Features
Was a Nazi war criminal living in St. James forced to hang himself by a Jewish “avenger” in 1960?
By BERNIE BELLAN The story of an alleged Nazi war criminal by the name of Alexander Laak, who was found hanging in his St. James garage in 1960, is one that has been revisited in this newspaper several times.
In October 1987, the late Gene Telpner first broached the story in our pages in one of his columns, when he wrote the following:
Quite a few columns ago I wrote about a book called “Forged in Fury”, which detailed the hanging in Winnipeg of an alleged war criminal by one or more Israeli “agents”.
They apparently had flown here, carried out the execution, and then caught a plane out of the city the same day.
At the time, the Free Press story reported the man’s death as a suicide, and the name given in the item was not his real one. His real name was Alexander Laak, and the wartime actions in which he allegedly participated took place in Estonia, near Tallin.
At one time, Laak worked at the RCAF base in Winnipeg. When he came to Canada from Europe he had received “clearance” from the British and Americans, but apparently the Russians wanted him back for further investigation.
Now all of this original story was in 1960, and not until 1970, when the book Forged in Fury was published, did the details emerge. Those details came as a shock to Arthur Drache, son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Drache of this city, for several reasons.
For one, Arthur was a Free Press reporter when the “suicide” was printed and covered the story. Asked about it, Drache said, “We wrote a couple of stories “which received page one play, but did not give his name because of libel laws.”
But when Drache, who is now Arthur Drache Q.C. with the law firm of Drache Rotenberg in Ottawa, read “Forged in Fury”, he got full details for the first time. He wrote to the Free Press to tell them about the book’s revelations, but says he never got a response from the newspaper.
One of the saddest parts of the story to Drache is the fact that he and Laak’s son were classmates at Gordon Bell, and played on the school football team.
Laak was never publicly identified in Winnipeg while he was alive. It is believed that there had been accusations from some sources, but he protested his innocence.
Arthur Drache explained, “Only his ‘suicide’ allowed fuller disclosures and until I read “Forged in Fury” I was quite at a loss to explain his actions.”
Subsequently, in a February 20, 1991 issue of The Jewish Post & News, Myron Love had this story:
Manitoba RCMP looking into 30-year-old suicide of alleged Nazi
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have re-opened an investigation into the apparent suicide 30 years ago of an alleged Estonian Nazi living in Winnipeg. The new investigation was requested by the provincial Attorney-General’s Department, following an article on the case last winter in the Winnipeg Free Press, and a subsequent letter by a member of the public to the attorney-general, asking that this possible murder be investigated, in light of the war crimes prosecutions taking place in the country.
Alexander Laak was found hanging in his garage on September 6, 1960, according to Sargent Wes Border of the RCMP’s General Investigation Section. The section is looking into the matter, after a series of newspaper reports from the Soviet Union, alleging Laak was a Nazi collaborator. The Winnipeg police investigated his death at the time.
A coroner’s inquest, headed by Dr. I.O. Fryer, then the province’s chief medical officer, ruled the death an apparent suicide, and the case was closed.
In the early 1970s, an author named Michael Elkin published a book called “Forged in Fury”, in which he described how an Israeli agent named Arnie Berg came to Winnipeg from South America, and gave Laak the choice of committing suicide or having him and his wife killed by Berg.
Last February, Winnipeg Free Press reporter Dave Roberts wrote a story on the case, with reference to Elkins’ report. (Roberts is unavailable for comment. He is currently in the Middle East.) The article also led to the attack on retired journalist Keith Rutherford by a couple of Skinheads in Alberta last year. The Skinheads claimed they were paying him back for exposing Laak. One claimed to be Laak’s son, but there is no record of any family. (Ed. note: Gene Telpner’s story does disclose that Laak had a son – also someone whom Arthur Drache knew, so the notion that Laak’s son may have been part of a group that attacked Rutherford is certainly plausible.)
Sgt. Border isn’t optimistic the GIS investigation will turn up anything. “Thirty years is a long time,” he says. “People are dead. Reports are no longer available to us.”
He reports contacts have been made with the war crimes investigation unit in Ottawa to check their information on Estonian war crimes, and with Israel to find out if Elkin’s book was fact or fiction. “We’re waiting to hear back to see if we should look into this more seriously,” he says. “With everything going on in the Middle East, and considering this is 30 years old, I don’t expect this matter will be pushed to the forefront. It’s a case that will not be easy to investigate.”
We’re playing catch-up.”
In the summer of 2014 I had written about a book titled “The Avengers”, which was about a group of Holocaust survivors led by Abba Kovner (who went on to become a famous Israeli poet). Subsequent to that book review I was reminded of the story of Alexander Laak, and I decided to try to find out whether there was anything more I could find out about the story – which apparently had reached a dead end.
