Features
A life snuffed short: 49 years ago a brilliant young med student by the name of Aron Katz drowned in the Whiteshell in the course of saving his own younger sister herself from drowning
By BERNIE BELLAN On July 21 I received an interesting email from someone by the name of Reid Linney that immediately aroused my interest.
Here is what Reid wrote: “Hi, I’m a member of St. John’s High School’s Class of 1969. We celebrated the 50th anniversary of our graduation in 2019 and embarked upon a fundraising effort for an annual scholarship. The scholarship honors our classmate, Aron Katz.
“In 1973 he gave his life while saving his sister from drowning.
“Aron was in med school at the time.
“Our class, and members of Aron’s family, raised enough money to fund an annual scholarship of $2,500.
“It’s awarded to a graduating student who shows academic promise and exhibits both personal courage and empathy for others.
“On Tuesday, August 16, at 9:00 am we’ll be meeting at the school to install a memorial plaque on the Alumni Wall.
“If you have any interest in joining us, please feel free to do so…
“Cheers,
“Reid Linney”
Reid’s email intrigued me. I admit though that I had never heard of Aron Katz, although he would have been only two years older than me at the time of his death. I responded to Reid:
“Hi Reid,
“This is a very poignant story. It reminds me of another story – also about a St. John’s student who died tragically around the same time (in 1971). Her name was Rebbie Victor. (She was shot by accident by another student in a prank gone terribly wrong because no one realized they were playing with a loaded gun.)
“I wrote about her in 2020 and that story really resonated with readers…
“Regards,
“Bernie Bellan
“Publisher,
“The Jewish Post & News”
Attached to Reid’s email was the text of the plaque that will be dedicated on August 16:
ARON KATZ
1951-1973
Graduating Class of 1969
Aron was an exceptional young man of great intellect and even greater courage, who in the summer of 1973 was about to begin his third year of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He gave his life while saving his younger sister from drowning during a camping trip in the Whiteshell and was posthumously honoured for his heroism with Canada’s second highest award for bravery—The Star of Courage.
Incredibly bright, unselfish, kind and humble, Aron was the second youngest of seven children who grew up under very modest circumstances in an old wooden clapboard house on Alfred Avenue. He had an exceptional thirst for knowledge and was a valued member of St. John’s High School’s “Reach for the Top” team, a televised, academic quiz show in which the best and brightest from Winnipeg high schools competed. Aron made friends easily, loved sports and was a huge Jimi Hendrix fan. He dreamt of being a doctor one day in order to help others and had just completed the first half of his medical degree.
At their fiftieth anniversary reunion, Aron’s fellow graduating classmates from 1969 (Room 333 – The Theatre Room) decided to honour him in perpetuity with an annual scholarship in his name, recognizing a graduating student each year who best demonstrates academic promise and exhibits empathy for others; in particular, one who has shown extreme courage when faced with a significant challenge in their life. Donations were made by twenty-six members of that class, together with Aron’s five surviving siblings
Aron Katz left this world much too soon. May his memory and legacy last forever. God bless him.
The above photo from the 1969 St. John’s yearbook shows Aron Katz (seated, second from left), with the other members of the school’s Reach for the Top team, along with their two coaches.
The caption in the yearbook only gave first names and, while I recognized two of Aron’s teammates: Lenny Leven (seated to Aron’s left) and Ricky Kraut, along with Bernie Melman (standing, right), who went on to become vice-principal of Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate, I wasn’t sure who the “Harvey” in the photo was. After running an OCR program on the St. John’s yearbook, I discovered that Harvey was Harvey Koffman – who was the only Grade 10 student on the team.
I was also pretty sure that the “Mr. Carr” in the photo must have been Alex Carr, brother of Jim and Robert, but it was only after I confirmed that with Fern (Zamick) Carr, Alex’s wife, that I could write with assurance that it was indeed Alex Carr.
Interestingly, after I emailed Fern Carr, asking her about the photo, she responded with her own story about herself having been on the Gordon Bell provincial champion Reach for the Top team.
Here is what Fern wrote:
“Al taught at St. John’s from 1967 – 1999, and besides being Aron’s coach, was his chemistry teacher. I showed him the photo and it really brought back memories – thanks.
“You know, I was on the RFTT team (as a student from Gordon Bell) while Al was the St. John’s coach. We probably unknowingly were at the same tournaments together. Another coincidence is that Al’s Baba Leibe lived directly across the street from my baba and zaida on St. Anthony. We both visited our respective grandparents every Sunday, again though, before we knew each other.”
