Local News
Leo Lowy’s story of survival centrepiece of annual remembrance program

By MYRON LOVE
Since the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2005 designated January 27 – the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – as the date for the annual commemoration of the Holocaust, communities around the world have been planning events on or around that date to continue to raise awareness of the greatest evil of the 20th century and remember the victims.
The centerpiece of this year’s commemoration – in Winnipeg – of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – was the story of Holocaust survivor Leo Lowy. Roughly 500 people gathered at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on the afternoon of Sunday, January 26, to hear his story.
As with many, if not most, Holocaust survivors, Lowy’s story – as related by his son, Richard, in Leo’s own words (he passed away in Vancouver in 2002) and a documentary – “Leo’s Journey” – begins with a happy childhood surrounded by a large extended Jewish family and friends – in his case in the town of Berehova, which was then located in Carpathia and is now part of Ukraine – an idyll that was shattered by the arrival of the Nazis (although in Hungary, which captured Berehova at the beginning of the war, the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross would be almost as brutal).
Lowy and his sister, Miriam, were saved from the ovens – the fate of the rest of their family – at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944 for the reason that they were twins – a particular interest of Dr. Josef Mengele – AKA “The Angel of Death” – who determined which of the Jews and others coming out of the boxcars would live and which would be sent right to the gas chambers.
In introducing his father’s story, Richard Lowy noted that, as with many Holocaust survivors, Leo was reluctant to talk about his experiences as a subject of the notorious Mengele. It was only in the late 1990s that Leo began talking about what happened to him and his sister.
In 2000, the Vancouver businessman was persuaded by his three sons, Richard and older brothers Gary and Stephen, to return to Europe and revisit Auschwitz, as well as his hometown. Richard Lowy’s documentary, “Leo’s Journey”, intersperses scenes from the family’s travels with interviews with two other Holocaust survivors – each of whom had a twin sister – and archival historical footage. The documentary was narrated by the distinguished Canadian actor Christopher Plummer.
I was somewhat surprised to learn from the documentary that the Germans actually had a trial run in performing medical experiments on unwilling living people. Pre World War I, Germany had colonies in Africa where thousands of Africans were rounded up, interned in concentration camps and subjected to medical experiments at the behest of German pharmaceutical companies. After the first World War, the German colonies in Africa came under British rule.
Also of note in the documentary was the role that eugenics played in Nazi thinking and the Final Solution. Eugenics was a popular scientific theory which called for forced sterilization of so-called weaker individuals – those with mental or physical handicaps, addictions or criteria based on race – in order to “improve the quality of the human species”.
Prior to the showing of the documentary, Lowy narrated his father’s story based on an interview that Leo gave to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1985. In his father’s words, Richard Lowy described Leo’s early life in Berehova in a family of six children (he was the only boy). When the Hungarian cames in 1939, Leo had recalled, they were mainly interested in robbing the Jews.
He described how, in 1944, the Nazis shut up all the Jews in town in a brick factory for almost ten days, than loaded them into boxcars for the journey to Auschwitz. The then 15-year-old Lowy remembered the chaos and hollering when they arrived at Auschwitz, the presence of Mengele on the platform directing people to the left or right –to the gas chambers and death or to life, miserable as it may have been – and his and Miriam’s being separated from the rest of the family, put into a van with several other sets of Jewish twins, and driven to a hospital barracks.
“I was getting injections all over my body,” he recalled.
Some twins were operated on and, he recalls, one young male was castrated.
One time, he was taken into a room, put on a table and had his blood drained to transfuse a German soldier on the next table. “I was so weak after that I had to practically crawl back to the barracks.”
Lowy recalled teams of doctors, daily blood tests, being examined every day and being injected with various fluids. “It wasn’t painful, but it was scary,” he noted. “I had never even seen a doctor before.”
He recounted one time when he and his sister were personally examined by Mengele. “He was soft-spoken and trying to be pleasant, but I was so scared that I was shaking.”
Every morning, Lowy remembered, he would wake up in his barracks to find several others in the barracks had died overnight. ‘We would have to assemble for roll calls every morning with the corpses.”
On January 17, 1945, Lowy and all the rest of the surviving inmates of Auschwitz were assembled to be sent on a death march in the cold and the snow. “I knew I wouldn’t survive it,” he said.
He managed to hide in a basement with a few others for three days until liberated by the Americans.
He and Miriam came to Canada in 1948 as war orphans.
“My dad had been involved in Holocaust education in his later years,” noted Richard Lowy. “After he passed away, I felt that I had to continue his legacy of Holocaust education.”
The afternoon program also included: two selections from Zane Zalis’s oratorio, “I Believe”, sung by the Winnipeg Youth Chorus; remarks by Clint Curle, senior adviser to the president for stakeholder relations at the museum; and Belle Jarniewski, the executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada (which partnered with the CMHR). Financial support was also provided by the Azrieli Foundation.
Jarniewski, who is the child of Holocaust survivors, spoke of the “shocking reoccurence of antisemitic hate and violence” in the last few years – especially in western countries which Jews looked to after the war as safe havens.
On the positive side, more than 50 world leaders came to Auschwitz to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation and, a few days earlier, a group of Jewish and Muslim leaders, led by Muslim World League Secretary-General Mohammed bin Abdulkarim al-Issa, also paid a visit to Auschwitz.
“With the passage of time,” Jarniewski observed, “survivor memoirs and testimony will play an increasingly central role in the safeguarding of the historical record. It is our duty to ensure that their words are implemented into education on the Holocaust, human rights, and genocide awareness. “
As to the Angel of Death himself, Jarniewski noted that regrettably, he was never brought to justice. As with many other Nazis, he escaped to South America where he died in a drowning accident in Paraguay in 1979.
Local News
Thank you to the community from the Chesed Shel Emes