I decided to attempt to contact Arthur Drache who, Gene Telpner had written, had actually covered the story of Alexander Laak’s “suicide” in 1960. Arthur Drache has been one of Canada’s best known tax attorneys for many years, has been the recipient of many awards. Several years ago Gerry Posner profiled Arthur Drache in an article for our paper titled , which can be found on our website at .
I called Arthur Drache in 2014 – and was surprised when he answered his phone himself. In any event, I recall that Mr. Drache was quite obliging – and had vivid memories of his own personal involvement in the Alexander Laak story. Here is what I wrote in August 2014:
As Gene Telpner mentions in his story, in 1960 Drache was working as a reporter for the Free Press. Drache told me, during a phone conversation, that he was a student at Brandeis University at the time.
Drache says that his assignment editor had received a tip that Laak was living in Winnipeg. According to Drache, it came from a Russian source. The Estonian community in Winnipeg was quite small at the time, Drache said, and it was an easy matter for him to track Laak down.
He told me that he and another reporter went to Laak’s house in St. James and spent some time speaking with him. According to Drache, Laak downplayed the role he had played in the Jägala camp in Estonia, describing his duties as akin to being “the warden of Stony Mountain”, in Drache’s words.
As Telpner noted in his story, Drache went on to write about Laak, but without revealing his true name. Drache said to me that he found the notion that a Mossad agent tracking Laak down and forcing him to commit suicide highly implausible.
But, I suggested to him, the same information that had been given to the Free Press, presumably by Russian authorities, might also have been given to the Israelis.
Drache did concede that point. He went on to say that immediately after he wrote his story about Laak, which was in late August, 1960, he recalled, he drove to Boston to resume his studies at Brandeis. On the way he happened to pick up a copy of the New York Times, which published a major story about the suicide of Alexander Laak but, as was the case with the Free Press story about the suicide, the NY Times story did not reveal his true name.
Drache also mentioned his personal connection to Alexander Laak – through Laak’s son. As Gene Telpner had written, they had both attended Gordon Bell High School, were classmates in fact and even played on the high school football team together. It was the fact that he knew Laak’s son that led his assignment editor at the Free Press to ask Drache to go to Laak’s house to interview him.
When the book “Forged in Fury” was published in 1970, Drache says he was shocked at the allegations made in that book about Laak.
Drache told me, “We wrote a couple of stories which received page one play, but did not give his (Laak’s) name because of libel laws.”
But when Drache read “Forged in Fury”, he was made aware of the full details surrounding Alexander Laak’s alleged background as a Nazi war criminal for the first time. He wrote to the Free Press to tell them about the book’s revelations, but says he never got a response from the newspaper.
Laak was never publicly identified in Winnipeg while he was alive. It is believed that there had been accusations from some sources, but he protested his innocence.
Arthur Drache explained, “Only his ‘suicide’ allowed fuller disclosures and until I read ‘Forged in Fury’ I was quite at a loss to explain his actions.”
One final footnote to this story: In attempting to find out more about Alexander Laak, I came across this information on a white supremacist website:
Alexander Laak , former commandant of the Jägala camp in Estonia where a large number of Jews were supposedly massacred, is alleged to have committed suicide by hanging in his garage in Winnipeg , Canada. A number of Laak’s subordinates had at the time been given harsh sentences at a Soviet show trial. According to an article in Der Tagespiegel September 8, 1960, Laak had declared the Soviet allegations against him to be “99% lies and Communist propaganda.” In Michael Elkin’s book Forged in Fury (1971) it is claimed that a Jewish “avenger” named Arnie Berg travelled to Winnipeg to kill Laak, and that Laak hanged himself under Berg’s supervision in order to not have his wife shot by Berg.
This entire story was brought to mind again when I started to watch a ridiculous TV show called “Hunters” which, although it has a stellar cast, is really nothing more than a comic book fantasy about Jewish avengers pursuing Nazis in America. Still, the story surrounding Alexander Laak’s suicide could make an interesting movie. Maybe Jonas Chernick would be interested?
Features
The Davidson Institute at the Weizmann Institute is playing a huge role in advancing an appreciation for the study of science
By BERNIE BELLAN Dr. Liat Ben-David is a scientist who has devoted a good part of her life to educating people about science.
Having graduated with a degree in Molecular Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, in 1991, for the past six years Dr. Ben-David has been CEO of the Davidson Institute, which is the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute.
