When World War II started, YHS was a very new school – just seven years old. Students at York House were very involved and affected by WWII. In the YHS “Chronicle” there are many pieces of writing and artwork by students that were done during the war. Junior students shared these pieces during their Remembrance Day Ceremony on November 8, 2012.
‘The Social Service Club’ is about the war effort at YHS. Yorkies also used the war effort as inspiration for their creative writing. ‘Knitting Needles’ is a piece by Yorkie Rosemary Orchardson. ‘Downtown on V-E Day’ is a piece by Yorkie Marilyn McLallen about the celebrations in Vancouver on V-E Day:
On November 7, the Grade 5s had a special visitor courtesy of The Memory Project. An RCMP officer and veteran came to talk about Remembrance Day and his experiences in Afghanistan:
Lillian Boraks-Nemetz was born in Warsaw, Poland. As a child, she was incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto for eighteen months. She then hid under a false identity until the war was over.
The author Lillian Boraks-Nemetz wrote an amazing story about her life called “The Old Brown Suitcase”. She came to talk to Grades 6 and 7 and some senior girls about growing up as a Jewish person in Poland during World War II. Of all the things she talked about, one in particular was very sad. She told us her little sister was shot by a Polish police officer who didn’t want to do it. But a Nazi soldier ordered him to do it while holding a gun to his head. So he threw a ball for that little girl to catch and when she ran out to catch it he shot her.
Here is a poem I wrote, imagining how that must feel:
“As she ran to catch the ball,
The Nazi man stood fierce and tall,
The innocent one loaded his gun,
While she was simply having fun.
This man was in pain,
There wasn’t anything to gain,
From killing this little Jewish girl.
The things these men did were not by choice,
They didn’t have their own voice.”
Lillian Boraks-Nemetz also told us the bombing started when she was almost 6 years old, and staying at her grandfather’s house. Then the family was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. Her father gave away some family jewels to bribe the guards to let her leave the ghetto. She had to stay very brave and walk alone. Her dad’s last words before she crossed the gates were “don’t be scared”. She took everything in her little brown suitcase which is why she chose this title for her novel.
All the girls had an amazing experience, listening to her true story about leaving her family and being separated from her sister. It was absolutely life changing for me. When you hear Lillian’s story you suddenly became empathetic. How real and in the moment she made it sound.
Rosie S., 6H
Author and Holocaust Survivor Lillian Boraks-Nemetz reads from her novel “The Old Brown Suitcase” for junior students on November 6, 2012. This reading details her escape from the Jewish ghetto:
When World War II started, YHS was a very new school – just seven years old. Students at York House were very involved and affected by WWII. In the YHS “Chronicle” there are many pieces of writing and artwork by students that were done during the war. Junior students shared these pieces during their Remembrance Day Ceremony on November 8, 2012.
On November 7, the Grade 5s had a special visitor courtesy of The Memory Project. An RCMP officer and veteran came to talk about Remembrance Day and his experiences in Afghanistan: