Oral history interview with Bill Gruenthal who was born in 1935 in Netanya, Palestine. His father's side is from Silesia, Germany and his mother's side comes from Lower Saxony and Aachen. In 1945-46, life became too hazardous, so they decided to get out of Israel. Friends suggested either British Columbia or New Zealand, John contacted both governments; B.C. responded first, that decided him to come to BC. Bill applied for various jobs after finishing a typing course, was declined by Imperial Bank of Commerce because he was Jewish, applied and was hired as junior clerk with an insurance company. He has been in insurance since Jan. 1953. Met his wife, Noemi, at a young adult group that met every Sunday night at the JCC. Talks about “Vancouver Diaspora” and the Vancouver Jewish Community. Bill has been a part of the Jewish National Fund and worked for the Vancouver Board of Trade
Interview with Bill Gruenthal and David Kaplan. Bill talks about his involvement with Temple Sholom, and his family's history. David comments as Bill speaks.
Note: Actual interview is approximately 15m30s long.
Oral History Interview with Olga Campbell for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Bill Gruenthal. Olga Campbell was born in Iraq in 1943 and immigrated to Canada at the age of five in 1948. She explains her family’s experience with both Russian prison camps and the Holocaust during WWII, where they eventually made it safely to Canada. She discusses her journey as a social worker turned arts professional, including her time spent at Emily Carr and Capilano arts schools. As a second generation Holocaust survivor, Olga discusses how being Jewish and the associated inter-generational trauma of Holocaust survivorship has informed her works. Olga is a mixed-media artist, working in digital and traditional mediums, including collage and sculpture. She also published her art in a book focused on her family’s experience of the Holocaust that has fostered connections to her story, shared herein.
Series contains photographs and some letters of the Langer family, beginning with the marriage of Fritz and Olga. Materials were created on Fritz and Olga's travels before having children, in daily life in Vienna, throughout the family's journey to Canada through France and Palestine, in daily life in Vancouver, and when visiting family in St. Louis. Series also includes photographs of friends of the Langer family.