Lillian Boraks-Nemetz

Goldman memoir is a must-read

Breakfast at Andrésy circa 1945. René Goldman is holding his bowl out for more food. The children peering through the windows are from another dining room, who had likely finished their meal but had not yet been given permission to leave. (photo from memoirs.azrielifoundation.org)

René Goldman’s account of his childhood – A Childhood Adrift (Azrieli Foundation) – is set in Belgium and France during the Second World War, when Hitler’s plan was to annihilate all European Jews. Each European Jewish child was automatically sentenced to death. Only between six and 11% of European children survived the Holocaust. Ironically, this memoir describes both a heartbreaking and an uplifting story of one Jewish boy’s struggle to stay alive and sane despite all odds against him.

A Childhood Adrift is both personal and, at the same time, an important historical document. The story, written with a spatter of tongue-in-cheek humour, is a fascinating labyrinth of multiple narratives; stories within stories. It is not only about René the child, but also René the man, who revisits the past and examines the wounds left by war.

Goldman weaves his experiences throughout the periods of war and postwar, when he is a young man who travels back to the places that sheltered him and other children lost in the horror of war. The entire narrative is skilfully infused not only with historical and political facts but with the geography of various places so poignantly described one can feel and see them.

Goldman writes about the time when children lost parents, siblings and homes. These children had to depend on the kindness of strangers or were left alone to fend for themselves.

Goldman was 6 years old when the Nazis invaded his native Luxembourg, where he was born, and Belgium, where his family had taken refuge. In 1942, the family fled Belgium for France. From the last station before the French border, they walked on foot to the Demarcation Line between the German Occupied Zone and the Free Zone. No sooner did they cross the line than they were arrested by the French police, who were rounding up Jews escaping from the Occupied Zone, and the family was interned in Lons-le-Saunier. On Aug. 26, Goldman and his mother were taken to the city’s train station for deportation. His aunt appeared from nowhere and tried to take him away, but to no avail. Eventually, she found someone in authority to send two officers to rescue the young boy and save him from boarding the train. His mother was already in one of the cars waving goodbye as the train was pulling out of the station. This was the last time Goldman saw his mother. He was 8 years old.

His father disappeared that morning and it was only in 1944 that Goldman was reunited with him for a brief time, until his father was arrested and taken away. Only after the war did Goldman find out that his father died at the end of the death march from Auschwitz, in January 1945.

In 1942, Goldman was placed in the care of the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) and brought to Château du Masgelier. After two weeks, he was taken to the village of Vendoeuvres, where a young couple offered to take care of him. Soon afterward, the Free Zone was invaded by the Germans.

What followed for Goldman were moves to several homes due to the changing circumstances, which necessitated a constant search for safe places for children.

Left an orphan in 1945, Goldman was placed in the care of the CCE (Commission Centrale de l’Enfance), an organization inspired by communist ideology, which was instrumental in shaping his political beliefs. His faith in this system remained unshaken until he lived in Poland for three years, when he became disillusioned, even shocked, by it.

He writes, “I can now in all candidness recognize that I caught myself wondering whether communism was not the greatest lie of the century, if not of all time.”

Goldman’s narrative strength, among his many others, leans towards the lyrical.

One of the immediate postwar places to which Goldman was moved in France was the town of Andrésy and its Manoir de Denouval, which inspired poetic instincts in him. Here, he found the beauty of gardens and serenity, a “sanctuary” that shielded him for a time from his loneliness and the postwar chaotic reality. Interestingly, Marc Chagall, who donated funds for the children’s care, would occasionally visit the manor.

“I was enthralled with the Enchanted Manor,” writes Goldman. “It nourished in me a fascination with mystery as I explored it for hidden nooks and ventured up the narrow winding steps that led to the turret, sometimes even in the dark of night.” And, indeed, these were dark times in the young boy’s life for it was then that he realized he was an orphan.

Friendships played a huge part during the war and in the postwar period. In the boys and girls Goldman befriended along the way, and some of the kind teachers, he found a certain relief from the loneliness he felt, and from the lack of affection and support. One person who played an important role in his life was Sophie Micnic, who became his caregiver and friend. This woman, a founding leader of the MOI, the Jewish communist resistance movement in Paris and Lyon during the war, later became the director of CCE. It was she who took Goldman under her wing, and recommended that he live in the “Enchanted Manor.”

