Able Seaman Alex Chelekower

I was born in November 1918 in Berlin, East Germany, to a Jewish family of moderate means who ran a tobacco company.By the time I was two years old, my father died in the flu epidemic of 1921 and my mother was forced to run the business and look after her children on her own; a very difficult thing for a woman at that time. It was not a successful effort. She did not have time for the children, particularly for a boy. In recognition of this, she sent me away to Gotha, Germany, to a Jewish family who were strangers to me, when I was 8 years old. She wanted me to have the experience of family life with a man in the house. But to me it just felt like I was being sent away because of something I must have done that was wrong and I was being abandoned. It was very hard in the 1930's because of the world depression. There was a recession during the early Hitler years from 1921 to 1930. I stayed with two different families in Gotha. The father in one of the families was the Principal of the middle school.

Gotha is a city of about 250,000 in Thuringen, near Wimar, Halle and Leipzig. There were over 2000 kids at the school and I was the only Jewish boy among them. It was about 6 hours by train away from Berlin, so I did not get home to my mother and sister very often. Although the families in Gotha were good to me, I knew I was an outsider and I never fit in.

When Hitler came into power, my Mother and Aunt thought it would be safest for me to go to Palestine. They brought me back from Gotha and I was thrilled to think I was going home. Instead I was put on a train to Palestine with hundreds of other children in the same circumstances, never understanding that this would be the last time I would see my Mother or Sister.

I eventually landed at the Orphanage at Ben Shemen, Israel in 1932 when I was 13 years old. Ben Shemen was run as a farm and I learned a lot of good skills there. But there were no classes to learn how to read, write or speak Hebrew (not like it is now). In 1936 a group of us from Ben Shemen - about 30 men and women - created the Kibbutz Sdot Yam. From 1935 - 1940 O was a kibbutznick - I was the youngest pioneer and they called me Medalah (little girl) for my bright blue eyes, long eyelashes and hair that turned blond from the sun. They put me in the higher classes, which they should not have done, and all my classmates were older than I. We lived together with both girls and boys in the same tent which would not be tolerated today.

In 1937 I was approached by a captain on a visiting freighter to work as a stevedore and sailor and I did so to supplement the income of the kibbutz. We were adventuresome and assisted other displaced Jews to enter Palestine. We would exchange clothes with European passengers and hide them amongst ourselves when we unloaded the ships. I married (and quickly divorced) several ladies to bring them into the country. After several voyages I decided to make the sea my life and when war broke out in 1939, I became a Merchant Marine.

I was signed on to Polish ships because the crews could speak German. I was the only Jew on board and it was often very difficult and I had to learn to have a very thick skin, but it was the only contribution I could make to the war effort, particularly since I could not speak English.

Many times we were damaged by torpedoes and we had to limp into Halifax for repairs. The Polish ships were not very fast and we could not be accompanied by convoys. My Palestine passport was not recognized in Canada. I was put in jail at Rockwood (in Halifax) and put into detention at Pier 21 with the only escape possible through signing up on another ship that was leaving the port.

Mrs. Fineberg was very helpful in terms of introducing me to the Halifax Jewish Community. She helped me to get a temporary permit for 30 days and to extend the permit. In 1940 I met a girl through a Jewish community organization in Halifax and although my future was uncertain - (I was only 22, I did not speak English, I was a foreign national without a country), she asked me to marry her. I had no one to seek advice from. I was alone in the world and I had to make my own decisions and use my own judgment. It was an impulsive thing to do, but we got married anyway. We thought it would help with my Canadian citizenship, but instead it affected my wife's Canadian citizenship (the government tried to say that my wife was a Palestinian because she had married me - so we had to hire an Immigration Lawyer (Kanigsberg)) in the '40's to straighten it out.) Mr. Kanigsberg also helped me to get my personal belongings returned to me from the ships that I deserted.

I stayed with the Merchant Marines as a sailor because it was the only thing I knew how to do and my English was very poor. We were in and out of Halifax many times. Through the Canadian National Steamship Lines I sailed with the Lady Rodney - a troop carrier - back and forth to Newfoundland, Goose Bay and Labrador from Pier 21. I also sailed with the Lady Nelson - a hospital ship. While I was on board the Randa, we were torpedoed outside the Halifax harbour and we had to limp back into port for repairs. However, in 1947 I discharged from the Merchant Marines with my poor English to run a small convenience store in Halifax. A local Jewish businessman, Haim Jacobson, took a chance on me and helped me to get a loan from the bank and rented me one of his stores. My wife taught me a lot, particularly how to speak English, which took years - especially to write and read newspapers and magazines - and she introduced me to the Jewish community in Halifax. I am very grateful for everything. The first 25 years were tough financially for our family but, like all immigrants, we worked hard to give a better life to our children.