Reid Linney had also attached a brief clipping from the Canadian Press about Aron’s death:
“PINAWA, Man. (CP) – Aron Katz, 19 (Ed. note: he was actually 21), of Winnipeg, saved his 14-year-old sister Marian (Ed. note: her name was Miriam) from drowning Tuesday in Big Whiteshell Lake but lost his own life. RCMP said when the girl ran into trouble swimming, the youth pushed her to several other swimmers, then drowned.”
Once I finished reading Reid’s email, along with a couple of the attachments he sent, I set out about trying to learn as much as I could about Aron Katz. I’ve noted before that nothing resonates more with readers than learning of a young life – full of promise – snuffed out suddenly and totally unexpectedly.
Subsequently, I was able to find Aron’s obituary on newspaperarchive.com:
ARON KATZ
“On July 10, 1973 accidentally in Whiteshell Provincial Park, Aron Katz, aged 21 years, dearly beloved son of Mr. and Mrs. I. Katz of 497 Alfred Ave, and precious brother of Shirley, Dr. Saul, Matylda, Ann, Ronia (Mrs. Larry Epstein) and Miriam. Services were held July 11 at the Chesed Shel Emes and interment in the Hebrew Sick Benefit Cemetery. Aron was a third year student at the University of Manitoba Medical School. In lieu of flowers, contributions to a memorial fund may be sent to the University of Manitoba Medical School.”
I was also told that two of Aron Katz’s good friends were David Manusow and Gerald (Yosel) Minuk – both of whom had been schoolmates of Aron’s at St. John’s, also colleagues of his in medical school.
David Manusow told me that he had written a tribute to Aron on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his St. John’s graduating class’s reunion. David sent me the text of his tribute:
Aron Katz
(1951 – 1973)
Written and delivered by David Manusow on Saturday, August 17, 2019
“This is dedicated to the memory of our dear classmate and friend, Aron Katz, who died accidentally in the Whiteshell on July 10, 1973 while saving his younger sister from drowning.
“It would be remiss of me to try to improve upon the eloquent tribute to Aron written by his sister Shirley that Danny (Bronstein) just read, but I would like to elaborate on some points, as well as share some personal reminiscences.
“Aron was the second youngest of 7 children, all academic stars, who grew up under very modest circumstances in an old, white 2-1/2 storey wooden clapboard house on Alfred Ave. (Many years later, I still recall Aron complaining that the sound of mice scurrying about in its walls interfered with his studying!)
“As you his classmates know, Aron was extremely intelligent, unselfish, kind and humble. He had a thirst for knowledge and acquitted himself well as a member of the Grade 12 ‘Reach for the Top’ team. He was also a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix and Cream.
“While we were friendly in high school, we didn’t really become close until university. We shared the same aspirations and took most of our pre-Med courses together. I can remember studying Organic Chemistry through the night with him out at the Fort Garry Campus, as well as a frigid winter evening in Kildonan Park triangulating stars for our Astronomy course. Because I didn’t have a car, Aron would pick me up in his family’s huge black 1955 Buick Roadmaster to write our exams.
“After we were both accepted into Medicine in the fall of 1971, we became even closer. We sat beside each other in lectures, and took all of our labs and spares together. We also car-pooled together that first year (along with Yosel (Minuk) and Morley Shatsky). At the end of that year, Aron bought a brand new Datsun 510 4-door sedan (navy on white) for the then-princely sum of $2,300.00. He was immensely proud of that car and loved driving it.
“With the demise of that car pool after first-year, Aron and I decided to ‘go it alone.’ “Always considerate and never one to complain, Aron travelled at least 2 miles out of his way in the opposite direction each day to take me to and from school. I have fond memories of spending the occasional Friday afternoon at the Balmoral Hotel bar with Aron, reviewing our ‘surface anatomy.’
“I can also recall when Aron and I, and his longtime sweetheart Lorraine Shapiro, celebrated after the Xmas ‘Comprehensive’ in 2nd year by going to the old downtown Met to see the movie, ‘The Stewardesses’ (in 3D, no less!). Unbeknownst to us, and much to our collective embarrassment, it turned out to be an X-rated pornographic movie that was subsequently banned. Incidentally, at least a third of our 2nd year Med School class happened to be there as well that evening, celebrating!
