Buying a Farm with Tourist Visa

[00:00-00:06]

Video begins with inter-title in white text on black screen while instrumental music plays and fades into the next frame: George Lysy applied for a Canadian visa before and after the war. He was rejected both times.

[00:07-00:37]

Cut to Holocaust survivor George Lysy, sitting in front of a grey background, and looking to the left of the camera. The camera shows his face and shoulders as he speaks during an interview conducted in Toronto in 1988.

>> George Lysy: I applied before the war to Canada and I didn't know Canadian's don't accept Jews.

[00:12-00:19]

The name “George Lysy” and the location of the filmed interview, “Toronto”, appear in white text above George's right shoulder.

>> I found it out lately. I knew Canadians don't accept single people and I put in my application that I was married. And I would have married if it would come through. And I didn't know after the war that Canadians don't like Jews. And I applied right after the war. I left Czechoslovakia, I went to Paris, I went to the Canadian embassy and they told me it might take a year.

[00:38-00:45]

Cut to second inter-title in white text on black screen while instrumental music plays: Determined to immigrate, George and his wife arrived in Canada in 1952 on a tourist visa and purchased a farm in Tillsonburg, Ontario.

[00:46-00:50]

Cut to black-and-white photograph of a woman and man sitting outdoors together and smiling at the camera. The man has a moustache.  Instrumental music plays and the photo caption appears in white text in the top-left corner, “George and Judy Lysy, 1945”.

[00:51-00:56]

Cut to black-and-white photograph of a woman and man standing outdoors and looking at each other. Both are wearing jackets, and the man wears a hat.  Instrumental music plays and the photo caption appears in white text in the top-right corner, “George and Judy Lysy, 1946”.

>> When I heard that here you can buy a farm with a lower down payment…

[00:57-02:30]

Cut to George Lysy in front of the camera.

>> I saved up enough money. Again I applied, again I didn't get a visa. I came here as a tourist. I told the immigration department that, “I am here. I bought a farm. I want to stay here.” They told me that, “How did you dare to buy a farm? You don't know if you will be accepted.” And I told them, “You don't know me. I know myself. I know I'm in good health. For you I have to go to a medical exam but I know the results. I know my political background. You have to investigate it, but I know I wasn't involved with no fascists, with no communists, so I know I'm a farmer. So why wouldn't I then? I know that I qualify from every point. I have the money to buy a farm, I bought it. So why would I be rejected? I am here.” And the guy, he had what he heard from Canadian ministers that Jews are no farmers, they pretend to be farmers. And he came back to my farm with all kinds of excuses to see if I am there. And he found me working a team of horses, barefooted, with equipment that you can't learn. I mean you don't learn how to drive a team of horses and a car with a hoe attachment, and you don't go barefooted if you were brought up in a city. And I think so then, he tried to believe that maybe I am a farmer.

[02:31-02:40]

Music plays for the remainder of the video. Three credit pages appear in white text on black screen: Interview conducted by Marion Seftel, Archives of the Holocaust Project, Toronto, 1988, Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre

Images: Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, Courtesy of George Lysy Family

Directing: Helgi Piccinin; Editing and Colorization: Michaël Gravel, Helgi Piccinin; Audio Mix and Original Music: Pierre-Luc Lecours. [Logo for Chaire de recherche du Canada en patrimoine ethnologique]

Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, copyright 2017.

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End of transcript.