A Childhood Adrift – a must-read – is a powerful testimony of a child’s response to the calamities of war and their everlasting imprint on his life. It is also a statement of courage and survival in the face of adversity. Eventually, Goldman developed a tremendous hunger for knowledge, education and a desire for communication in as many as 10 languages.

In the last section of the book, the author reveals himself as a poet and a grown man still deeply immersed in his past.

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz is a Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre outreach speaker, an award-winning author, an instructor at the University of British Columbia’s Writing Centre and the editor of the No Longer Alone section of VHEC’s Zachor, in which a longer version of this book review was originally published. René Goldman will be the keynote speaker at the community’s Kristallnacht commemoration on Nov. 5, 7 p.m., at Congregation Beth Israel. Copies of his memoir will be distributed to those in attendance. Holocaust survivors are invited to light a memorial candle. The ceremony is presented by VHEC, Beth Israel and the Azrieli Foundation. For Pat Johnson’s review of Goldman’s book, which was initially called A Childhood on the Move, visit jewishindependent.ca/fragmented-childhood.

Marking memorial’s 30th year

On Sunday, Sept. 24, 11 a.m., at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster, the annual High Holidays Cemetery Service, presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Congregation Schara Tzedeck and the Jewish War Veterans, will mark the 30th anniversary of the Holocaust Memorial. On April 26, 1987, 1,300 numbers of the community, including Holocaust survivors and their families, attended the unveiling of the memorial, on which more than 900 names of family members who perished during the Holocaust were inscribed. Survivor Lillian Boraks-Nemetz wrote the following poem after that unveiling 30 years ago.

The Six Million
Written in dedication of the Holocaust Monument in Schara Tzedeck Cemetery

In this cemetery
far away from where They died
you stand dwarfed by this giant monument
your feet sinking lower and lower into the earth
your soul graining deeper and deeper
into the black granite.

You stand an alien to this earth
a born again human
sixty odd years away from the factories of death
of mercy – pleading voices scattered to deaf winds.

You stand in this cemetery
on the anniversary of the Holocaust
staring with hollow eyes
at simulated graves of strangers finally named
who once went to sleep in a common ditch
souls torn from peace like bones from flesh –

a child’s name upon your lips
a child’s fist pressing upon your breath
to break the granite silence
to speak to shout to scream the truth
to silence forever the mad dogs who
deny the happening of Shoah.

You remember as you stand here
waiting your turn to honour the Dead
how you stood with Them then
in line for death only you didn’t die
running away on all fours
through the contaminated sewers like a rat.

You say Kaddish and for a single moment
become one with the living and the dead.
Then you, the survivor, slip away into an alien world
where your soul must learn to sustain alone,
The Six Million.

Fifth in Korczak series

The fifth lecture in the Janusz Korczak series “How to Love a Child” was titled Janusz Korczak’s Enduring Legacy: Social Pediatrics in Canada and Vancouver, and it was most enlightening.

The subject was building and nurturing a network of support around the child – the “Circle of the Child” discussed by pediatrician Dr. Gilles Julien, one of the keynote speakers on Feb. 18.

Julien is the president and founder of the Fondation du Dr. Julien, and he is affiliated with McGill University and the Université de Montreal. He has made it his mission to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds develop harmoniously and reach their potential. And he has created a preventive approach – community social pediatrics – to try and guarantee that each of a child’s fundamental rights as set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child will be respected. Over the years, he has mobilized people from Montreal’s lower-income neighborhoods by founding two social pediatric centres, one in Hochelaga-Maisonnueve and one in Cote-des-Neiges. The model of social pediatrics that he initiated has helped shape programs across Canada.

In Julien’s own words: “Janusz Korczak’s spirit remains with us in working to build strong children. He was, and still is, a powerful inspiration for all of us who strive to prevent children from being left hanging in limbo, and obtaining [for them] the services and accompaniment to enable them to fulfil their developmental needs and preserve their rights in accordance with the United Nations Conventions of the Rights of the Child.”

