Jiricek and Hana Novak in children's parade

Held by

Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)

Dates

September 5, 1926 (indexed as 1926)

Level

item

Extent

Photograph : Paper ; Ht: 3 1/8 in. x W: 5 1/4 in.

Scope & content

b&w, outdoor. Two children sibilings Jiricek (Georges) and Hana Novak are sitting on a toy car decorated with plants and flowers. Jiricek is dressed as a firefighter and Hana is sitting on tricycle behind him, she has a star on her shirt. Narrative: Georges Novak was born Jiricek Pick on 1923-08-06 in Cesky Brod (Czech Republic, then Czechoslovakia). Georges' father, Vladimir, owned a large textile mill and factory that employed 400 people. His mother was an accomplished opera singer. George and his sister Hana were brought up in a Catholic home as Georges’ father had converted to Catholicism. Georges' father's Jewish identity was not revealed until the Germans identified him as a Jew. On 1939-03-15, the German Army invaded their hometown. In 1940, Georges was classified as a Jew according to the Nuremberg Laws and was forbidden to attend school. In 1941, he moved to Prague where he studied book binding. Georges' father was imprisoned by the Gestapo. In Prague, Georges was falsely arrested for sabotage and sentenced to life in prison. He spent two years at Lipa camp. He described it as a farm with livestock and a vegetable garden where Georges was guarded by a German couple. On 1943-09-13, Georges was transferred to Theresienstadt ghetto-camp. There, he was sent to a military prison called Kleine Festung. During the day, Georges was assigned to work in the garden and was able to smuggle vegetables into the ghetto-camp. In 1945-05, the Soviet Army liberated Theresienstadt. Georges escaped from the Russians and went to Prague where he attended medical school at Charles University. He learned that his parents and his sister had been deported in 1942 and were murdered in Auschwitz. Georges immigrated to Montreal alone in 1949.

Location

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Genre / form

graphic material

In the picture

BoyChildCostumeCrowdEvent PhotographFire DepartmentFirefighterFlowerGirlHelmetOutdoor EventParadeParade FloatPortraitStreetscapeSummerVehicleTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

cjhn.caRead automatically; may contain mistakes.

Language

Czech

Harvested

2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

Digital objects at the source

• imageOpen original at source ↗2011x-62-14.jpg