“Aron was an extremely good student, and at the age of 21, had just completed his 2nd year in the U of M’s Faculty of Medicine. He had spent his first and was just starting his second summer in the Medical Microbiology Dept. working on the Australia antigen/Hepatitis B virus. He enjoyed medicine and was looking forward to beginning his 3rd year in September, 1973.
“Always an avid camper, in early July Aron took his little sister Miriam camping at Big Whiteshell Lake and well, now you know all the rest. I received a call that evening from Morley Shatsky (who lived across from Aron) informing me that Aron had drowned. The next day, Aron’s only brother Saul contacted me, requesting that I be a pallbearer. It was the saddest, most emotional funeral I have ever attended.
“And thus it all ended. I would now ask that you all rise for a minute of silence to remember our dear friend and classmate, Aron Katz, a young man of great intellect and even greater courage, who left this world much too soon.
“May his memory and legacy last forever.
“Thank you.”
I also heard from Gerald (Yosel) Minuk, who told me that he had only a few things to add to what I had already gathered:
“Thanks for the opportunity to contribute to your story on Aron Katz (z”L) but I’m going to disappoint you. I’m afraid that over the past 50 years since his passing, only three of my memories remain.
“The first was as his classmate at St John’s high school where I remember being amazed (and somewhat envious) of the wide breadth and depth of his knowledge. That impression, which was shared by his classmates and the entire school, was supported by the fact that the success of the school’s ‘Reach for the Top’ team largely rested on Aron’s shoulders.
“The second memory was as a member of his university carpool where Aron would often recount with much pride the various accomplishments of his family (but never himself). “Aron was particularly proud of his older brother who I believe was in medical school at the time and went on to become a highly regarded emergency physician out east.
“Finally, as mutual members of the medical school’s Class of 75, I recall how sad it was to learn of Aron’s passing. Not only for his family but also for the discipline of Medicine itself. Aron was one of those fortunate individuals who had been gifted with both exceptional knowledge and compassion, attributes that are essential to becoming an exceptional physician.
“In closing, I might also point out the serendipity as to how Dr Eadie’s account of a drowning came to Reid’s attention. Shortly after my wife and I had purchased our cottage at Big Whiteshell lake in the early 1990’s, an elderly lady was going door to door selling an anniversary book of the lake that contained stories submitted by lake cottagers. I purchased a copy and it sat on our bookshelf for several years until my wife decided to thumb through it. On reading Dr Eadie’s submission, she asked if the story could be about my friend the medical student who had drowned while saving his sister that I had once told her about. My initial reaction was that it couldn’t be as I was under the impression that Aron had drowned at Winnipeg Beach or perhaps Gimli but on reading the story, I realized it might be Aron. So when Reid decided to pay tribute to Aron by establishing the Aron Katz Memorial Scholarship at St. John’s High School, I sent Dr. Edie’s story to Reid.” (Ed. note: Subsequent to publishing this story in the August 3 issue of The Jewish Post & News, Reid Linney was able to get in touch with Dr. Eadie’s daughter, Sheelagh. Sheelagh said that, while the story of Aron Katz’s drowning was eerily similar to the drowning about which her father wrote, it is almost certain that Dr. Eadie wrote about a drowning that occurred in 1975, not 1973.)
Features
The Last Chance
By ORLY DREMAN (Jerusalem, March 12) Every time I submit an article to this website, I hope that article will be more cheerful than the last one. This one has a little bit of light, but a lot more of the same, I’m sad to write.
There were families where some members were murdered and some taken hostage. Sometimes there were no family members left alive to fight for hostages’ return; that is when neighbors or coworkers began to fight for them. The returning hostages must cope now with the losses from Oct. 7th. The more losses they have, the more complicated the trauma. They find out they lost family members, their house, their security. They come out of a disaster into a new reality. Some of the returnees only found out when they returned that their nuclear family was wiped out. They are coping with a lot of bad news. The families who were busy fighting for their return never got a chance to deal with their own mourning. Other family members got a sign of life from their dear ones still in captivity, but only to hear that they were injured and in bad health. They are deep under the ground in tunnels, with no sun of course and sometimes alone in complete darkness for days on end… in cages tied to chains all the time. They sleep on the floor, shower once in a few months, get hardly any food or water. They eat, sleep and go to the toilet all in one small area, mold all around; the injured and sick get no medications. They were interrogated under torture. These are citizens we are talking about – not soldiers; there are only four soldiers left alive in captivity all living in inhumane conditions. The tunnels are very narrow and low, so if one picks up their head they bang into the ceiling. It has been like this for a year and a half, with weapons turned towards them all the time.
