Correspondence from B.J. Finestone to Curator Terry Lightman, describing his experiences in the World War II with ID tags.

Held by

Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Museum and Archives via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)

Dates

[ca. 1990] (indexed as 1990)

Level

item

Extent

Document ; Ht:26.3 cm x W:18.4 cm : English

Scope & content

Recipient's address: 450 Kensington Avenue, Westmount, Quebec H3Y 3A2.

Location

• 450 avenue de Kensington · address · confidence 75% · address:exact · found as “450 Kensington Avenue”

Correct the location

Genre / form

textual record

In the picture

Identity CardJewish CommunityLetterLetterheadMilitaryMilitary OfficerMilitary UniformSignatureSynagogueTypewrittenWarTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

Bernard J. FinestoneMrs. Terry Lightman, CuratorShaar Hashomayim Museum450 Kensington AvenueWestmount, QuebecH3Y 3A2Dear Terry:October 17, 1990As discussed I am enclosing herewith two (2) sets of Identity Disks which I wore during World War II. The first set shows my rank as Lieutenant and my religion as "OD." OD means Other Denomination and refers to everyone who was neither Catholic nor one of the major protestant denominations.I am also enclosing a second set of Identity Disks which was prepared for me when I became a captain and on which my religion is shown as "CE." CE is the army code for the Church of England. I queried the quartermaster who prepared these for me and pointed out to him that as a practising Jew, my religion should be shown as OD. He pointed out to me that as a fighting officer it would be extremely dangerous for me to have that shown on my Identity Disks. According to the information current at the time, were I captured in action with OD on my Identity Disks I would be immediately shot by the Germans. I found this argument very convincing and I wore the disks he prepared.As the Identity Disks really only came into play if you were killed in action, I made appropriate arrangements with our regimental padre – a Catholic priest named Johnson from Toronto. He not only knew I was Jewish – he actually went to the nearest Military Rabbi – a captain in 8th Army Headquarters and obtained the Jewish order of Military funeral service. He informed me, quite cheerfully, that he was now equipped to bury me properly. Somehow I found this somewhat less than reassuring.Read automatically; may contain mistakes.

Harvested

2026-10-18T19:26:57Z · source datestamp n/a · cjhn

Digital objects at the source

• imageOpen original at source ↗0233-cor-1.jpg
• imageOpen original at source ↗0233-cor-2.jpg