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This travel card was issued in lieu of a passport. The name listed is my Polish name

Expectations
I had some regrets about leaving France; my godparents and my newly discovered aunt and cousins with whom I had become very close. I thought of Canada as a young country full of wheat fields. It seemed to be a place where I would never run out of bread. Canada represented a new life and a new beginning. Although I was anxious about the unknown, I remember feeling a tremendous amount of anticipation and excitement.

Family
I had become friends with a French boy, Jacques Mydlarski. Just before I was to leave for Canada, he invited me home to meet his family. We got along very well and they invited me back. On the second visit, a Polish relative of his mother’s was also there. She overheard me mentioning the name of my hometown and came in from the kitchen, wiping a dish. When I told her my father’s name, she dropped her dish, ran to me, hugged me and began speaking to me in Yiddish. She was my father’s sister, my aunt. I had found a whole family I had not known about.

Immigration to Canada
I remember being told that no country in the world, with the exception of Palestine, wanted us. Nearly all of the orphans put their names on the list for Palestine, but getting into Palestine was made nearly impossible by the British blockade at the time.

I came very close to emigrating to Palestine. I was actually on a boat in Marseille destined for Palestine, when I was ordered off with all my belongings. Later I discovered that Madame Rachel Minz had me removed. She was a member of the Jewish group, the Bund, that believed in a strong Diaspora, and who had worked with us in the orphanage. I was absolutely furious, of course.

The other two options open to us were Canada or Australia. Australia was attractive to many of us because of its distance from Europe. In those days it took 3 or 4 months to get to Australia by boat and we figured that if there was ever another war, it would be the safest place to be.

Getting into Canada was tough. The process was a very lengthy one and you had to be absolutely healthy. Wearing glasses was enough to disqualify you. I had trouble getting approval because of my very low blood pressure. I had repeated blood tests and had all but given up hope. I finally got a letter accepting me into Canada.

The Voyage
The voyage took about a week, which seemed quite long to me. I have fond memories of the trip and remember reading Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind in French.