Oral history interview with Betty Nitkin, who was born in Montreal, 1941. He parents studied and met at the University of Lwow. Working in between Montreal and England during the 1960's but due to a combination of Montreal's winters and the political situation in Quebec convinced the family to move to Vancouver in 1968. Mrs. Nitkin was involved in the National Council of Jewish Woman for many years chairing the Committee for Soviet Jewry during the 1970's. Mrs. Nitkin volunteered the Vancouver Jewish Centre helping settle Bosnian refugee families during the 1990's.
Oral history interview with Simon Fallmann who was born in Germany. He spent his childhood in Holland during World War II. Later in life he studied and worked in bio-medical engineering; quasar infra-red photography and aero-nautical engineering.
Oral History interview with Leslie Andrews. Born in 1929, Leslie grew up in a village a few miles out from London, and he speaks about what the Jewish community was like as he grew up. Leslie’s father was a tailor, and he collaborated with Leslie’s mother to start a clothing shop in London that sold waistcoats and petticoats called Andrews and Goldberg. During World War II, they moved their shop out of London to Aylesbury, and had contracts to make raincoats for the British Armed Forces. Leslie talks about the complications he had with both his secular and Jewish education in England. Leslie went to school to become a pediatric pulmonologist and proceeded to work in physical medicine. After the war ended, Leslie met his wife Iris, and became the first person in his family to come to Canada, emigrating to Vancouver in January 1962. He began working at the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Center. Leslie, Iris, and their children attended Beth Israel synagogue, and were quite active in the Jewish community in Vancouver, with Iris working as a secretary and Leslie acting as chairman for various committees at Beth Israel. He talks about how the Jewish community in Vancouver has changed since he first arrived in British Colombia.
Oral history interview with Irving Koenigsberg who was born in Vancouver, 1921. Irving majored in Business Administration from the University of British Columbia and worked in his father's business (Maurice Koenigsberg), Western Wholesale Jewelry. His grandparents came from Poland.
Oral History interview with Ben and Rita Akselrod. Rita was born in Bacau, Romania. They met in a DP camp in Austria. After the war they went to Israel then came to Canada via Italy. They worked as a peddlers then with antiques. Then started a second-hand and antique store in New Westminster. They talk about how antisemitism didn't disappear after the war.
Oral history interview with Paul Meyer who was born in Germany in 1916, the same as his parents. Speaks of his experiences during the second world war, in the concentration camps, escaping the Holocaust and emigrating to Canada. Paul was arrested in 1938 on Kristallnacht, taken to Dachau concentration camp but able to pay fines. Classisifed as 'friendly enemy aliens' upon entry into Canada due to German citizenship and Canada declaring war with Germany, had to report to RCMP once a month for a number of years. Paul and his brother started pottery business in Vancouver while their mother worked for the Red Cross.
Oral history interview with Helen (nee Grunbaum) Rosen. Helen volunteered by teaching remedial reading through the Council of Jewish Women. Worked for Red Cross for 25 years in a variety of roles: circulating nurse, Blood Bank and took in a foster child.
Oral history interview with Leon Braverman who was born in Ganchasti, Bessarbia in 1890. He learned to be a watchmaker in Russia. Started his own watchmaking business which collapsed, he than worked at Birks jewelry store in Vancouver, than Miller's Jewelers.