The second keynote speaker on Feb. 18 was Dr. Christine Loock, a developmental pediatrician at Children’s and Women’s Health Centre of British Columbia, including Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children and B.C. Children’s Hospital, where she is medical director of the cleft palate and craniofacial disorders program and specialist lead for the social pediatrics RICHER (Responsive Intersectoral Children’s Health, Education and Research) initiative. She is an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia faculty of medicine and a recipient of the 2012 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for community service awarded by the Governor General of Canada.

Early in her medical training at Harvard University and the University of Washington, Loock developed an interest in social pediatrics. Her early clinical and research work focused on children and youth with congenital conditions and developmental disorders, including fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and birth defects prevention. Over the past decade, she has been engaged in collaborative interdisciplinary research and practice to develop the RICHER health service delivery models for socially vulnerable children and families in Canada. The child- and family-centred model takes into consideration a family’s particular needs and circumstances when determining the provision of care, linking services to specialized care, if needed, and community-based support networks.

Ardith (Walpetko We’dalks) Walkem rounded out the panel of speakers. A member of the Nlaka’pamux nation, which stretches from the B.C. Interior into Washington state, she has a master of laws from UBC, with a research focus on indigenous laws and oral traditions. Walkem has practised extensively with different indigenous communities, assisting them to assert their aboriginal title and rights and treaty rights, with a focus on helping them articulate their own laws and legal systems. She has worked as parents’ counsel on Child Family and Community Service Act cases, and as counsel for indigenous nations in matters involving their child members. She has also helped design systems based on indigenous laws for children and families.

Moderating the evening’s program was Dr. Curren Warf, a clinical professor of pediatrics and head of the division of adolescent health and medicine of the department of pediatrics at B.C. Children’s Hospital and the UBC faculty of medicine. He has a longstanding involvement in the care of adolescents and working collaboratively with community agencies.

Finally, I spoke briefly about Korczak, how he reached out far beyond the core of his specialization as a pediatrician to care for needy children and how he filled many varied roles necessary to the well-being of children.

The final lecture in the series – How to Love a Child: Turning Rights into Action – will be held on April 6, 6:15 p.m., at the Robert E Lee Alumni Centre at UBC. There will be a wine and cheese reception, exhibits and speakers. For more information and to register, visit jklectures.educ.ubc.ca.

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz is a Vancouver-based author and a board member of the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada.

Best interest of child

Keynote speaker Senator Anne Cools with Janusz Korczak Association of Canada president Jerry Nussbaum. (photo from JKAC)

The third session of the six-part Janusz Korczak Lecture Series “How to Love a Child” took place Nov. 25 at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre. Co-sponsored by the University of British Columbia faculty of education and the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada, this well-attended lecture – The Evolution, Current Status and Future of the “Best Interests of the Child” Principle in the Protection of Children’s Rights – drew people from all walks of life. Among the attendees were teachers, children’s rights activists, Janusz Korczak association members, the general public and students.

The lecture’s moderator, Dr. Edward Kruk, associate professor of social work at UBC, who specializes in child and family policy, opened the evening’s program, while I brought Dr. Janusz Korczak into focus by briefly discussing the fate of children in war zones, relating the topic to Korczak’s care of children during the Second World War.

The Hon. Anne Cools, senator for Toronto Centre-York and Canada’s longest serving senator, was the keynote speaker. Among her many accomplishments in social services, she founded one of Canada’s first battered women’s shelters. Her talk centred on what has been done in the best interest of the child. She spoke about the ramifications in her areas of expertise – domestic violence, divorce, child custody and shared parenting – and how the interaction of politics, government and the law provide a complex arena in which the child’s fate is often lost.

The three panelists that followed Cools each shed light on a different aspect of children’s well-being.

Beverley Smith, representing the field of child care, is a longtime women’s and children’s activist from Calgary. Among many honors, she received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award for her work. She spoke about working parents and daycare, including how this separates children from their loved ones and how the worth of a stay-at-home parent’s work (usually the mother) is undervalued by the government. In this context, she referred to Korczak, who, among other things, acted in the best interest of the child by advocating that children’s voices need to be heard on the subject of their own care and needs.

The second panelist, Cecilia Reekie, a member of the Haisla First Nation, is an adoptee. Sitting on many boards, her expertise is in the areas of aboriginal culture, truth and reconciliation. She represented the field of child protection, speaking from the heart and sharing her story with the audience. She said that she was lucky to eventually have been adopted by people who became caring and supportive parents, thus enabling her to grow and succeed in life. However, she said, many other aboriginal children have not had such luck. In fact, she said, “indigenous children are disproportionately represented in the child protection/welfare system across Canada.”

