The Unwritten Diary of Israel Unger: Revised Edition

At the beginning of the Nazi period, 25,000 Jewish people lived in Tarnow, Poland. By the end of the Second World War, nine remained. Like Anne Frank, Israel Unger and his family hid for two years in an attic crawl space above the Dagnan flour mill in Tarnow. Their stove was the chimney that went up through the attic; their windows were cracks in the wall. Survival depended on the food the adults were able to forage outside at night. Against all odds, they emerged alive. Now, decades later, here is Unger’s “unwritten diary.”

At the end of the war, following a time as people sans pays, the Unger family immigrated to Canada. After discovering a love of chemistry, Israel Unger had a stellar academic career, married, and raised a family in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The Unwritten Diary of Israel Unger is as much a Holocaust story as it is a story of a young immigrant making every possible use of the opportunities Canada had to offer.

This revised edition includes a reproduction of Dagnan’s List, a list of Jewish slave labourer similar Schindler’s List, made famous in the Steven Spielberg movie. The name of Israel Unger’s father appears on the list, in which Dagnan declares that Unger is an “essential worker”—a ruse that may have saved the father’s life. This recently discovered document proves that Israel Unger’s memory of this key part of the story was accurate. A new postscript details the importance of this startling document.

1

The Only Jews in Poland

Carolyn Gammon and Israel Unger

Srulik is Born in Tarnow    

- A brief history of the Unger family in Poland including Israel’s birth in Tarnow until the outbreak of WW II.

Wysiedlenia            

- The Polish term for “resettling” was a euphemism for deportation and mass murder that Israel witnessed as a small boy, including the murder of his grandfather.

My Father’s Courage

- Life under Nazi terror in the Tarnow ghetto. His father faced Hobson’s choices like whether to join the Jewish police in the ghetto or the Jewish partisans.

Dagnan’s Flour Mill

- History of the Dagnan flour mill and Israel’s father’s partnership with Dagnan. Building a false wall for Jewish workers and their families. Escape to the hideout.

The Hideout

- The nine Jews in hiding. Size of the crawl space. Skorupa the helper. Life in the hideout.

The Only Jews in Poland

- Foraging for food outside the hideout. Seeing German soldiers and SS. The constant fear and wondering if they were the “only Jews left in Poland.”

Kissing a Soviet Soldier’s Boots

- The arrival of Soviet soldiers in Tarnow means liberation! The last moments of war.

Matzos from America

- Post-war Tarnow meant food was scarce; care-packages arrive from the American Jewish community. The Soviet military presence in Tarnow is exciting for Israel as a child.

2

Sans Pays

Carolyn Gammon and Israel Unger

The Kielce Pogrom and a Gash on the Head

- Israel is beaten up at school. His brother Kalman is attacked with a group of Jewish summer camp children. The infamous Kielce Pogrom takes place and the parents decide to send the two boys out of Poland.

Becoming ‘Orphans’

- Israel’s father leaves the boys in Cracow with Jewish organizers who were trying to get Jewish Polish orphans of the Holocaust out of the country. They travel via Prague to southern France.

Aix-les-Bains

- In a former Hotel in Aix-les-Bains in the French Alps, hundreds of Jewish orphans are cared for under difficult circumstances. Israel becomes very dependent on his older brother.

Sans Pays in Paris

- Israel and his brother are reunited with their parents in France. They live in poverty and without official status.

Charlie & Sydney in London

- Israel and Kalman are sent to a surviving paternal uncle in London who provides for them physically but not emotionally. They are now dubbed “Charlie and Sydney.”

Back to Paris, Rue Père Lachaise        

- Back in Paris Israel attends a Jewish school and life normalizes. But with the Korean War, the parents worry about Charlie being drafted and make plans to leave.

Visions of Canada: Mounties, Snow & Sheepskin

- With romantic visions of Canada, the Ungers sail for Halifax in February 1951 just a few weeks short of Israel’s 13^th birthday and bar mitzvah.

3

Canadian Through and Through

Carolyn Gammon and Israel Unger

An Airplane, a Stevedore and his Plymouth – Arriving at Pier 21

- Israel’s first impressions of arriving at Pier 21 and their first night in Canada.

Home à la Mordechai Richler

- The Ungers move into the Montreal Jewish neighborhood so well described by Mordechai Richler. The parents find factory jobs; the family has a mixed reception from the established Jewish community.

Ich hab dir gegebn lebn zwei mol - “I gave you life twice”

- Israel struggles with his parents’ orthodoxy. Life after the Holocaust should not be “fun”. Description of Jewish life at home and the statement by his father meant to keep him in line that Israel so resented: “I gave you life twice.”

The Yeshiva & Bnei Akiva

- Teenage life takes on some normalcy. Israel attends a Jewish high school and Jewish youth club. Anecdotes about school life and first attempts at dating.

Canadian Through and Through

- Israel describes how he “desperately wanted to be Canadian” and how Canada gave him opportunities to achieve.

The Octet Rule

- Israel discovers his interest and aptitude for Chemistry. Yeshiva anecdotes.

Collecting Butcher Bills

- Living in poverty, Israel takes on every possible student job imaginable to see his way through high school. He passes the Matriculation exams and is accepted at Sir George Williams University, Montreal.

Kafkaesque Encounters

- Despite being a hard-worker and high achiever, Israel faces bizarre bureaucratic hassles and draining incidents of anti-Semitism along the way. Within the Jewish community he experiences prejudice for being from a poor, immigrant family.

My Brother Charlie

- Although the crushing dependence on his brother is over, Israel continues to look up to Charlie who begins a difficult marriage.

