|
|
May 21, 2004
Vancouver's unlikely hero
Partisan fighter Leon Kahn is remembered in film and book.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The family of Leon Kahn, a Vancouverite who miraculously survived
wartime tragedy and years as a partisan fighter in the forests of
Europe, will mark Kahn's first yahrzeit next month. Kahn passed
away June 8, 2003, but the lessons of his life are being remembered
through book and film.
Kahn's tragic experience as the sole Holocaust survivor in his family
and his experiences throughout the war era as a partisan fighter
are recollected in a film that premières May 30: Unlikely
Heroes: Stories of Jewish Resistance. In an interview for the
film not long before he passed away last year, Kahn told the gripping
and tragic tale of how he survived the war while battling fascism
and seemingly insurmountable odds.
Among his recollections are being witness to some of history's most
barbaric mass murders, in his hometown of Eishishkes, Lithuania.
A full review of the film, including an overview of Kahn's personal
experience as a partisan fighter, will appear in next week's Bulletin.
In addition to the film, Ronsdale Press and the Wosk Publishing
Program of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre are re-releasing
Kahn's memoir No Time to Mourn.
Kahn was involved with a partisan force that participated in the
sabotaging of war infrastructure, aiming to delay or halt the advances
of the German army. Among the tactics Kahn and his compatriots employed
were the hacking down of telephone and power poles, the derailing
of trains carrying military supplies and, eventually, the blowing
up of fuel tankers headed for the front. Though his heroic acts
succeeded in confounding the Nazi war machine, Kahn nevertheless
suffered the loss of every member of his family to the Nazis or
their Polish collaborators.
Having survived the war, Kahn found himself alone in the world and
from the displaced persons camps of Europe, he made his way to North
America.
In 1948, Kahn arrived in Canada, having passed himself off as a
tailor at a time when that was one of the few professions that provided
a displaced person entry into this country. In an afterword to the
reissue of Kahn's memoirs, his children have written that "the
limitations of our father's garment-making skills became clear when
he zagged instead of zigged and vice versa. The jig was up and it
was time to find a new job," which he did.
In 1952, he travelled to New York to meet some relatives for the
first time and, while there, attended a dance for Jewish newcomers,
where he met Evelyn Landsman, a Bronx girl with Eishishkes roots.
They married, Evelyn moved to Vancouver with Leon, and they had
four children, Mark, Charlene, Hodie and Saul. (Charlene, who was
born with severe developmental disabilities, passed away in 1966.)
After they married, Leon Kahn scoped out an unlikely business niche
for a Jew – Christmas trees – but his entrepreneurial
spirit made a go of it and the business flourished. It was on a
Christmas tree lot in 1957 that Kahn met a man who would change
his life forever. Henry Block was a partner in the emerging local
real estate giant Block Brothers. Spotting a talent for sales, Block
asked Kahn to come work for him. Beginning as an entry-level commercial
real estate agent, Kahn finally met his match. He wasn't very good
at it. Block refused to acknowledge defeat, however, and pushed
Kahn over to the construction wing of the company, offering the
advice that, to cover up Kahn's initial ignorance of the construction
industry, he should walk around confidently opening and shutting
a tape measure. Block Brothers became Western Canada's largest real
estate firm and Kahn would become president of its construction
division before parting amicably to start his own firm. Among Kahn's
most notable projects were the Vancouver Show Mart Building and
the Seattle Trade Centre.
Leon Kahn's son, Saul, told the Bulletin that being his family's
sole survivor of the Holocaust gave Leon a special purpose and perspective
in life.
"He always felt that he survived the war because he was meant
to give of himself to the community," said Saul Kahn. Infused
by a deep sense of obligation mixed with an overwhelming guilt at
surviving while the rest of his family did not, Leon Kahn's outlook
was unique, said his son. He avoided the trappings of wealth that
many of his station exhibited and devoted himself to community service
and providing for his own family.
Kahn contributed enormously to the community as a philanthropist
and volunteer, including serving on the boards of several local
institutions. His beneficiaries included Jewish and secular causes
devoted to Holocaust education, medical research, health care, as
well as the Jewish Family Service Agency, the B.C. Lung Foundation,
the B.C. Cancer Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Greater
Vancouver. He was a founding member of the Vancouver Holocaust Education
Centre and a founding funder of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Writing his memoirs required a devastating reliving of the most
horrific times of Kahn's life but, Saul Kahn said, the pain provided
a testament to history that few others could have provided.
"We're very fortunate that he went through what he went through
to write that book," he said, adding that the film will provide
Leon Kahn's seven grandchildren with an important monument to their
grandfather. "We're very, very blessed."
Arthur Block, one of the eponymous Block brothers, was not only
a business partner of Leon Kahn's and a friend, but also a neighbor
who for 20 years watched Leon and Evelyn raise their family.
"I would describe Leon as a person who was very committed to
his family, his community and to his friends," Block told the
Bulletin. "He had a very keen sense of loyalty. For
me, he was a very dear friend."
Block believes Kahn's war experiences were never far from his mind:
"I think it affected everything that he did, how he dealt with
his family, his community."
Unlikely Heroes is produced by Moriah Films, the media wing
of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles. Kahn is not British
Columbia's only connection to the film, as Rabbi Marvin Hier, the
Simon Wiesenthal Centre's founder and current dean, is a rabbi emeritus
of Vancouver's Schara Tzedeck Synagogue.
Unlikely Heroes screens Sunday, May 30, 2:30 p.m., at Oakridge
Centre Cineplex Odeon. Tickets are $18 /$25. A book launch for the
re-released No Time to Mourn will coincide with the film
screening.
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.
^TOP
|
|
