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Before the War
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I. Bedzin, Poland
I was born on December 6, 1931 in Bedzin, Poland, a city with a population of 75,000, about a third Jewish. It was a large and thriving Jewish community. My family included my father, mother and two older brothers, David and Victor, who we called Voltleb at home. Though we were not ultra-orthodox, we attended Shul every Friday night. I had quite a few aunts and uncles. Only one cousin survived the Holocaust.

We were not rich and my father worked very hard. He was a tailor who made suits for clothing stores. He worked from our home, which consisted of two rooms. One room was used as our bedroom and eating area, while the other was used as my father's workshop and the kitchen. The building had no indoor plumbing.
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Regina's Map
I. Bedzin, Poland
II. The Ghetto
III. Concentration Camps
IV. The End of the War
V. Immigration to Canada
VI. Arrival
VII. Becoming Canadian
Holocaust
The mass murder of nearly 6 million European Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. Many individuals and groups were persecuted and suffered during the Holocaust, but only the Jews were targeted for total "extermination". The term literally means a burnt sacrifice, or sacred burning. The biblical word "Shoah," meaning catastrophe, is the Hebrew equivalent.
Jew/Jewish
Someone of the Hebrew or Jewish people. Someone who is either born or converts to Judaism, which is the religion, philosophy and way of life of the Jewish People.
Shul
Yiddish word for synagogue.