physical and mental selves) and tikkun olam (taking care of ourselves, our homes, our neighbourhoods, and so on). They remind us that making the world better starts with us, what we do, how we treat ourselves and others.

Seattle publisher Intergalactic Afikoman released Fairy GodBubbie’s Shabbat by Ann Diament Koffsky this month. Koffsky has written and illustrated more than 50 kids books, with many about Judaism, its holidays, foods and symbols. Her website is worth checking out: there are reading guides, you can see her many artistic styles, download colouring pages featuring scenes from her books, as well as other images, and, of course, there are links to purchase her books.

In Fairy GodBubbie’s Shabbat, the Mazel family is busy and seems happy enough, Dad on his laptop, Mom on her phone, Sara playing games on a tablet. But, “Why is no one schmoozing?” wonders Fairy GodBubbie. “Noshing?? Kibbitzing!”

“Unlike regular fairy godmothers who come only when called, Fairy GodBubbies just show up to fix things.

“Even when they’re not invited,” writes Koffsky.

So, poof! With a couple of Shabbat candles and a frequency jammer, Fairy GodBubbie helps the Mazels experience a different kind of Shabbat, a much more fulfilling one, a magical one. And readers can create the experience at their own homes, trying out what Koffsky calls a “a Tech Shabbat – a day away from screens.” She asks, “If your family does choose to try out a Tech Shabbat, what would you most like to do during that time?” And offers some choices – “Will you eat a family meal? … Curl up with a good book?” – and encourages readers to come up with their own ideas to make their “next Shabbat feel magical.”

The Collective Book Studio’s Ruby Finkelman Finds the Real Magic, written by Mike King with illustrations by Shahar Kober, which came out earlier this year, also features a young heroine and, as the title indicates, “magic.” But there are no magical GodBubbies; rather, a self-realization that a beautiful village, a beautiful life, don’t just happen by magic – happiness, cleanliness, kindness, etc., require not only effort, but sometimes doing things you don’t enjoy doing. In Ruby’s case, she “especially didn’t like brushing her teeth,” so, one night, she decides, “I’m never going to brush my teeth again.”

Even such seemingly inconsequential actions have repercussions. Other kids stop brushing their teeth. Then they decide not to wash their faces, tidy up after themselves or treat one another kindly. Parents nag, children kvetch. The grownups become so exhausted, they have “no strength left to lift a toothbrush, do the laundry, take out the garbage, and on and on.” Kvellville soon turns into what neighbouring villages start calling “Schmutzville.” A town meeting devolves into several arguments, everyone turning on one another.

Seeing the madness, and realizing how it all started, Ruby sets about to right the situation.

“Mensch is a Yiddish word that means ‘human,’ but when used in the sense of ‘being a mensch,’ it means being a human in the best possible way, or being the best human that you can be,” writes King in an author’s note at the end of the story. “But it’s not only a Jewish thing – it’s a universal value, an idea of how to act in a way that makes the world a better place, simply because you behave in a good and kind way.”

While the toothbrushing premise is a little bit of a stretch, King is a pediatric dentist, so it’s no wonder, and he does manage to make the story work. It’s a wonderful message, of course, and Kober’s artwork is delightful.

Ruta’s Closet reissued

Lady Esther Gilbert speaking at Vancouver City Hall April 8, when Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim proclaimed Ruth Kron Sigal Day in the city. (photo by Keith Morgan)

Ruta’s Closet, the Holocaust narrative of the late Vancouverite Ruth Kron Sigal, is being reissued for a new generation of audiences – and the book’s author is ensuring the survivor’s inspiring story of survival and resilience reaches the widest possible global audience.

Vancouver journalist Keith Morgan, who completed the book shortly before Kron Sigal’s passing, at age 72 in 2008, has updated the publication – and created an extensive range of multimedia projects to expand the impact of the written volume.

First issued as a fundraising initiative for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Ruta’s Closet was later published in the United Kingdom, with distribution there reaching new audiences.

The book recounts the harrowing survival story of the Kron family, imprisoned in the tiny Shavl (Šiauliai) ghetto in Lithuania, through the eyes of the youngest daughter, Ruta (later Ruth). Their survival against Nazi persecution hinged on the courage and resourcefulness of her parents, Meyer and Gita Kron, as well as the bravery of non-Jewish rescuers. Depicted with novel-like narrative power but rooted in rigorous research and eyewitness testimony, the memoir vividly portrays atrocities such as mass murder, a Nazi ban on Jewish births and the deportation of children to Auschwitz, while also shining a light on courage, compassion and human resilience amid the evil.

Kron Sigal didn’t live to see the book in print but she saw the final draft.

“She said to me shortly before she died, ‘You are going to carry on telling my story, Keith, aren’t you?’ And I said, of course I am,” Morgan told the Independent. “So, I took that on as a mission.”

Surveys indicating widespread ignorance of Holocaust history, combined with skyrocketing antisemitism, motivated Morgan to launch a series of Ruta’s Closet-related projects.

“We updated the book and decided it was time to go basically worldwide with this,” he said.

In addition to the re-release of the hard-copy, Morgan and his small team of colleagues recorded an audiobook and released an ebook. They revamped the existing Ruta’s Closet website and made it more interactive.

Working with Bill Barnes, a local radio producer, Morgan developed a 25-segment podcast.

“We are doing Zoom interviews with people around the world who are a part of a driving force behind an imaginative, creative initiative in spreading Holocaust awareness and education,” he explained. “I’ve got Ruth’s kids – Michael, Marilee and Elana – each week doing an introduction for book clubs.”

The VHEC has produced a downloadable guide for book clubs, as well as a teacher’s guide to the book, which makes it additionally relevant as British Columbia’s education curriculum mandates Holocaust education this year for the first time as part of the Social Studies 10 coursework.

“The beauty of it, for British Columbia, is it’s technically a local story,” Morgan said. “It’s about Ruth. It’s about somebody who came here and did a lot for her adopted society.”

photo - Journalist Keith Morgan, author with Ruth Kron Sigal of Kron Sigal’s memoir, Ruta’s Closet, is ensuring that her story of survival and resilience reaches the widest possible audience — Journalist Keith Morgan, author with Ruth Kron Sigal of Kron Sigal’s memoir, Ruta’s Closet, is ensuring that her story of survival and resilience reaches the widest possible audience. *(photo from Keith Morgan)*

Morgan, who spent many years as the crime reporter at the Province newspaper, met Kron Sigal when his editor asked him to take on a more uplifting assignment and begin a series about people doing good works at home and abroad.

“Somebody said, ‘Oh, you should talk to Ruth Sigal,’” who was sharing her Holocaust story with students. “I went to meet her. I was very impressed. She told her story and it had an amazing impact on me. I just knew this was an important story to tell.”

He found immediate support from Dr. Robert Krell, the founding president of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

“Robert Krell kind of took me under his wing – he was a close friend of Ruth – and he said, ‘I’ve got just the guy to introduce to you, who will be really helpful to you for pulling the story together.’”

The person was renowned historian Sir Martin Gilbert.

“The British schoolboy in me thought, ‘How do I curtsy?’” Morgan joked.

Morgan met Sir Martin in London and got a one-on-one master course in writing about the subject.

“He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘You have to tell the story as though you were writing it for your newspaper and make it accessible to all people,’” Morgan recalled. “Sadly, Martin died [in 2015], but Lady Esther Gilbert took up his mantle and, since then, she’s been an ally and was very important in this edition in terms of going through it, adding bits here and there.”

She spoke at a ceremony at Vancouver City Hall on April 8 this year, when the mayor proclaimed Ruth Kron Sigal Day in the city.

Kron Sigal’s story resonates profoundly with people, according to Morgan.

“We can all relate to what happened to Ruth and her sister Tamara,” he said. “It also tells us compelling stories about how, through their own devices, they basically survived and helped others along the way. We also see what other members of the family did to help the broader community.… We get this family story, which, in itself, is very dramatic, but we also get this wider picture of how a community in the ghetto work with each other, help each other.”