We’re delighted to share a major milestone in our Capital Campaign, “Building on our Tradition.” Launched in November 2018, this campaign aimed to replace our outdated facility with a modern space tailored to our unique needs. Our new building is designed with ritual at its core, featuring ample preparation space, Shomer space, and storage, creating a warm and welcoming environment for our community during times of need.
We’re grateful to the nearly 1,000 generous donors who contributed over $4 million towards our new facility. A $750,000 mortgage will be retired in November 2025, completing this monumental project in just seven years.
We’re also thrilled to announce that our Chesed Shel Emes Endowment Fund has grown tenfold, from $15,000 to $150,000, thanks to you, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba’s FundMatch program, and Million Dollar Match initiative in 2024. Our fund helps ensure that everyone can have a dignified Jewish funeral regardless of financial need.
As we look to the future, our goal remains to ensure the Chevra Kadisha continues to serve our community for generations to come. Our focus now shifts to replenishing our savings account and growing our JFM Endowment fund.
We’re deeply grateful for your support over the past several years.
It’s our privilege to serve our community with care and compassion.
With sincere appreciation,
Campaign cabinet: Hillel Kravetsky, Gerry Pritchard, Stuart Pudavick,
Jack Solomon, and Rena Boroditsky
Murray S. Greenfield, President
Local News
Winnipeg Beach Synagogue about to celebrate 75th anniversary

By BERNIE BELLAN (July 13) In 1950 a group of cottage owners at Winnipeg Beach took it upon themselves to relocate a one-room schoolhouse that was in the Beausejour area to Winnipeg Beach where it became the beach synagogue at the corner of Hazel and Grove.
There it stayed until 1998 when it was moved to its current location at Camp Massad.
On August 2nd members of the synagogue will be holding a 75th anniversary celebration.

As part of the celebration anyone who is a descendant or relative of any of the original members of the first executive committee (as seen in the photo here) is invited to attend the synagogue that morning.
If you are a relative please contact Abe Borzykowski at wpgbeachshule@shaw.ca or aborzykowski@shaw.ca to let Abe know you might be attending or for more information about the 75th anniversary celebration.
We will soon be publishing a story about the history of the beach synagogue, which is something I’ve been writing about for over 25 years.
Local News
Vickar Family cuts ribbon on new Tova Vickar and Family Childcare Centre

By MYRON LOVE In the words of Larry Vickar, the Shaarey Zedek’s successful Dor V’ Dor Campaign “is not only a renewal of the synagogue but truly a renewal movement of Jewish life in our community.”An integral part of that renewal movement was the creation of a daycare centre within the expanded synagogue. On Monday, June 23, Larry and Tova Vickar cut the ribbon, thereby officially opening the Tova Vickar and Family Childcare Centre in the presence of 100 of their family members, friends and other supporters of the project.
The short program preceding the morning ribbon-cutting began with a continental breakfast followed by a welcome by both Fanny Levy, Shaarey Zedek’s Board President, and Executive Director Dr. Rena Secter Elbaze. In Elbaze’s remarks, she noted that Larry and Tova wanted their family (including son Stephen and family, who flew in from Florida) and friends at the event to celebrate the opening of the Tova Vickar and Family Childcare Centre, “not because of the accolades, but because, as Larry put it, he hopes that their investment in the congregation will inspire others to do the same.”
“When Larry and I spoke about what this gift meant to him and the message he wanted people to take away,” she continued, “I couldn’t help but connect it to the teachings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi whose book – Age-ing to Sage-ing – changes the whole way we look at the concept of ageing and basing it on our ancestral teachings.”
She explained that his concept of “Sage-ing” is based on three key ideas – Discover your meaning and purpose; accept our mortality and think about the legacy you want to leave.
“Larry spoke about these exact concepts when we met,” she said.
Elbaze also noted the presence of Shaarey Zedek’s newly-arrived senior Rabbi Carnie Rose, former Rabbi Alan Green, and area MLAs Mike Moroz and Carla Compton.
Larry Vickar expressed his great appreciation for all those in attendance. “Tova and I are deeply moved to stand here with you today for this important milestone in our community”, he said. “We are grateful to be surrounded by all of you, the people we care about, our family and friends… you who have touched our lives and played some part in our journey.”