- Things started getting complicated for English immigrant Jennifer Frances Taylor’s young family after they settled in Canada in June of 1950. “Soon after Labour Day, school started for John and Roger,” Jennifer wrote. “It was very strange in many ways, but the kindliness and friendliness of …
- One six-year-old made the best of long weeks of quarantine in Pier 21’s Accommodation and Detention quarters. Gerard Van Kessel arrived in Canada with his family in 1951. “…two of my brothers had developed a contagious disease on board, I think it was mumps or whooping cough, I'm not sure which, we …
- They were robbed on the ship to Canada and quarantined when they arrived at Pier 21, but the Haddad family still felt blessed. The Christian Palestinian refugees had already fled to Lebanon, then Syria, then Lebanon again. While Laima Haddad still hoped to return to her home one day, her family …
- British evacuee child, Keith Alan Freeman made the best of his wartime quarantine experience. His story starts with words that I hope children today will echo when they grow up and think about these challenging days. “It must have been tough for my mother and aunt but my memories are of having a …
- Christine Schlechta was a 10-year-old German immigrant at the time of what she recalled as a magical quarantine Christmas. “It was Christmas Eve, 1951, when we arrived in Halifax at Pier 21,” Christine remembered. “We were led into the large assembly hall lined with benches where we had to wait …
- Canada would have lost Margarita Bruehler nee Sosnowsky to Paraguay if her brother hadn’t come down with the chickenpox. Margarita’s early childhood memories are dominated by her family’s escape from Russia in 1943 and life in the battleground of German occupied Europe. The family crossed many …
- A brave little boy named Peep Aljas spent his first days in Canada under quarantine. He was born in Estonia in 1941 during the first Soviet occupation. He and his mother fled to Germany in 1944, just ahead of the Russian re-occupation. By 1949 things looked bad with the Berlin Blockade, so his …
- Herman Blom had secured a job as a welder in Saskatoon and the family was on their way, but their brief quarantine left him jobless. His daughter, Gysje Koenderink, recalled an exciting crossing in which she and her five brothers and sisters saw icebergs and whales and were treated to daily …
- Being quarantined while travelling to Halifax with her baby was frightening for British war bride Audrey (Hawes) Doyle Ash. Audrey was onboard the Queen Mary when she and Patrick were put into isolation with others. “We were a day and a half out to sea when a little girl got meningitis,” wrote …
- Being quarantined at Pier 21 meant a rough start to their Canadian adventure for the Blom family. Shelly Blom was born in the Netherlands and in the spring of 1953 her parents decided to move. “My parents had decided to leave our home in Apeldoorn to seek out new opportunities for their young …