Morgan sees Kron Sigal’s narrative as an inspiration not only because of her survival against the Nazis but in all she did after becoming a Canadian.

“Ruth came here, an adopted country, and spent 25 years at the Women’s Resource Centre and the VHEC Child Survivors Group,” said Morgan. “That’s an example to everybody: come into a new society, an adopted country, and just roll up the sleeves and get working. Isn’t that an example to anybody that comes in?”

No less a triumph, Morgan said, is the family Ruth and her husband, Dr. Cecil Sigal, created.

“You look at that family and you think, ‘Victory!” he said. “Because they beat Hitler.”

Rolls’ poetic Adventures at Vancouver Fringe

The Vancouver Fringe Festival runs Sept. 4-14. For the full lineup and tickets, visit vancouverfringe.com. (photo from festival listing)

Jem Rolls brings Adventures in Canadian Parking Lots to the Vancouver Fringe Festival Sept. 5-14. “Describing the contents of the show is difficult, as it manages to cover so much ground in so little time,” writes Aiden Robert Bruce in a June post on kingstontheatre.ca. “The series of poems answers a variety of questions like: ‘Why are Canadians so good at smiling?’ ‘What is the most sellable title for a show?’ ‘How do the English view history?’ and perhaps most curiously, ‘When is he going to get to the parking lots?’ Amidst this amalgamation of individual topics, there is beautiful poetic imagery, dark science fiction, Fringe history lessons, and throughout it all there is almost always humour. The constant comedy is not only helpful in keeping the audience engaged, but also is used to create extremely powerful moments where the humour ceases and nothing but a striking verse remains.”

Power of propaganda

Understanding the past, including the darkest eras, can help people recognize the symptoms of a society going off the rails.

A forthcoming book for young readers, titled Can Posters Kill? Antisemitic Propaganda and World War II, by Torontonians Jerry Faivish and Kathryn Cole, explores how propaganda and racist imagery desensitized a society to atrocities.

Faivish, a retired lawyer, has collected Jewish posters since young adulthood, building one of the world’s largest private collections. The son of Holocaust survivors, he created this book with Cole, an illustrator, art director, editor, designer and publisher, to educate young people about the dangers of hatred and the powers of persuasion used for evil ends.

The richly illustrated publication spotlights how vivid imagery and repetition intended to evoke fear, distrust, loyalty or revulsion served to influence populations to accept (even collaborate in) barbarism.

“By understanding the visual language of propaganda from the past, we can learn to recognize and resist messages of hate – an essential skill in a digital world where information is spread in seconds,” according to the publisher, Second Story Press.

Aimed at readers 13 and up, this book about the past has its purpose firmly planted in the present and future.

“Like social media today,” write the authors, “visual communication in the ’30s and ’40s – from movies to newspapers to paper posters – was clever and interesting, engaging and effective. But, under Nazi manipulation, it became deadly.”

The focus of the book is visual, befitting a volume of this topic, with just enough copy to contextualize the imagery and point out salient aspects that the reader might not have noticed. It is also perhaps a perfect mix of text and graphics for the generation it aims to reach.

The authors provide a brief overview of the post-First World War economic conditions in Germany, the impacts of the Treaty of Versailles, and Hitler’s rise to power. This history tilled the soil for the hate-messaging showcased.

“A false message, when repeated often enough, can become the truth in the minds of people who are frightened, oppressed and searching for someone to blame for their misfortune during hard times,” the book warns.

Can Posters Kill? also delves into how graphic design played into the success of the brainwashing – “clever use of different typefaces grabs the attention of passersby,” among other innovations.

Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis’ minister of propaganda, who more than any other individual is associated with this sort of material, did not overestimate his audience.

“The rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine,” he is quoted in the book. “Propaganda must, therefore, always be essentially simple and repetitious. In the long run, only he will achieve basic results in influencing public opinion who is able to reduce problems to the simplest terms and who has the courage to keep forever repeating them in the simplified form, despite the objections of intellectuals.”

The messages his department imparted were subtle as sledgehammers.

In one poster, a doctor or scientist is looking through a microscope at a vicious “Jewish” disease devouring healthy tissue. Jews are characterized as sexual deviants and blamed for spreading tuberculosis, syphilis and cancer.