 

4

The Bubble Counter

Carolyn Gammon and Israel Unger

Leaving Home: Montreal to Fredericton

- It is 1958 and Israel is a university grad at age 20. He leaves home for the first time (voluntarily) for Fredericton, New Brunswick to do graduate work.

The Bubble Counter

- Israel meets Marlene Parker, a math student at the University of New Brunswick. To support his thesis work, she “counts bubbles” for his final experiment.

Photochemistry in Texas

- Israel completes his PhD at UNB and applies for a post-doc on the topic of the photochemistry of fluorobenzene at University of Texas under Professor Noyes. He is in Texas during Kennedy’s assassination.

Under the Chuppah in Minto, New Brunswick

- Israel and Marlene are married in rural New Brunswick with a full Mountie guard! The two drive back to Texas where Marlene works in the school system and Israel finishes his research. They have a Jewish wedding in Texas.

The Young Professor - From Texas to Saint John

- Israel is hired as a Chemistry professor for the new campus of the University of New Brunswick in Saint John and goes from the huge facilities in Texas to having no lab at all! He has a challenging first year.

ALS – My Father’s Death

- In his early 60s Israel’s father is diagnosed with ALS or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” He dies within three years and is buried in Jerusalem—Israel’s first trip to Israel.

Charlie’s Troubles

- Charlie’s marriage disintegrates and he starts anew.

A Mark for Canada

- Israel expresses how Canada let him achieve many of his dreams. Through his university work he becomes friends with prominent people like the head of Telesat, Eldon Thompson and the leader of the PC party Robert Stanfield.

Sharon and Shelia

- Marlene and Israel have two girls in the 1960s while working full time. The subject of the Holocaust is not hidden but not dwelled upon. Both Sharon and Shelia become medical doctors.

The Best Granny

- Marlene, though a single child, came from a large family in Minto, New Brunswick. Her parents take an active role in raising the granddaughters. Israel’s mother, who has kept the matzo bag from Poland from her marriage gives it to Sharon and sews another one for Shelia.

5

Dean Unger

Carolyn Gammon and Israel Unger

Dean Unger

- Israel’s academic and non-academic illustrious career. He becomes present of the Canadian Association of University Teachers; he becomes Dean of Science for three terms.

Struggles with Charlie

- Charlie is also struck with ALS and has a long and difficult decline. Israel does all he can to help his brother. 

My Mother and her Backbone of Steel

- Israel’s mother shows incredible strength caring for Charlie until his death after which her own health deteriorates rapidly. She is also buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Marlene

- Marlene Unger receives the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies for her incredible story of fighting the New Brunswick teacher and Holocaust denier, Malcom Ross and any other type of anti-Semitism that still rears its head.

Making up for Lost Time

- Israel “makes up for lost time” in his childhood by learning every possible sport and activity: cross-country skiing, scuba diving, kayaking, flying, etc. The Ungers build a cottage and travel south with a motorhome.

The Airplane Accident

- Israel is the pilot when the faulty plane he is flying crashes into the woods!

Telling my Story

- Israel’s family in Montreal never talked about the Holocaust and so he had not recounted his story in decades when first asked to do so by a New Brunswick school, thus starting his new career of Holocaust educationalist in the late 1970s.

6

"They Know My Name is Srulik!"

Carolyn Gammon and Israel Unger

Return to Tarnow

- In 2006, with Marlene’s urging and the aim to recover the lost names of his father’s family, the Ungers visit Tarnow. For Israel it is the first visit in 60 years.

Matzevahs for My Family

- In 2007 Israel meets Carolyn Gammon, originally a Frederictonian, now living in Berlin and author of a previous Holocaust memoir. The Ungers and Carolyn travel again to Tarnow to unveil a memorial stone for Israel’s mother’s family. The research for The Unwritten Diary begins.

Meeting Mr. Dagnan

- Adam Bartosz, head of the Tarnow Regional Museum, arranges a meeting with the son of the Dagnan factory owner. Two intense meetings / interviews take place in 2007 and 2009.

Skorupa

- The authors are provided with a transcribed interview with one of the Skorupa brothers (still alive in Tarnow) who helped the Jews in hiding. Now the name “Skorupa” from Israel’s story has a context and meaning.

Kalman Goldberg – Outside the Hideout

- Through a website called “All Generations” intended to help Holocaust survivors link up, Israel is contacted by Kalman Goldberg from Tarnow, now New Jersey. The authors make a trip to NJ to interview Kalman who turns out to be one of the “Schindler Jews.” 15 years older than Israel, he is the “eyes” outside of the hideout. He gives us the name of two teenage girls in hiding with Israel: Wechsler.

Rescue Children Inc.

- At Yeshiva University Archives the authors find the traces of Israel and Charlie’s time in Aix-les-Bains as “orphans” as part of the “Rescue Children, Inc.” program.

Ryglice and Dąbrowa

- On a return trip to Poland, Israel and Carolyn visit Israel’s father’s and mother’s home towns.

State Archives & Registry Office

- Archival research in Poland turns out to be a very mixed bag as the authors are both helped and mistreated.

My Birth House   

- Armed with archival evidence, the authors ring the doorbell of Israel’s birth house in Tarnow and are greeted by the current people living there.

“They know my name is Srulik!”

- In a culmination of four years of research, Israel travels to Israel and has a reunion with the two Wechsler sisters who where in hiding with him!

“How did the Holocaust affect you?”

- Israel reflects on a question he is often asked and concludes that, despite all the difficulties, he has had a very good life.