David Shentow
David Shentow (April 29, 1925 – June 12, 2017) was a Belgian-Canadian Holocaust survivor and educator, featured in Canadian films, books and articles.[1][2] He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012,[3][4] and the Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers in 2017.[5][6] For "extraordinary community service to the citizens of the City of Ottawa, the Province of Ontario and Canada", the "David Shentow Park" was unveiled by Mayor Jim Watson (Canadian politician) on 11 September 2022.[7]
Early life
[edit]David Shentow was born Dydja Krzetowski on April 29, 1925 in Warsaw, Poland, to Rivka and Moishe Avraham, both from Białobrzegi, Poland. His parents moved to Antwerp, Belgium where David attended the local Tachkemoni school and his sisters, Paula (Perel) and Esther were born. Of his immediate family, only David survived the Holocaust.[8]
WWII
[edit]World War II broke out in September 1939. The Holocaust in Belgium began with the German invasion in May 1940: the Military Government passed the first anti-Jewish laws in October that year.
Shentow and his family - like all Belgian Jews - were refused emigration documents. In 1941, their radios and bicycles were confiscated by the Gestapo. Shentow and his sisters - indeed, all Jewish children - were denied access to schools: they were banned from parks, and other public places. From May 1942, Shentow and all Jewish citizens - including babies and young children - were forced to wear the yellow Star of David that segregated them for persecution.[9]
In 1942, all men and boys over 16, were instructed to report to the Mechelen transit camp (halfway between Antwerp and Brussels). David and his father - a tailor - were deported to a labour camp in France, where they were beaten as slaves, labouring on the Chemin Des Juifs.[10]
Later that year Shentow was transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. All members of his family in Europe - his parents, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles - were murdered.[11][12]
Shentow survived slave labour, the Auschwitz extermination camp, the death marches,[13] and the Dachau concentration camp, from which he was liberated on his 20th birthday (April 29, 1945).[14]
Appearance in films
[edit]David Shentow's personal testimony is featured in the film by Montreal-born Floralove Katz, David Shentow: Prisoner of the Nazi Holocaust, No. 72585 (2020).[15]
Historian Marcus R. Roberts consulted with David Shentow on his research on the Chemin Des Juifs (2015).[16]
Shentow is the central figure in the Ottawa-born documentary Director Koa Padolsky's film Le Chemin des Juifs (2017),[17][18] which chronicles his Holocaust experiences during the war. Le Chemin des Juifs (The Road of the Jews) refers to a 4-kilometer concrete road poured and formed (under terrible condition and duress) by Belgian Jewish slave labourers: it was intended for attacks on England by heavy armoured vehicles and tanks. The road is located in a nature reserve near the French coastline towns of Neufchâtel-Hardelot and Condette. Still visible in the concrete are bare foot-prints of Jewish slave prisoners, the jack-boots of their German captors, and paw-prints of the vicious German Shepherd dogs.[16]
Shentow appears in the 2015 film Blind Love.
David and his wife Rose participated on eight March of the Living missions. Over decades, hundreds of listeners became, as he termed it, "witnesses of the Holocaust" as Shentow shared his testimony in lectures at high schools, universities, police academies and for the Canadian military.
Later life and Holocaust education
[edit]David Shentow immigrated to Canada in 1949. He married Rose Feldberg (of origin from Białobrzegi, Poland) and they raised two daughters. A chance encounter in the 1980s with Holocaust denier[19] Ernst Zundel prompted Shentow to speak about the Holocaust over the following decades.[20] In Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations, by Eli Rubenstein, Shentow's quotes evoke his experiences.[21]
References
[edit]- ^ Shefa, Sheri. "Auschwitz Survivor, Well-known Holocaust Educator Dies at 92". Canadian Jewish News. 15 June 2016.
- ^ Carleton University: Remembrance and Memory After the Holocaust "David Shentow". Carleton University. 13 June 2017.
- ^ Canadian Honours System.
- ^ "Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal". 18 April 2017.
- ^ "Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers". 21 September 2017.
- ^ "Obituary: David Shentow". Legacy.com.
- ^ Dimmock, Gary. "Testament to David's Legacy": Ottawa Park Named after Holocaust Survivor and Educator Shentow". Ottawa Citizen. 12 September 2022.
- ^ Shefa, Sheri (15 June 2017). "Auschwitz Survivor, Well-known Holocaust Educator, Dies at 92". Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
- ^ "Jewish Badge: During the Nazi Era". encyclopedia.ushmm.org.
- ^ "Places of interest - Camp tibor and sites of slave labour at dannes - Trails - Anglo-Jewish History - JTrails.org.uk". www.jtrails.org.uk.
- ^ "Ottawa's David Shentow survived 'hell on earth' at Auschwitz". CBC News. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
- ^ Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (October 18, 2013). "True North Strong and Free: David Shentow". www.canada.ca.
- ^ "Death Marches". encyclopedia.ushmm.org.
- ^ Rubenstein, Eli. "Eulogy of David Shentow". March Of the Living. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
- ^ "David Shentow Prisoner of the Nazi Holocaust No. 72585". YouTube. 26 February 2020. (Film Producer, Director, Editor, Composer, Musician: Floralove Katz; Interviewer: David Hoffman)
- ^ a b "Jewsroad - Trails - Anglo-Jewish History - JTrails.org.uk". www.jtrails.org.uk.
- ^ "Le Chemin des Juifs". Vimeo. 9 March 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.(Producer: Daniel Bhattacharya)
- ^ "Carleton University Survivors Testimonies". 23 August 2016.
- ^ "Holocaust Denial and Distortion - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". www.ushmm.org.
- ^ Duffy, Andrew. "'Profoundly courageous,' David Shentow was Ottawa's best known Holocaust survivor and educator". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
- ^ When Shentow first learned of Holocaust deniers, "I said there and then, I would crawl on my hands and knees all the way to Auschwitz-Birkenau to tell my story to anyone who was willing to listen. This is why I march and why I speak. When we went back to Auschwitz, when I saw the big sign 'Arbeit Mach Frei', it all brought back such painful memories. I just froze at the gate. One student said: ‘David, we will walk in together, and we will walk out together.’ They were holding on to me or I was holding on to them. I don't remember anymore – the sympathy, the hugging. There are no words to describe it. It will be with me forever."