About the Program

The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program was established by the Azrieli Foundation in 2005 to collect, preserve and share the memoirs and diaries written by survivors of the twentieth-century Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe who later made their way to Canada. The program is guided by the conviction that each survivor of the Holocaust has a remarkable story to tell, and that such stories play an important role in education about tolerance and diversity.

Millions of individual stories are lost to us forever. By preserving the stories written by survivors and making them widely available to a broad audience, the program seeks to sustain the memory of all those who perished at the hands of hatred, abetted by indifference and apathy.

The personal accounts of those who survived against all odds are as different as the people who wrote them, but all demonstrate the courage, strength, wit and luck that it took to prevail and survive in such terrible adversity. More than half a century later, the diversity of stories allows readers to put a face on what was lost, and to grasp the enormity of what happened to six million Jews—one story at a time.

The Azrieli Series memoirs are also moving tributes to people—strangers and friends—who risked their lives to help others, and who, through acts of kindness and decency in the darkest of moments, frequently helped the persecuted maintain faith in humanity and courage to endure. The accounts of how these survivors went on to build new lives in Canada after the war offers inspiration to all, as does their desire to share their experiences so that new generations can learn from them.

In addition to online editions, print editions of these distinctive historical records—published under the imprint of the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs—are distributed free of charge to libraries, schools and Holocaust-education programs across Canada, and to the general public at Azrieli Foundation educational events.

To date, the program has collected some 170 individual memoirs and ongoing outreach has inspired many survivors to write about their experiences. Series I, comprising four volumes in English and three in French, was launched in 2007 and has been recognized by the Independent Publisher Book Awards and the Canadian Jewish Book Awards. Series II will be published in April 2009 and launched at gala events in Montreal and Toronto.

Scholarly assistance in the editing and preparation of these memoirs for publication was provided by the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University. Original maps for each volume have been provided by renowned British historian Sir Martin Gilbert, CBE, a pioneer of historical atlases, author of many works on the Holocaust and Jewish history, and the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill. The manuscripts as originally submitted are preserved in the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University, and are available for review by interested scholars.