The Boy in the Woods by Maxwell Smart

Author:Maxwell Smart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2022-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

No state, no country, no band of men can more truly be described as the linchpin of peace and world progress.

Winston Churchill (referring to Canada), 1930

Canadian Refuge

Unfortunately, I received negative news from Montreal: I had been refused entry because the Canadian government did not consider cousins to be immediate family. At that time, the Canadian government did not want to allow in any Jewish refugees, especially into Quebec. I decided at this point that I would board a ship for Palestine because I realized that I had no one in Canada except Joe. I still had his last name, Schmerer, but I decided that when I arrived in pre-state Israel, I would change it back to Oziac Fromm, my birth name. I hoped it would be a better decision to go to Palestine, and that maybe I would even find some family there. I felt that, even though I was risking being interned on the island of Cyprus, Palestine was the only place for me to go. I was confident that I would eventually feel secure surrounded by my own people in Israel. I dreamed that if I ever reached Israel, I would join the Haganah—which in later years became the core of the Israel Defense Forces—and fight for the establishment of Israel.

One day, without warning, members of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) came to the office at the camp where I was living and asked if there were any orphans under eighteen years old interested in going to Canada. They said that there were some families in Canada who were interested in adopting children, preferably aged four to seven. But the majority of those children had been killed in the Holocaust. The ones who had survived were approximately twelve to fifteen years old because they had been able to take care of themselves. The members of the congress announced that any youth who were interested should come to the camp office and register but that the program was strictly for orphans.

I had had enough of Europe; I wanted to go to school or work and settle down and start a real life. I hoped that perhaps a nice family would adopt me. The representatives of the Canadian Jewish Congress told me that the Jews in Canada were anxious to help the orphans. I underwent an intensive examination, including a check on my health and tests of my reading ability in several different languages. If I passed the tests, they would advise me as to when to be ready to leave and what preparations would be made. Thankfully, I did pass the tests, and I was accepted as one of the one thousand orphans to immigrate to Canada.

I had three months to prepare myself to leave. This was a huge decision and a conflict for me. I was ready to go to Palestine, but I also wanted to go to Canada because Israel had not yet been created, and the only alternative was, as I mentioned, camps in Cyprus. I thought about how long I might be in a camp.

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