"Earliest memories? Being called a 'dirty Jew.' Wearing a yellow star. Being called a 'dog.' Being thrown rocks at."
I could almost picture the small five-yearold girl suffering such indignities in early 1940s Nazi Germany.
".[I was] once sold by a nun, I know the Mother Superior came and woke me because one of the nuns had called the Gestapo and found out I was Jewish and was selling me."
The woman telling the story is matter of fact as she recalls the horrors she and her family suffered at the hands of the Nazis prior to and during the Second World War. Plugged into my computer at work with my headphones on, I was mesmerized by the words of Mariette Doduck, recorded on audio cassette Aug. 17, 1997 for the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia, which was founded by the Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia and is located on Ash Street.
"I remember a man with no nails or toe nails. I found out later on that his nails were pulled out and he was tortured," Doduck continues.
Doduck's story is just one of 700 interviews conducted and recorded for the museum, which is trying to collect as many stories from Jewish residents across B.C. as possible for its archives. The museum's archivist Jennifer Yuhasz told me the project began in 1968, which makes many of the tapes more than 40 years old. When you consider the typical life expectancy of an audio tape is 40 years, the museum was concerned some of these interviews could be lost for good. But last year, with financial support from the Irving K. Barber History Digitization Program, the museum began the monumental task of converting the tapes to a digital format.
Of the 700 interviews completed to date, about 500 are still on audio cassette. Last year a contract worker converted 364, but the museum still has a long way to go. A single volunteer is helping convert the remaining tapes to digital. Yuhasz says the interviews are also completed by volunteers, so she's looking for help.
Many of the audio interviews are available to listen to online, which helps bring the stories to life. And while many of the stories are grim and tell the horrors of life hiding from the Nazis and surviving years in a concentration camp, others tell of early life for small Jewish communities trying to forge a life in B.C.
In 1973, Joseph and Rose Youngson spoke about life in Strathcona where they had settled.
"Yeah, it was a very nice community," Joseph says during the interview. "People were closer one to another. Today if you want to see somebody you have to make an appointment or they have to invite you before or make appointment ahead of time. There, if you felt like seeing somebody you just walked in the house and your friends, you go to Georgia Street on a summer evening everybody was sitting outside on the veranda and chatting, talking. And they were all together."
In 2000, Charna Plottel told an interviewer about her earliest memories of life in Vancouver.
"Well, I can remember swinging on the gate on Seventh Avenue on August the 5th, 1929, while my brother was being born in the house at home. And I didn't even know my mother was pregnant." she says laughing. "I do have other memories. I remember when I was going to Edith Cavell school, my father very often would come up at lunch time, drive up from wherever his factory was then. he would come up and he'd bring me wurst sandwiches. And we'd sit in his car and eat them."
The stories are fascinating on their own, but hearing them told by the people who experienced them brings them to life for the listener. Each audio interview is accompanied by a written transcript so listeners can read along with the story teller.
To listen to the audio interviews go to jewishmuseum.ca/oral histories. If you're Jewish and have a story to tell or wish to nominate an appropriate storyteller, contact the museum at 604-257-5199.
Twitter: @sthomas10
