Picture Postcards from the Past

Picture Postcards from the Past

Credits: Canadian Jewish Heritage Network Written by Shannon Hodge, Archivist Jewish Public Library Archives of Montreal May 2011 Picture Postcards from the Past 1

Picture Postcards from the Past Teacher Guide Concepts and Competencies Covered: Historical Inquiry Concept(s): Take historical perspective; identify change and continuity. Core Competencies: Examines social phenomena from a historical perspective; constructs his/her consciousness of citizenship through the study of history. Grades: 5 to 8 Introduction: This activity was developed for use with classroom discussion on immigration and family history. For assistance in developing discussions or lessons on the immigration of the Quebec Jewish communities, see the Immigration Timeline provided in this section of the CJHN or contact the archivists directly. Teachers can easily adapt the kits to appropriately reflect the diversity in specific classes and schools. If students are able to bring in and have copied photographs from their own family s history then this activity can be completed as a part of a genealogy project. The instructions then for these postcards are specific to the Immigration Timeline available on this website. This exercise is especially useful in helping students connect historical events or periods on a concrete timeline with social narrative of voices of the past. Time Required: 2 x 30 minute periods Prior Knowledge and Discussion Required: 1 full class discussing the immigration timeline of Jewish Quebec or of the students community. Once the timeline is constructed, students must also discuss ideas of the circumstances surrounding immigration: o Why do people immigrate? Identify push and pull factors. o What was life like for people once they immigrated? In the past? Now? Is it different? o Do you know why your family immigrated here? Picture Postcards from the Past 2

Instructions Class #1, Discussion Timeline 1. Prepare your students for examining the Jewish Montreal Immigration Timeline by first defining or reviewing together associated terms and events such as: Immigration Refugees Displaced persons DP Camps (Displaced Person camps) Pogrom World War I and World War II Cholera Tuberculosis Sponsorship JIAS (Jewish Immigrant Aid Services) 2. Go through the Timeline chart together or by using the instructions provided with the Immigration Timeline of Jewish Montreal guide. The Timeline chart can be used as a guideline for constructing an immigration timeline for any community. 3. Upon completion of the class give your students the homework assignment of interviewing their parents, grandparents, guardian or other family members to find out why, when, and how their families came to Montreal and/or Canada. A sample interview sheet for students to use is included in this kit. 4. Follow up on this class by completing the Picture Postcards from the Past activity using the sample postcards provided in this kit. Alternatively, the class can create their own postcards using old family photographs that were first copied so as to protect the originals. Picture Postcards from the Past 3

Interview Sheet Family Immigration Story Student Name: Person(s) Interviewed: When did our family first arrive in Montreal? Why did they come to Montreal? Did they go anywhere else first? How did they arrive here? Did another person or organization help them immigrate here? Do you know what life was like for the first person in our family to come here? Was life different from how we live now? Do we have any photographs or documents that record our family s immigration story? What? If not, is there a reason why we don t have any photographs or documents? Examples: passports, photographs, correspondence, identity papers, etc. Picture Postcards from the Past 4

Instructions Class #2, Postcard Creation 1. Take an appropriate amount of time to review the Immigration Timeline of Jewish Montreal with your students. If desired, research the backgrounds of your area and involve your students in constructing an immigration timeline that is more personalized. It is helpful when constructing the timeline to extract personal narratives of immigration to help your students understand concepts associated with immigration: a. Push and Pull factors: Why did people come to Montreal, Canada or your community? Did they need to escape conditions in their birth country (push factors) or were they enticed to come to Canada (pull factors.) A list of examples of push and pull factors is included on the following page. b. Images: If constructing your own timeline, make sure that you use images to help your students associate details of the past with the passage of time. In particular, help your students list and discuss details such as clothing, transportation, neighborhoods then-and-now, the role or perception of children, employment and housing. c. Discuss: Create and encourage discussion for each section of the timeline. Challenge your students to extract their own critical analysis based on your timeline and images. Why did our ancestors come here? What did they find when they arrived? Why do people still want to come to our community? Are the reasons the same? How were immigrants treated in the past as compared to today? 2. Have each student select a postcard from this kit or use your own images. Students should be able to identify the time period of the image based on the timeline that is on this website or that you construct. 3. Each student should then choose one person from the image (if the image has no people, then the student should create one) and develop an original piece of writing detailing their immigration. 4. Students should be able to insert the basic timeline details such as the date or time period, where they came from, and why they came. To cement their developed critical analysis students should then also include in their piece the life that they found once they arrived in the community. 5. Mail the postcards! We love to see the work that students do! Scan the back and front of your students postcards and e-mail them to us. We ll post them on-line on this site for your students to see. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF SEND THE POSTCARDS TO THE ARCHIVES, THE POSTCARDS SHOULD NOT INCLUDE YOUR STUDENTS NAMES. Picture Postcards from the Past 5

Postcard Image Key Postcard #1 Picture postcard of Harry Hershman of the Canadian Jewish War Orphan Committee standing with six orphans going through the selection process to come to Canada, July 8, 1921. The Committee was formed as an attempt to rescue Jewish children orphaned by World War I and the disease and pogroms that followed it. In all the Committee was able to bring 150 orphans to Canada and place them with Jewish families there. (pr010355, Jewish Public Library Archives of Montreal) Postcard #2 Interior, Dorval Airport, crowd of people greeting immigrants arriving in Montreal from Morocco, July 10, 1968. (pr010660, Jewish Public Library Archives of Montreal). Postcard #3 Two children dressed up in front of a Jewish store, Yiddish writing on the store front windows, possibly on or nearby St. Lawrence Blvd., ca192-. (Allan Raymond Collection, Jewish Public Library Archives of Montreal). St. Lawrence Boulevard or The Main was the centre of Montreal s Jewish neighborhood for decades, particularly important to those Jews who immigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe from 1890 until the community shifted westward post-world War II. Postcard #4 Rebecca Werner immigrated to Western Canada from Poland when she was 6 years old. She arrived in 1928 with a group of immigrants destined for settlement in Lipton, one of the Jewish farming colonies sponsored by the Jewish Colonization Association. Here the group is seen after debarkation at the nearest train station, in Tribune, Saskatchewan. (R. Werner collection, CJCCCNA.) Postcard #5 Two year old Alexis Kanner arrived in Montreal with his family in April 1944 after crossing the ocean on the S.S. Serpa Pinto. He was one of a group of a few hundred immigrants who managed to escape from Nazi Europe during the war by emigration via Spain and Portugal. Three groups of Jewish refugees arrived in this way in 1944, their entry into Canada negotiated by the Canadian Jewish Congress. Alexis Kanner grew up to become a well-known filmmaker and actor in the USA and the UK. (PC1-1-20A-5-boy- Kanner, Canadian Jewish Congress photograph collection, CJCCCNA). Postcard #6 The 5000th DP to come to Canada, Wolf Wajnberg, is seen here leaving the port of Bremen, Germany, with his family. Photographer, Frederick W. Meier, Bremen, 1948. (JIAS collection, CJCCCNA) Picture Postcards from the Past 6

Sample Push and Pull Factors for Jewish Immigration, 1890-1980. PULL FACTORS I marched into Quebec City when it fell to Wolfe and was promised land. I was an orphan after World War I and the pogroms. A group of Canadians took me to a new family in Toronto. My older brothers and sisters had already moved to Montreal and after my parents died, I was the only one from my family left in our little village. I survived Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The only family I had left was in Canada. My sister went to Montreal in 1910 and she told me that everyone had cleaner running water and that the schools were affordable for the children. We were promised plots of land to farm in Western Canada. PUSH FACTORS The Tzar s soldiers came looking for me and my brothers to conscript us into the Russian Army in 1905. The Ethiopian government forbid the practice and teaching of Judaism. I was conscripted into the Polish Army. After the Hungarian revolution failed in 1956, we didn t have much choice. Life was awful here. My store was destroyed during Kristalnacht. We lost everything. I tried to unionize my factory in Warsaw in the 1920s and the police came looking for me, calling me a communist. I had to change my name and hide. Picture Postcards from the Past 7

Postcard #1 Instructions: Cut along folded line. Fold in half and glue together. Picture Postcards from the Past 8

Postcard #2 Instructions: Cut along dotted line. Fold in half and glue together. Picture Postcards from the Past 9

Postcard #3 Instructions: Cut along dotted line. Fold in half and glue together. Picture Postcards from the Past 10

Postcard #4 Instructions: Cut along dotted line. Fold in half and glue together. Picture Postcards from the Past 11

Postcard #5 Instructions: Cut along dotted line. Fold in half and glue together. Picture Postcards from the Past 12

Postcard #6 Instructions: Cut along dotted line. Fold in half and glue together. Picture Postcards from the Past 13