“It’s a chilling message because it can quickly turn into ‘kill or be killed,’” the book says.

In another poster, a Jew hovers menacingly over the globe, spinning a web from his index finger.

“This reinforces the Nazi-supported notion that Jews are power-hungry and backed by secret cabals or conspirators,” the authors write.

Jews are depicted as the mortal enemy of Christianity and the Star of David is equated alongside the communist red star, implying a dual-pronged threat to German society.

Faivish shares his family’s story: his mother’s experiences in various ghettos, work and concentration camps, and at extermination sites such as Auschwitz, and his father’s defiant escape from a cattle car headed for the gas chambers. Faivish’s father lost his parents and his eight siblings in the Holocaust. His mother had just one surviving brother and one remaining sister out of a family of 10.

Faivish goes into some detail about the experiences of his mother in the constellation of Nazi ghettos and camps, and his father’s unlikely survival in hiding, thanks to a gentile Polish family. He places significant emphasis on the heroism of non-Jews.

“After the war, my parents met in Bergen-Belsen, the DP camp where they married and started a family,” he writes. “My older sister was born there in 1949.… In 1952, my parents immigrated to Canada. In 1953, I was born in Montreal. For my parents, the question of how to deal with recurring hate, and what could be done about it, was more than philosophical. It became a guideline for how to live their lives and what to pass on to their children. The lessons they taught us are still applicable and valuable today.”

He includes nine values his parents instilled in him and that he hopes the book will pass on to others, including: be proud of who you are and embrace your faith and culture [because the] aim of the “Final Solution” was to annihilate Jews and to destroy Judaism; respect your fellow human beings and treat them well; and recognize and eliminate hate and evil as much as possible.

A timeline of historical events and an excellent glossary of relevant terms are included at the end of the book.

As British Columbia and other provinces institute mandatory Holocaust education in school curricula, books like Can Posters Kill? Antisemitic Propaganda and World War II provide powerful resources for educators to convey the lessons of history in ways that are impactful but age-appropriate, with undeniable and clear lessons around critical media consumption for contemporary generations.

While not formally related, the book is also a valuable complement to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre’s current exhibition, Age of Influence: Youth & Nazi Propaganda, which is being reconfigured into a traveling exhibit.

Victoria Fringe has started

Director Francis G. Matheu, right, with actors Nolan Fidyk and Dan Landry rehearsing Alan Segal’s Shade Apparel. (photo by Sarah Nicole Faucher)

This year’s Victoria Fringe Festival, billed as “12 days of madcap fun this summer,” started on Aug. 20 and runs to Aug. 31. Included in the lineup are pieces by two local Jewish community members, Alan Segal and David Heyman.

Segal describes his play, Shade Apparel, as “comedy, drama and absurdity.” It features Danver, a playwright rooted in daily routine, who tries to find answers to questions he never knew he had. And, Segal told the Independent, “He is not prepared for the answers. Shade Apparel is a play about wanting to know more and not knowing where to find anything.”

In Segal’s words, our society is “heavily psychologized,” in that everything is given a psychological or emotional origin story, he said. “But, if we breathe, we absorb culture, ideas, ideals and assumptions.

“Most of the time, we have a slight awareness of the precise origin of these. Their origin tale, however, is found in the social cauldron of daily life. This, too, is our apparel. We are clothed in more than material fabric,” he said.

From an early age, Segal has had an interest in how people become, well, anything; for example, how are allegiance, assurance, belonging, anger, dissent, happiness, or its opposite, created?

Segal’s first Victoria Fringe experience was not as a playwright but as a supporter of the arts who was captivated by the aura and array of creativity he observed. Last year, he founded Imbroglio Theatre, which will put on Shade Apparel.

“Beyond headlines and supposed fame, people venture into many realms of expression. I loved it from the start, and I expect many will be enlivened by what is approaching in Victoria at the end of August,” he said.