The final panelist, Eugenea Couture, is an author, mentor and advocate for child custody law reform. She is the recipient of the 2014 YMCA Power of Peace Medal and the 2014 Foster Children’s Day Award. Because of her own experience of having gone through divorce and child custody trials, she knows how divorce can become a war zone, the children its casualties. “How can we expect a child who is ripped from their family environment to feel worthy of love and belonging?” she asked. “It will not matter what they hear, because the backlash of taking them into care already speaks volumes of trauma.”

To register for the next lecture in the Janusz Korczak series – The Human Rights of Aboriginal Children, with keynote speakers Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C. representative for children and youth, and Dr. Michael DeGagné, president and vice-chancellor of Nipissing University – visit jklectures.educ.ubc.ca. There is no cost to attend. The lecture takes place on Jan. 21, 7 p.m., at the alumni centre.

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz is a Vancouver-based author and a board member of the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada.

Kids in the classroom

Maria LeRose, left, speaks with Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl. (photo from Janusz Korczak Association of Canada)

The second lecture of the “How to Love a Child” series, co-sponsored by the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada and the University of British Columbia faculty of education, took place at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre on Oct. 29. The topic was Janusz Korczak and the Importance of Listening to Children’s Voices in Education: Theory, Research and Practical Strategies.

Keynote speaker Dr. Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl spoke at length on being mindful and caring towards children, very much in the spirit of Korczak’s own theories on how to love a child. Her best example was the classroom as the microcosmic world of children, where teachers’ attitudes towards their students play an integral role in their development.

Schonert-Reichl is a professor in the Human Development, Learning and Culture program at UBC and the interim director of the Human Early Learning Partnership. She has authored more than 100 articles and several books, and her focus is on the social and emotional development and the well-being of children and adolescents.

In her address, she talked about her own education and how she was seduced by the idea of giving children a voice in the classroom. So, she engaged them in decorating the classroom according to their own taste, and let them express their ideas. When the students saw that their opinion mattered, they became engaged. Schonert-Reichl realized that she was learning from her students by listening to them, hearing and heeding their voices, and this increased her pleasure in teaching them. She discussed further how teachers need to have compassion for the children and to never shame them.

Following the keynote lecture, moderator Maria LeRose, program consultant for the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education and adjunct professor at UBC in the faculty of medicine, coordinated a panel consisting of Robin Kaebe, Salma Rafi and Alexander Corless, Grade 6 students at Lord Roberts Elementary School, who answered questions from the audience. They spoke of how a teacher’s attitude matters; how children need to be heard and seen. Even a hello in the school corridor gives a child a sense of being and recognition.

One student said that the classroom becomes like a second family and that very important relationships are formed at school. Another appreciated school’s climate of comfort and safety. Another defined a teacher as “somebody who asks us what we want to do.” Also appreciated was the presence of suggestion boxes as a medium through which the children could express their thoughts and feelings.

Both Schonert-Reichel and LeRose addressed the fact that teachers also need care and understanding, as being a teacher is an often-demanding job that can cause burnout.

The panel discussion closed on the importance of parent-teacher communication, as that gives the child more confidence, acknowledgment and feeling of security.

Jerry Nussbaum, the president of the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada, opened the evening with remarks about Korczak and his various activities in the field of children’s rights and welfare, and he quoted Korczak: “Children are people whose souls contain the seeds of all those thoughts and emotions that we possess. As these seeds develop, their growth must be gently directed.”

Nussbaum mentioned the famous Korczak democratic court, held in his orphanage for the children by the children. Nussbaum concluded his address by thanking all the donors, speakers and volunteers.

The next and third lecture of the six-part series takes place in the alumni centre on Nov. 25, with Anne Cools, senator for Toronto Centre-York, and moderator Dr. Edward Kruk, associate professor of social work at UBC. The discussion will focus on current challenges in the implementation of the “best interests of the child” standard in Canadian jurisprudence, social policy and professional practice. To register, visit jklectures.educ.ubc.ca.

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz is a Vancouver-based author and a board member of the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada.