The Tretiak Gruzin Family

Paul (or Pawel) and Halina Gruzin arrived at Pier 21 on July 4, 1951, with three children - Anatole, Eugene and Maria. The family was permitted to enter Canada on July 9, 1951. They travelled from Bracquegnies, Belgium, to Hamburg, Germany, where they sailed to Canada on the Anna Salen. They took residence in Montreal, Quebec, where immigrants were not very welcome. Though Pawel spoke French, it was not the version understood in Quebec.

Pawel was born in Mikaszewicze, eastern Poland. This is now White Russia. Halina was born in Ozhenkovka, Ukraine. She grew up in Pavlograd, Ukraine.

Pawel is an only child. He lost his father during the first world war at the age of 6 months.

Halina is a Holodomor survivor. Halina (Tretiak) had one sister and three brothers. The youngest brother (Nikolai, born in 1925) disappeared during the Holodomor. A search could not locate Nikolai. Vasil was killed by a sniper in Finland after the war.

After the war, Pawel and Halina, as refugees, moved to Belgium. Their three children were born in Bracquegnies, Belgium. Because Belgium had a rule that refugees could only work in the underground mines, Pawel and Halina decided to move to Canada after the boys were born.

After several years of trying to find full-time work, Paul secured a job in 1955 with the Iron Ore Company of Canada in Schefferville, Quebec. At this point, they finally found some stability in their lives.