The women say they were beaten every day. (Some are already able to talk about sexual assaults). Some young women say they prayed to die because they experienced horrible things and hoped a war plane would destroy the building and the misery would stop; it was hell. In captivity they suffered psychological terror. They were told Israel does not want to bring them back, they will marry them off and turn them into Muslims. On the day of return sadistic Hamas made a cruel, frightening, humiliating reality show for the whole world to watch. Some of the hostages looked like they were released from Auschwitz. For example, they made one of the hostages say on stage: “I’m happy to return to my wife and children,” while Hamas knew they had already murdered them and his brother. The father himself knew nothing because in the tunnels there was no radio, they kept them disconnected from the outside world. The hostages went through things the brain and the heart cannot absorb.
They look so thin, some have lost 50% of their body weight. Family members who received them said they could not recognize them. The hostages who were kept together showed mercy and compassion towards each other; some were ready to exchange places with those who remained behind and sat in captivity with them. Several of them became more religious. The Saturdays of the returns of three hostages each week were days we all cried… tears of excitement, but also those of concern for the many who will not come back alive.
The Hamas monsters who do not have a drop of mercy and murder babies with their own hands with unimaginable brutality, would not even waste a bullet on them to spare their suffering. The whole world should see this wickedness – the photo of Shiri Bibas holding her two babies in her arms with her terribly frightful expression. Three generations of that family were wiped out; Shiri’s parents were also murdered. The heart of the whole country is shattered. There are two million Nazis in Gaza committing crimes against humanity. All the people in Gaza celebrated and cheered as the coffins passed by and the world did not condemn it. We will not forgive and not forget. Our soldiers found weapons in every home and every school, so there are no “uninvolved.”
At the Lifshitz’s funeral – the eldest hostage murdered in captivity and whose body was recently returned, his wife asked Hamas: “Who did you kill? The humane liberals who helped you every day, brought your sick to our hospitals, took care of you”…. The residents there were all so naïve. When the coffins of the Bibas family passed in the roads of Israel the buildings were lit in orange (the babies were red heads). The whole country was crying, including the news broadcasters. It was a national mourning day, people did not go to work or to school. Each coffin of a dead hostage receives a personal farewell ceremony. We are experiencing a collective trauma. The Israeli heart is very flexible, and our hearts are united during sadness and in moments of relief. The nation has not abandoned the families of the hostages for a year and a half. We demonstrate with them and strengthen them. There is nothing like this in the world – our partnership to destiny.
On the days of the hostages’ release people are in the streets with their cell phones glued to the news, shouting out loud the name of each hostage released into the hands of the Red Cross. We all feel at least some relief and comfort – which we have not felt in a long time. The hostages have turned out to be the families of our whole nation.
We recently took a tour of the Gaza Envelope and went into the small shelters spread out along the “Death Road” (Road 232). They are built to hold at maximum ten standing people, but when almost thirty youngsters ran into them and the terrorists threw hand grenades inside, the few who survived were those whose bodies fell on them and they played dead.
It is nice that a woman in Canada named her baby Alyn. Alyn was a seven year old girl murdered by Hamas together with her fiveyear-old brother and their parents in on Oct. 7th.
In saving lives there are no compromises. We are paying heavy prices to release our hostages, but leaving them there would be the highest price ever. The price now is for the oversight, not for the deal. Among the terrorists released in this recent deal were two who planned the shooting and murder attack of my cousin Rabbi Mark while he was driving his car in 2016. His wife and daughter were seriously injured and now the terrorists are walking around freely.
My American nephew’s house was burned down in the L.A fires. They had to move to another area. It is sad, but everything is relative. In Israel half the country had to evacuate- their houses burned down – some with their families inside. That is very painful.
We are living now in major uncertainty. Will the war renew in the next few days or will negotiations continue? Because this is the hostages’ last chance to return alive. If the fighting starts again, we will have to explain to our young grandchildren that running and hiding in the shelter is just a Hide and Seek game like in the Roberto Benigni movie (“Life is Beautiful”).
How does the world accept a situation where a terrorist group takes civilian hostages into captivity without millions in the world going out to demonstrate?
The country has no leadership, but the citizens do. There is no other country in the world that exhibits social cohesiveness like Israel; that is what holds us together.
Wishing you all a HAPPY PURIM!
Features
And now the news – with Laurence Wall
By GERRY POSNER I am betting that many readers will have memories of the Wall family, formerly of Winnipeg, later of Phoenix and Ottawa. For people with long memories like me, (which memories my grandkids define as old ), that means as far back as Dr. Mark and Elsa Wall. The Walls had four sons: Richard, Laurence, Murray and Bruce. Likely, you will know one or more of the boys. Both Richard and Bruce reside in Phoenix, while Laurence and Murray are in Ottawa. Of course, each has a story, but I was certainly taken by the Laurence Wall story.
Born in Montreal in 1954 at a time when his father was doing post graduate work in OBGYN, Laurence grew up in Winnipeg’s south end, on Lanark Street and later Queenston Bay. Wall graduated from Grant Park High School in 1972. From there he was off to the University of Manitoba, where he obtained a BA in 1975. Later that year, he left for Ottawa where he studied journalism at Carleton University, finishing with a Bachelor of Journalism. While at Carleton, he met Roslyn Nudell from Montreal, also a student in the journalism program. They married in 1978.
Wall began his career at the Winnipeg Tribune (and if you can remember the Walls, you’re sure to remember the Tribune). He was a reporter there from 1976-1979. Then he moved to CBC Radio in Winnipeg, first as a story producer for the network program, “Canada Watch,” then a stint as a writer- broadcaster for “ Information Radio”.
In 1983 Wall moved to CBC Saskatoon (much like professional athletes who move from team to team, although for much less remuneration) where he was a radio reporter until 1985. The next stop was at CBC Fredericton from 1985 through 1993. By that time, Wall had moved up to become a senior news editor at the CBC.
In 1993, Wall was hired as a senior editor in Ottawa. He continued in that position for three years. In 1996, he wanted to return to on-air work, so he moved back into the radio booth at CBC Ottawa. He became the afternoon news presenter and never looked back. For 28 years, he wrote and edited dozens of new stories and audio items for 13 different newscasts and news updates every weekday, amassing more than 50,000 newscasts and news updates to his credit.
He retired on May 31, 2024. That day marked the end of an illustrious 44 years with the CBC at four different stations. If you lived in Ottawa, his name was immediately recognizable – so much so that on May 31, 2024, the mayor of Ottawa declared that “ Laurence Wall Day.”
Over the course of his time with CBC in Ottawa, Wall reported on some of the most significant stroies of the day, including the 1998 ice storm; the day to day ups and downs (I think more downs than ups ) of the Ottawa Senators of the NHL; the killing pf Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in 2014 – and the chaos that followed; and, of course, Covid 19. In fact, Covid caused a major change in the way Wall presented the news. For Wall broadcasts emanated from the basement of his home in suburban Ottawa, which he jokingly referred to as”CBC Nepean.”
Over the years Wall had the opportunity to meet many celebrities, including Gordon Pinsent, Alan Thicke, Ken Dryden, and Eugene Levy. Wall recounts that, although he didn’t manage to get a photo with Levy, he did get a laugh when he introduced himself to Levy as “just the chopped liver news presenter.” He also interviewed Randy Bachman at the Ottawa Writers Festival.
A side of Wall that is not as well known is his musical bent. Since 2001, Wall hosted hundreds of concerts and events for the Ottawa Music Festival, the Music and Beyond Chamber Festival, the Ottawa Jazz Festival, Opera Lyra Ottawa and the Ottawa Writers Festival. He has worked tirelessly to promote classical music for young people. Not to be forgotten are his own talents on the cello as a player in the 65-member community group known as the Divertimento Orchestra.
Aside from all that, Laurence Wall has MC’d dozens of events for various Jewish organizations in Ottawa, including the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, the Weizmann Institute, the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship, the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, Limmud Ottawa, his own Kehillat Beth Israel Synagogue, Active Jewish Adults 50+, and a local choir known as Musica Ebraica. Now that is a list of accomplishments that could fill a “ Wall.”
Laurence and Roslyn are also parents of two daughters and are now grandparents as well to one grandson, with another grandchild on the way. Retirement so far for Wall has been just as fulfilling as his career. You might just say that Laurence Wall has just turned another page in his career.
Features
95-year-old Holocaust survivor invited to be part of new mini-series reliving the end of darkest period of her life
By MYRON LOVE Klara Belkin has led a life writ large. She was the principal cellist for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for 20 years. As well, for many years, in the winters, she and her late husband, Emile, a violinist, were also members of the Tampa Symphony Orchestra in Tampa Bay. As a teacher, she served as a member of the faculty of the University of Manitoba’s School of Music for almost 20 years.
Even though Klara Belkin is 95, her career isn’t quite over yet. Recently, she was invited to join Joshua Bell – in New York in September – in a performance with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra of the soundtrack of a projected new four-part miniseries.
The mini-series, “The Train Near Magdeburg”, is the true story of a train packed with prisoners from Bergen Belsen concentration camp in the early days of April 1945, that was intercepted – and the passengers liberated – by American soldiers.
For Belkin (who moved to Saskatoon four years ago, after her husband died, to be closer to her daughter, Lisa),the story is personal. She, her mother, and her brother, were on that train.
Originally from Szeged in Hungary, she and her family were interned in ghettos in 1944. In June of that year, she, her mother, and her brother, were taken to Austria as farm labourers. (Her father had been taken into the Hungarian army.) In December 1944, they – along with her grandparents – were moved to Bergen Belsen.
“I was lucky in that I was in relatively good health and I was with most of my family,” she said in an earlier interview with the Jewish Post & News, of her time in the concentration camp.
However, in April of 1945, with the Russians closing in, it looked like that luck was about to run out for the 15-year-old and the other surviving prisoners at Bergen Belsen. They were all loaded onto boxcars and sent toward Theresienstadt, where – they feared – death awaited them. Their journey came to an end, however on April 13, on the banks of the Elbe River near Magdeburg. A bridge had been blown out and the train could go no further. There were reports that the train was to be plunged into the river or blown up. Before that could happen, the American army arrived on the scene.
“We couldn’t see anything from inside the boxcars,” Belkin recalled. “Suddenly it went quiet. The SS guards had run away. We heard honking outside and then knocking on the boxcar doors. The doors were opened and we saw an American soldier with a gun aimed at us. He couldn’t believe what he saw. He was no doubt expecting to see German soldiers or munitions. Instead, he saw a boxcar full of half dead people.”
Belkin recalled that they were all moved to a nearby village from which the residents had been evacuated. “There were many of us who had typhus and many – including my grandfather – died shortly after liberation,” Belkin said.
Fortunately, her mother, brother, and grandmother also survived. After liberation, Belkin returned to Budapest where the family reconnected with her father and she studied the cello at the Franz Liszt Academy. Following the Hungarian Revolution in October, 1956, she was able to leave Budapest – with the encouragement of her mother – for Vienna. In Vienna, though, the symphony was not hiring any female musicians. So she came to Canada and found a position with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. That was also where she met her husband, Emile, a violin player, who was also a member of the WSO.
About 15 years ago, Belkin had an opportunity to meet two of the GI’s who liberated her and her family. It started with a New York State high school history project. This story began when Lisa Belkin decided to write her mother’s biography. In the course of her research, she came across a tape of an interview that Diane Sawyer had conducted with Hudson Falls, New York, history teacher Matt Rozell (recorded in 2007). In 2001, Rozell had had his students do interviews with surviving World War II veterans living in the area. First Lieutenant Frank Towers, liaison officer of the 30th Infantry Division, and former tank commander Carrol Walsh (743rd Tank Battalion, 119th Regiment), were among the interviewees. They were the last two living American soldiers from the unit who saved Klara and the other Jewish prisoners – 600 of them children – near war’s end from almost certain death.
Klara, Emile, and Lisa Belkin met the two veterans in Florida in February 2011. “I was never able to put a face to my liberators before,” Klara Belkin said at the time.
It was Frank Towers’ duty to arrange food, shelter and care for the former prisoners. Belkin reports that Towers and Walsh frequently spoke about their war experiences and had been invited to the Weizman Institute in Israel where they met with Bergen Belsen historian Bernd Horstmann.
Belkin notes that a reunion in Israel with Towers, Walsh, Rozell and some of the boxcar survivors was talked about – but nothing came of it.
Lisa Belkin reports that she and he mother have seen the first two episodes of the mini-series. She adds that both the BBC and Netflix may be interested in airing the series in the fall.
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