• Turning Seven in Quarantine
    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 …
  • A Mother and Daughter Recall Frightening Days in Quarantine
    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 …
  • Colour-Coded Quarantine and a Boy at Play
    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 …
  • The Magical Quarantine Christmas of 1951
    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 …
  • How a Chicken Pox Quarantine Brought one Family to Canada
    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 …
  • Learning How to Eat a Banana in Quarantine at Pier 21
    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 …
  • Finding Humour and Strengthening the Family Bond During Quarantine
    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 …
  • Quarantined on the Journey Over to Canada
    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 …
  • Quarantine at Pier 21 Made Coming to Canada feel like being put in Jail
    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 …
  • Forgetting Danish During a Nine Month Quarantine
    The trauma of a long quarantine stripped a young Michael Frederiksen of his languages. Michael left Denmark with his family and arrived in Canada in late June of 1951 while the epidemic was raging. Not long after, he contracted it. “The summer of ’51 was devastating,” Michael wrote. “Canada had not …