In this video, Minna Loewith describes the first days living on the Wren Farm with her family and other Czech refugees. Having arrived during a very cold November, the group had a difficult time adapting to the harsh living conditions on the farm and extreme temperatures. Source: Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre, 1984
[00:00-00:07]
Video begins with inter-title in white text on black screen while instrumental music plays and fades into the next frame: In November 1938, Minna Loewith's family immigrated to Canada and settled with other Czech refugees on the Wren Farm near Hamilton, Ontario.
[00:08-00:26]
Cut to black-and-white photograph of a woman smiling at the camera, standing beside a white horse with her hand resting on the horse's reigns. The photo caption appears in white text in the bottom-right corner, “Minna Loewith, 1940s”.
>> Minna Loewith: To go back to my recollections, to the first days on the Wren Farm, where life started to take on a little bit of normalcy.
[00:27-01:26]
Cut to black-and-white photograph of a group of about 35 people standing outdoors with hats and coats. They stand in front of a barn in the background, and fields in the distance. The photo caption appears in white text in the top-left corner, “Czech refugees, Wren Farm, ON, 1938”. The camera zooms and spans horizontally across the group.
>> The ladies were busy preparing meals for all these people under the most primitive conditions. And, I guess, the men were trying to sort out the situation and just see how they could possibly make a living. I know my parents, or I should say, my mother and the rest of the ladies were anxious to get the young people enrolled in a school, mainly I guess to get us out of the way. This being November, and a very cold and bitter November. We couldn't really be outdoors. Also, we weren't prepared for such extreme cold temperatures, as we encountered in the year of 1938.
[01:27-02:05]
Cut to black-and-white photograph of a woman and man standing and holding a young boy between them, smiling at the camera. They are wearing coats and standing outside in front of a truck. The photo caption appears in white text in the bottom-right corner, “Minna with husband Joe and their son Harry, 1940s”.
>> And most of us, most of the young people, started school in a one-room schoolhouse very close by. I remember Karl Schleisner, being a butcher, bought meat, which he cut up in the basement and fortunately it was cold enough so that it didn't spoil and we didn't need any refrigeration. And for a long time to come, we all ate this old cow.
[2:06-02:16]
Music plays for the remainder of the video. Three credit pages appear in white text on black screen: Interview conducted by Morris Silbert, Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre, Toronto, 1984
Images: Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre, Minna Loewith Family Collection
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.