The creative team for the Fringe show comprises Dan Landry, Nolan Fidyk and Kendra Bidwell (cast), Alan Segal (writer), Francis G. Matheu (director), Elaine Montgomery (stage manager), Luke Weston and Andrea Gregg (lighting design), Phil Letourneau (music and sound design), Sarah Nicole Faucher (costume design) and Doug Wills (poster and program).

“Shade Apparel is the second play I have written – a project I never intended to write and had no inkling of, until it leaped into my mind as a single scene,” said Segal.

His first play, Frey’s Anguish, premiered in March 2024 at Paul Phillips Hall in Victoria.

photo - David Heyman’s Ducks co-stars, right to left, Gloria Snider, Lorene Cammiade, Ryan Kniel and Danielle Greschner — David Heyman’s Ducks co-stars, right to left, Gloria Snider, Lorene Cammiade, Ryan Kniel and Danielle Greschner. *(photo from David Heyman)*

Heyman’s play, Ducks, takes place in the aftermath of an incident in which 1,600 ducks flew into an oilsands tailings pond in northern Alberta and died – a true event that caused international criticism of the provincial government. Years later, the oil company that owned and operated the pond was fined and the government promised tighter restrictions; however, the damage to Alberta’s reputation was significant.

The fictionalized theatrical story centres on a government communications director who has 20 minutes to retrieve an embarrassing, career-ending invitation erroneously sent out in his name before the media or public find out about it.

“I was communications manager for the premier of Alberta at the time [of the real-life incident] and, although I was not involved in managing the issue … I was able to observe the crisis-management efforts from up close,” Heyman said.

“The characters and events in the play are entirely made up but are informed by my inside knowledge of how communications offices work, and how the media deal with such situations,” he said. “Before joining the Alberta Premier’s Office, I was a political reporter at the Calgary Herald for many years. Many people who work in governments in Alberta and BC have told me that the play feels authentic, which was my goal.”

When Ducks premiered at the Victoria One-Act Play Festival in 2023, it won the prize for outstanding original script. When it was performed at the 2024 Edmonton Fringe Festival, five of eight shows sold out and the play received stellar reviews. The play has also been performed at the Nanaimo Fringe Festival and in Tofino.

Heading into the Victoria Fringe, Heyman said, “We’ve got a top-notch cast, a great director and a great stage manager this year. The rehearsals are going very well and I’m confident it will be a hit.”

Heyman is the show’s producer and, joining him in mounting the Fringe show are Ryan Kniel, Lorene Cammiade, Gloria Snider and Danielle Greschner (cast), Francis G. Matheu (director), Andrea Gregg (stage manager) and Sarah Heyman (associate producer).

David Heyman has written an as-yet-unperformed sequel, Rhymes with Ducks, that he hopes to put on at next year’s festival. “The sequel is designed also to be a second (and final) act, and perhaps one day both will be performed as a single show,” he said.

For the Fringe, Shade Apparel is at Victoria Conservatory of Music’s Wood Hall, while Ducks is at James Bay United Church. Both plays are 45 minutes long. For tickets and more information, visit victoriafringe.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

The Dark Lady enlightens

Arghavan Jenati as Emilia Bassano and Nathan Kay as William Shakespeare in Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady, now playing at Bard on the Beach. (photo by Tim Matheson)

There has always been a controversy over whether William Shakespeare was the sole author of all his works. He penned 37 plays and 154 sonnets, with 25 of the sonnets referencing a “Dark Lady,” with raven black brows and wiry hair. Perhaps she contributed to his writing in more tangible ways?

Current thinking is that the Dark Lady was Emilia Bassano, a Jewish woman whose father was Italian and mother Moroccan. She was headstrong and wanted to find success in her own right – something unheard of in Elizabethan England. She was the first woman there to have a work published, her Salve Deus, Rexum Judaeum (Hail G-d, King of the Jews).

In The Dark Lady, playwright Jessica B. Hill invites audiences to imagine what could have happened if Bassano and Shakespeare had met, particularly early on in his career, around 1589. At that time, Bassano was also starting on her quest to be a published poet. Hill postulates that Bassano enchanted Shakespeare and became his muse, collaborator and lover – and bore his child.

