Reaction to the Holocaust

Heroes Remember

Reaction to the Holocaust

Transcript

We didn’t know about it. We only read the English papers, which were obviously very rigidly censored and in Italy, we only read the Maple Leaf, which was an army newspaper. The wire, there was no TV. The wireless was rigidly censored. I had no concept about the things that I know now because I’ve read history. But there was leakages and people sort of became aware that something terrible was happening. We didn’t’ know that in the army. We knew that Hitler was terrible and the he was trying to kill the Jews. We didn’t know there were concentration camps or what he was doing. We didn’t know that he had killed two million gypsies. I mean, we didn’t know any of those things. I gradually found that out while I was in the hospital because it started to leak into the newspapers. My reaction was like what any human being’s reaction was absolutely abhorrent. I wasn’t as personally emotionally involved as most of my fellow Jews because my family is a little unusual. We came over, part of us in 1852, the rest in 1872. So I’m a fifth generation Montrealer. Any connections with my original family, which was in Lithuania, was long since gone. I’m sure I still had family there and I’m sure that they were killed, but I didn’t even know of their existence so it wasn’t personal for me. But as a Jew, knowing that he was trying to kill every Jew, my reactions were pretty obvious. I was delighted that I had contributed to getting rid of him. And he didn’t do it alone. There were lots of people with him.

Description

Mr. Finestone describes his reaction to the Holocaust.

Bernard J. Finestone

Mr. Finestone was born in Sacramento, California, and moved to Montreal when he was ten months old. His father served with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery during the First World War. Mr. Finestone joined the COTC while he was studying at McGill University and when the war broke out he was in officer training. Mr. Finestone served as a tank commander in Italy and during the Italian Campaign, he was severely wounded. Mr. Finestone is an active speaker. He speaks to young Canadians about his military experiences and being a Jewish veteran.

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