David also known as Dawid,  our gregarious and  unforgettable father, was born in Lodz, a textile town in central Poland, on April 10, 1914. We called him “Tata.” He was small in stature but in terms of character, he was a giant of a man with a zest for life that never grew old.

He was part of a doomed Polish Jewish generation. While many of his contemporaries in the Lodz ghetto perished, our father survived the massacre of the Jewish community in Poland because of his skills and will to live.

He served as a soldier in the Polish Army and was transferred to a German prisoner of war camp after he was wounded in the leg by shrapnel. In 1940, he was sent to the Lodz Ghetto – the last ghetto to be liquidated by the Nazis – where he served as a fireman.

READ: GROWING UP SURROUNDED BY HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS 

When the ghetto was dismantled in August 1944, our father lived in a succession of Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. He was liberated by British troops in 1945 and found himself in a displaced persons camp in southern Germany. There, he met and married ourmother Genya, who he knew from the gymnasia (high school) in Lodz before the war.

He and our mother embraced a new life and arrived in Halifax in 1948. In the cold of winter and with optimism and youth on their side, they then took a train to Montreal.

At the time, the Canadian government was opening the country’s doors to survivors with skills. Our father was a master tailor by trade, and the Canadian garment industry had a shortage of tailors.  He got a job as a foreman in a factory that manufactured women’s high-end coats and held the position for two decades.

In addition, he would work late into the night finishing fur coats for a second factory, and yet he always managed to find more hours around in the day to have time to sew coats and dresses for his family.

After years of living in cold-water flats in Montreal, our father eventually left the city’s old Jewish quarter in the early 19050s.  He continued to toil with optimism, all the while creating a wonderful life for his family, with whom he retreated to the Laurentian Mountains every summer for many years.

The Holocaust left our father David with unspeakable memories he couldn’t forget. After his long-time employer declared bankruptcy, he bought a dry cleaning store in downtown Montreal and it flourished for a short while during the ’60s. At one point, our father was seriously wounded in an armed robbery and nearly lost his life. The injuries he incurred he battled emotionally and physically for many years to come.

In 1981, our parents left Montreal and joined family members in Toronto. In the winter months, they would retreat to their condo in Florida and cherished being dubbed “privileged snowbirds.”  David felt grateful for his good fortune.

As the years passed, he would describe his experiences during the war in English, Yiddish and Polish. He loved showing off the Polish war medals that adorned a navy blue blazer.

David remained mentally engaged and alert until late in his life. He enjoyed reading The Canadian Jewish News and would underline articles that he found interesting. He was prone to bouts of laughter and was an extrovert by nature, although he often kept important thoughts to himself. He would spend hours grooming himself and would, with a smile, frequently comment how handsome and gorgeous he thought he was.

David passed away on Jan. 20, 2016 at 101 years of age. He walked toward death supported by his walker, ever optimistic and looking forward to returning home to his beloved Genya.

He survived a lifetime of adversities that defeated so many others. He survived the Holocaust, an armed robbery, cancer, two hip replacements and a pacemaker.  Throughout it all, he never gave up!

The last hours of his life, our father lay for hours in a small cubicle waiting for the doctor who never came in to see him. As always, he was alert and prepared for yet another hurdle, surrounded by those that cherished and loved him.

Thank you for reading David’s story and remembering him for his courage and tenacity.

Marylyn Dahan and Shirley Schapira wrote this about their late father in January 2017.