Bard on the Beach brings this Canadian work to the Douglas Campbell Stage under the steady hand of director Moya O’Connell. With only two characters and 90 minutes long with no intermission, it is an opportunity for the audience to invest in the all-consuming tension, both intellectual and sexual, between the protagonists.

photo - Arghavan Jenati as Emilia Bassano and Nathan Kay as Shakespeare. The opening scene of Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady, with the couple’s Elizabethan pas de deux is a precursor to their complex relationship dance — Arghavan Jenati as Emilia Bassano and Nathan Kay as Shakespeare. The opening scene of Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady, with the couple’s Elizabethan pas de deux is a precursor to their complex relationship dance. *(photo by Tim Matheson)*

Bassano is an intelligent match for Shakespeare and has no difficulty exchanging witty repartee with him. She challenges him to portray his female characters in a stronger light. At one point, he tells her, “Collaborate with me, I need your mind.” And she willingly gives him the benefit of it. However, despite her contributions, she watches his career flourish while her work remains unrecognized. Ironically, her influence becomes apparent in Shakespeare’s later works, where he does pen female characters who defy traditional stereotypes.

After Shakespeare’s death in 1616, Bassano comes across his folio of published works and is surprised to find that many of his female characters are named Emilia – clearly a tribute to her – which surprisingly appears to satisfy her thirst for recognition.

Arghavan Jenati plays Bassano with passion and fury, while Nathan Kay infuses the Bard with the right mix of angst and joy. The opening scene with their Elizabethan pas de deux is a precursor to their complex relationship dance and its inherent power struggle. One memorable scene is their experiment with cross-dressing, as trousered Jenati becomes an aggressive alpha male and Kay an innocent maiden.

While I enjoyed both performances, Jenati was more one-dimensional in her presentation, while Kay provided a more varied interpretation. The dialogue, while mostly classical, is peppered with modern jargon. Throughout, there are references to Bassano’s Judaism, including her grandfather’s forced conversion to Catholicism, his translation of the New Testament into Hebrew, the persecution of her people and her placing of a stone on Shakespeare’s grave in the final scene.

Ryan Cormack’s sparse set is simple, a series of stacked crates containing various props and costumes. Flowing red silks become bed sheets for the lovers while a cape morphs from a picnic blanket to a shawl to a baby’s coverlet to a shroud. The lighting plays dark or light as needed. Bespoke music by composer and sound designer Anju Singh becomes the third actor in the play, as it accompanies the couple through their 30-year relationship. Alaia Hamer, the costumer, outfits Bassano in a whimsical white frock covered with a suede drawstring bodice while Kay is given a period look for a gentleman of his time.

This is a production well worth seeing. As artistic director Christopher Gaze notes in the press release, “The Dark Lady invites us to consider how stories are shaped and who gets to shape them.” Director O’Connell sees the play as “an opportunity to shine a light on Bassano and spend time in her orbit.”

Running on alternate nights with The Dark Lady on the small stage is the fast-paced, slapstick romp through all of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised][again]. Jenati and Kay, along with Craig Erickson and Tess Degenstein, share duties with a different combination of three of them taking the stage each night. Director Mark Chavez is at the helm of this irreverent take on the Bard’s repertoire.

On opening night, Kay, Erickson and Degenstein were on stage and were hilarious in their efforts to cover all of the Bard’s works in 90 minutes to avoid a penalty (an offstage voice counts down the minutes). Rife with contemporary references to all things Vancouver and Bard, the audience was in nonstop laugh mode from the start. The second act is all Hamlet, done forwards, backwards and upside down – a credit to the talented, energetic thespian trio. Warning: audience participation is part of the shtick, so you may not want to sit in the front rows.

Cormack’s set is lined with shelves of props from past Bard productions and Hamer brings back statement pieces from the past for the show. Jewish community member Anton Lipovetsky provides the sound design.

This show is probably the most fun you will have at Bard this season. And, if you’ve hated Shakespeare since your high school English classes, it might just change your mind.

For tickets to all the Bard shows, which run to Sept. 19/20, go to bardonthebeach.org or call 604-739-0559.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.