A fourth-generation sabra, Dr. Ben-David speaks flawless English without a trace of a Hebrew accent, although I made the mistake of asking her whether she was originally from the US since, if she hadn’t corrected me, I would have sworn she was either American or Canadian-born.
Dr. Ben-David was in Canada recently to speak at an event in Toronto sponsored by the Weizmann Institute focusing on women in science. She took time out from her busy schedule to participate in a Zoom call during which she explained what the Davidson Institute is all about – and how science education has come to play an even more important role in the lives of many Israelis over the past 11 months than it had previously.
To begin with, here is some information about the Davidson Institute taken from the Weizmann Institute website: “The Davidson Institute of Science Education is a non-profit organization that serves as the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science. We believe in connecting people to science, and therefore we initiate, organize and operate a wide range of educational programs. We strive to be a professional epicenter for students, parents and the general public, as well as for teachers and academics, in both government and education.”
“We create activities for all sectors of Israeli society,” Dr. Ben-David explained. Not only is “scientific education part of our mission,” she continued, “we are also responsible for creating a more logical society for everyone.”
There are “three components of scientific literacy” that the Davidson Institute promotes, Dr. Ben-David said: “knowledge, skills, and values.”
“You have to know which values you want to strengthen,” she noted, “so we can make better lives.”
To that end, the Davidson Institute has made inroads into all facets of Israeli society. “We try to engage everyone in Israel,” Dr. Ben-David says. “We work in both Hebrew and Arabic.”
The Weizmann Institute -and through its education arm, the Davidson Institute, is involved in practically all areas of scientific endeavour. If you look at the Davidson Institute website (https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en) you will find articles on a dizzying range of subjects – from spacewalks to head surgeries in Ancient Egypt, to childhood mental disorders and so on, all written in an easy-to-understand English. You won’t be intimidated into thinking this is way too academic to understand.
The goal of the Davidson Institute is to inspire people to want to do science, Dr. Ben-David said. Educators go out from the institute go out to even the most remote communities in Israel, as well as make deliberate efforts to target “at-risk youths.”
Our goal is to “build esteem and self-confidence” within those young people, she explained, many of whom have dropped out of school.
While not all of them will succeed, the Davidson Institute has had a “40% success rate” in getting those drop-outs to return to school, Dr. Ben-David added.
“Science is a healing tool,” she observed.
Now, more than ever, since life in Israel has been so disrupted as a result of everything that has happened since October 7, educators from the Davidson Institute have been dealing with new challenges.
“During the past year, unfortunately, we have found ourselves working with displaced families” who have had to leave their homes” as a result of the threat posed by Hezbollah in the north, Dr. Ben-David observed. “We are giving them some sense of normality and stability.”
For instance, she noted that “we’ve created seminars at Davidson” where students who have been displaced from their home schools “are given a week where we give them a full blast of science.”
“They work on science projects that can be included in matriculation,” Dr. Ben-David explained.
And, educators going out from Davidson aren’t only working with high school students. “We work with kids in elementary schools age 10 and up,” she said, “also with their teachers.”
Those teachers may not have a particular background in science, Dr. Ben-David explained.
Davidson educators also don’t restrict their attention to trained teachers.
“We work with instructors who are not professional teachers on giving them instruction in science,” she noted.
I asked Dr. Ben-David to give me an example in which someone from Davidson has reached out to a child who has been traumatized by what has been happening in Israel since October 7.
She told me of one particular young girl who had been so afraid that she was going to be killed by a missile that she spent the better part of her day hiding under her bed.
Educators from Davidson came to visit the child and found out that she loved Harry Potter books. They “discussed with her the science of Harry Potter magic,” and whether there was something that might actually be plausible about some of the magic.
“At first she just peeked out at us,” Dr. Ben-David continued, “then she started asking questions” – and soon she was fully engaged in talking with the instructors.
The Davidson Institute runs several programs that aim to attract students, both from within Israel and beyond.
For instance, Dr. Ben-David pointed to a “gap year program,” now in its sixth year of existence – for high school graduates where Davidson sends them to remote communities as “science ambassadors.”
And, until this past year, Davidson also had “several international programs” for students “from all over the world,” she explained. Not only did those students get to do science, “they got to know each other,” Dr. Ben-David said.
There are still many online programs for students, she noted, including one called “Windows to the Future,” in which “once a month students meet a Davidson instructor” online.
“Some countries have approached us to develop different pedagogies,” Dr. Ben-David said. “Covid didn’t stop us; neither did the war.”
I wondered though, whether the trend toward academic boycotts of Israeli institutions of higher learning and, concomitantly, Israeli academics, has had a very adverse effect on Davidson Institute programs that reach out beyond Israel.
