By Elena Kingsbury (FSWC Director of Holocaust Curriculum and Learning

Strand A3.7- Experiences and contributions of Jewish communities and the impact of antisemitism on these communities: Learning about settler and newcomer groups in Canada has been expanded to explicitly include experiences and contributions of Jewish communities; Students learn to identify some of the impacts of antisemitism on these communities’ development and/or identities.

Auschwitz Survivors in Canada: Life after Liberation

Each January 27th, Canada marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day in honour of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp in early 1945, 81 years ago. In 2025, the Government of Canada launched the National Holocaust Remembrance Program in recognition of the fact that we have a responsibility to never forget the events of history and to combat antisemitism and other forms of hate at home here in Canada. Not only today, but so that “every generation understands the enduring significance of ‘never again.’” (The Honourable Ya’ara Saks)

Auschwitz, more than any other camp, embodies the horrors of the Holocaust in our collective memory. This is due to its status as the largest center of industrialized killing built by the Nazi regime, where 1.1 million people perished, but also because it was a centre of labour, with thousands of prisoners who miraculously lived to see liberation.

Many survivors of Auschwitz ultimately immigrated to Canada in the post-war period. Their stories are a powerful way of exploring how newcomer Jewish Canadians, 35,000 of whom arrived on Canadian shores in the aftermath of WWII, overcame barriers relating to antisemitism both at home and abroad to become citizens and help shape the Canada we know and love today.

FSWC is lucky to have known and worked with several survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, some of whom  are still educating Canadian students today. We encourage you to explore their journeys of survival and immigration to Canada by watching survivor testimony and engaging with accompanying resources with your students.

Take Hedy Bohm, who was born in 1928, in Oradea, Transylvania. Hedy was 14 years old when she was deported with her parents to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, where they were both murdered. Hedy, meanwhile, was selected for slave labour. After the war, Hedy lived with an aunt and uncle until marrying her husband, Imre. They arrived in Toronto in August 1948. After working in factories for several years, Hedy and Imre opened up a small shoe business and worked in it together. Hedy was widowed in 1992 and continued running the business until 2008 when she retired and started a new life in Holocaust Education.

Another local survivor of Auschwitz, Nate Leipciger, is today a renowned Canadian Holocaust educator and human rights advocate. Nate Leipciger was born in Chorzów, Poland, also in 1928. Nate was the youngest of two children and lived with his parents and older sister. After being forced into the Środula ghetto and hiding through a roundup of the ghetto, the family were discovered by the SS and in 1943, the Germans transported Nate and his family to Auschwitz, where his mother and sister were murdered. Nate survived with his father, and the two were deported to multiple other concentration camps. Together they were liberated by the American Army on May 2, 1945.

Like Hedy, Nate immigrated to Canada in 1948. Shortly thereafter, Nate married his wife Bernice and had three daughters. In 1982, he chaired the Toronto Holocaust Remembrance Committee and has continued to play a pivotal role in promoting Holocaust education through many different Canadian Jewish community institutions and organizations. In 2016, he guided Prime Minister Justin Trudeau through a visit to Auschwitz. Nate has also collaborated with Indigenous leaders and survivors of Canada’s residential school system, sharing experiences of systemic oppression and genocide.

To Learn more about Hedy and Nate, check out the following video links where they share their respective personal testimonies:

Interview with Hedy Bohm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9r9X0fTZBk

Interview with Nate Leipciger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2RaW7sPKEg