Canadian Army veteran Russell Thompson of Seeley’s Bay, Ontario, who will turn 99 in a few months, is one of the reasons they call his The Greatest Generation. The sons of Russell Thompson, Earle and Steve, collaborated to prepare this blog post about their father, a role model whom they love and respect. They describe […]
Seven decades after German artillery fire blew up one of the Canadian tanks that Stan Stachera was riding in, the folding leather cribbage board he made during his hospital recovery remains his family’s favourite link to his wartime past. (This guest blog was written by my friend Kelsey Verboom, writer and photographer, who recently researched […]
Nobody remembered the fascinating history of a humble brass pitcher owned by this Canadian family, until Brenda Blair of Calgary discovered that it was once a prized wartime souvenir of Holland’s liberation by the Canadians.
This week marks the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, and the Holocaust survivors who made it out alive. Please read my previous post about the Scheffer family, who hid a Jewish couple for two years in their home in their small town in Holland: Heroic Family Hid Jews From Holocaust. […]
Operation Manna saved thousands of Dutch civilians from starvation when the Allies stripped their bombers of weapons, and dropped tons of food instead. It was too late to save twenty thousand others who starved to death as the Second World War drew to an end. One woman describes how Operation Manna delivered her family from […]
A Jewish couple escaped the Holocaust by hiding inside the Scheffer household for two years, in a small town in Holland. Casey Scheffer, who moved to Canada after the war, told me how his courageous family accomplished this remarkable feat.