“We don’t ignore the elephant in the room,” Dr. Ben-David admitted but, in addition to the “100,000 participants” Davidson Institute programs have in Israel itself – in partnership with most municipalities, we reach another “3 million” outside of Israel digitally, she said.
While Israel’s image in much of the world has suffered greatly as a result of its war in Gaza, Israel’s reputation as a scientific powerhouse has not diminished – and institutions like the Davidson Institute are serving to maintain that image throughout the world.
Features
Campus program gives Winnipeggers a virtual reality experience allowing them to share some of the same emotions Israelis attacked on October 7 felt
By BERNIE BELLAN It was advertised as “Through Their Eyes – October 7th Virtual Reality Journey.”
On September 16, a small number of Winnipeggers were able to participate in a virtual reality experience during which they were able to watch in 3D as different Israelis described what they went through on October 7 last year.
The event was sponsored by Winnipeg Friends of Israel and Bridges for Peace. It was held in the games room of the Rady JCC.
As readers no doubt recall, on October 7, 1200 Israelis (and non-Israelis) living in communities situated close to the Gaza Strip were murdered by what turned out to be over 6,000 Hamas terrorists who had managed to penetrate into Israel fairly easily in the early hours of October 7. As well, 220 individuals (not all of whom were Israeli) were abducted and taken to Gaza.
While almost anyone in the world with access to the internet would have been able to see footage of the atrocities carried out by Hamas – and fully understand the absolute terror that people were experiencing, for Israelis living near the Gaza Strip what was happening was all so terribly confusing. People could hear gunshots all around them – but where were they coming from and who was firing them, almost everyone who was there must have wondered?
And, once the realization that an attack was underway, how were you supposed to respond? Were you better off to try and hide in place or to try to make a run for it?
An Israeli production company that goes by the name of Atlantis-VR embarked upon an ambitious project whereby they wanted to interview some of the individuals who experienced that October 7 attack directly. But, rather than simply interviewing those individuals, Atlantis-VR wanted to show each of them in their own homes – in the exact places they were as the attack was taking place. Through virtual reality technology viewers are now able to see a 360° rendition of an entire room in which the interviewees in the presentation created by Atlantis-VR were situated at the time of the attack. At certain points you are also taken outside interviewees’ homes and see the same vistas that those individuals would have been able to see, including roads and fields with the Gaza Strip in the background.
As groups of six different individuals entered the games room in the Rady JCC on September 16 they were greeted by Daniel Zioni, one of the principals behind Atlantis-VR. There were six different sessions held on September 16, each lasting anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour (depending on how long it took each attendee to watch the presentation. In my case, for instance, I spent over an hour as I had so many questions during the course of watching the presentation that I continued to pepper Daniel with questions about what I had just seen after each segment. Poor Daniel – since each of us had donned the headset at different times and were watching the presentation at our own pace, he was constantly racing from participant to participant, adjusting headsets, turning on the next segment, and answering questions.)
After donning the virtual reality headsets, (which takes some getting used to, especially for older participants who had likely never experienced wearing a VR headset before), the first segment began for viewers. We watched as a woman by the name of Yasmin Margolis describe what had happened to her, her husband Sa’ar, and their two young daughters, when Hamas terrorists entered Kibbutz Kissufim, which is where they lived.
Sa’ar bravely left the family home, armed with his rifle, to take on the terrorists. Unfortunately, while his wife’s and daughters’ lives were spared, Sa’ar died that day fighting to protect his kibbutz.
The next segment is about the Marom family, who were living in Kibbutz Re’em. In their case, their house was set on fire by terrorists while they were inside. Still, they managed to escape through a window and were eventually rescued.
The third segment shows a family living in an apartment block in Sderot. The battle for Sderot actually lasted over two days, as IDF forces entered into protracted gun fights with terrorists who had been hiding throughout the city. During that time the Politi family holed themselves up in their apartment and even provided shelter – and food, for a boyfriend of one of their daughters – and his friend, who had found themselves stranded at a gas station where one of them had been working when the terrorists invaded. There was a moment of comic relief when the Politi husband and wife described what happened when they heard banging on their apartment door. The boyfriend shouted that it was him – and Mr. Politi opened the door. At that point, Mr. Polliti, noted, the boyfriend’s friend said: “I’m hungry – have you got anything to eat?”
The final segment of the VR presentation – and easily the most mesmerizing of the four segments, consists of an interview with Rami Davidian, who was a 58-year-old member of a moshav by the name of Patish in an area very close to where the Nova Music Festival was taking place. Davidian has become quite a national hero in Israel for what he did on October 7 – and for almost 48 hours non stop thereafter.
As he describes in his interview, he received a phone call from a friend who didn’t quite understand what was happening the morning of October 7, but whohad a daughter who had been attending the Nova Music Festival, which was the site of the murder of 370 young Israelis. The friend knew Rami lived close to where the festival was taking place and asked him whether he could go there to try to find his daughter. Of course, Rami had no idea what he was heading into – and, as he explains during the segment in which he tells his story, even as bullets and rocket propelled grenades began to be fired at his car, he continued on. He managed to find survivors of the massacre and transport them back to his home on the moshav, where his wife took care of them.
But then, he started to receive hundreds of messages from anxious parents who somehow had heard that Rami might be in a position to save their kids. He got back into his car and headed right back to the site of the festival – all the while being fired upon by terrorists. Somehow – and he says he doesn’t know how he survived, he managed to return to the site – over and over again, eventually incredibly helping to rescue 750 young Israelis.
The entire VR presentation is so vivid that I had only wished that more people could have seen it. I asked Daniel Zioni whether there were any plans to convert the four segments of the presentation into one video that, for instance, could be seen on Youtube? Granted, seeing it in VR makes more of an impact, but in terms of reaching a wider audience I wondered whether it might make sense to do what I had suggested. I was especially keen on seeing the segment with Rami Davidian turned into something that could be seen by a much wider audience. While Daniel didn’t give me a definitive answer, he did say that was something under consideration by Atlantis-VR.
In the meantime, if you would like to read more about Rami Davidian and his heroics, there are quite a few articles online that tell his story. Simply Google Rami Davidian.
Features
5 Ways to Carve Out Gym Time in Your Life
From rewriting your brain and sticking to a disciplined workout regime, find the top 5 ways to carve out adequate gym time in your daily routine.
A Brief Introduction
It can be a hassle to find the time to work out if you are busy with everyday responsibilities. By incorporating a few practical strategies into your daily life, you can start being consistent with your gym routine.
- Remember Your Motivation to Prioritize
If you’re trying to be consistent, you need to know why you started out. People may have different reasons to commit their time to the gym. Be it to build muscles, lose weight, deal with stress, or improve overall health, having a clear vision of your goal will help you stick to it. With your reason to start always on your mind, you will now have a reason to keep showing up, day in and day out. This helps cut out excuses and prioritize your wellbeing.
- Reduce Your Barrier to Start
The more hurdles you keep on your way to start, the harder it will be to continue with your habit. The easy solution is to cut down on the effort it takes to get started. Pick an accessible gym over a fancier one that you would need to go out of your way to visit. By picking a gym along the route of your daily routine, you can seamlessly incorporate working out as part of your day. Be it near your workplace or your home, the location makes hitting the gym convenient.
It also helps if you plan ahead. Be it your preworkout, your protein shake, or other health supplements from flexpharma.is, make sure you are restocking before you run out. Anabolic steroids are possibly one of the most popular items that have methandrostenolone. Injectables, fat burners, and fusion steroids are some of the trending fitness products that have been creating a buzz across the world.
Keep your gym bag ready to go and lay out your workout gear ahead of time so that you are left with no excuses.
- Get a Gym Buddy for Accountability
Nothing helps drive athletes more than having a sense of community and camaraderie. People interested in weight training already know about the importance of a spotter. Having a friend, a partner, or a peer in the gym will help keep you on track to consistency. This also provides a sense of community, making it more rewarding to attend workout sessions regularly and push each other towards breaking new personal records.
- Incorporate Workouts in Your Daily Activities
It is impossible to make it to the gym every day without fail, be it due to work, family, or other responsibilities. For those days, make it a habit to not skip your workouts. There are many home workout videos and apps available that offer a range of exercise options with little to no equipment. You can start with mini-workouts like planks or squats during short breaks. It can even be as simple as going for a quick stroll for five minutes while stuck at work if you are pressed for time. The easiest way to increase your fitness and stamina is through Sermorelin, Semaglutide, and other cutting-edge peptides to start with.
- Rewire Your Brain
Science talks about neuroplasticity and the power of the positive feedback loop. Without having to learn more about cognitive sciences, you can still make use of these hacks to trick your brain into enjoying training. For every achievement, celebrate yourself. Be it a happy shout of victory on breaking a personal record or getting a new flavor of protein bar, with every celebratory action, you reinforce the positive effect of being consistent at the gym. By creating a positive experience, you make it easier for your brain to stay engaged and consistent at the gym.
Conclusion
It takes careful planning to commit to gym life. While hard work is always rewarded in the gym, in order to get to the gym day in and day out, you also need to work smart. By removing the common hurdles and being dedicated, you can make sure you reach your personal wellness goal.
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