Jacob Gora fonds

Jacob Gora (b. August 22, 1896, Poland - d. June 6, 1976, Ottawa) was an antiques dealer, author, and survivor of the Holocaust. Jacob lived in Warsaw prior to WWII, where he owned a business. He lost his wife, his 20 year old daughter and his 17 year old son not long after the German invasion of Warsaw. He lived in the Warsaw Ghetto, and spent time in several different camps before the end of the war. One of these was Buna-Monowitz (also known as Monowitz, or Auschwitz III), which was a subcamp of Auschwitz. According to Jacob, his skills as a tradesman in leatherwork and tailoring allowed him to survive, as he was able to barter his skills to Nazi officials who were in need of tradespeople. Jacob received $1200 for unpaid labour in the early 1960s from an international organization which was able to extract pay for former forced labour workers. Following the end of the Second World War, Jacob married Manya “Maria” (nee Zylberberg) Gora (b. January 8, 1910 - d. June 14, 2001), the daughter of Boruch and Zipporah Zylberberg, in 1946. Maria was also a Holocaust survivor who had lived in the Krakow Ghetto and lost her previous husband Levi Fajnwaks and two of her children Frima and Yosel while living in camps in Germany and Poland. Jacob, Maria, and Maria’s surviving son Paul Faynwachs (b. November 25, 1931, Krakow, Poland) lived in East Germany for several years, where Jacob and Maria’s daughter Cynthia Blumenthal (nee Gora) was born (b. Approx. 1947, Germany). The family emigrated to Canada in 1952, where they lived first in Toronto and Kingston before settling in Ottawa in 1953. Cynthia attended the B’nai B’rith camp in Quyon, Quebec as a child, and she was part of Beth Shalom’s first consecration class in 1960. In 1954 the Goras bought an antique store called the Old Curiosity Shop at 484 King Edward Ave., and renamed it Gora’s House of Antiques. The old store had been established in 1910, and many of the staff who had worked for the Old Curiosity Shop for many years continued to work there after the Goras purchased it. One of these staff members was Soloman Eskin, who specialized in furniture construction and repair and was well known for his ability to masterfully recreate antique pieces. The shop’s clientele included prominent politicians such as Vincent Massey, John Diefenbaker, and George Hees. The antique store was a family business - the Goras lived at the same address, and Maria’s son Paul Faynwachs eventually became a co-owner. They eventually opened a second branch store, called “The Treasure Shop,” at 189 Rideau Street. Both Jacob and Maria Gora were active in efforts to bring awareness to the Holocaust while living in Ottawa. In 1961, Jacob Gora volunteered to testify as a witness in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, whom he had met briefly in 1941. While he did not end up being asked to testify, he still traveled to Israel to attend the trial. At this time Jacob was also in the process of writing a memoir detailing his experiences of the Holocaust, as he was not satisfied with other accounts that he had seen. This book was first published in Yiddish under the title Dos iz der emes and was later translated into English with the title This is the Truth. He also wrote a number of shorter articles and letters for the Yiddish press which appeared in publications such as Der Tog, The Forwards, and the Kanader Adler. In addition to his own writings on the Holocaust, Jacob also collected the works of other authors who were survivors. Maria Gora participated in the candle lighting ceremony at an event hosted by the Jewish Community Centre on April 29, 1962 to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She also participated in the ceremonies at the dedication of the Holocaust Memorial in 1978 at the Jewish Community Cemerery, as a torchbearer. She was part of the UJA Women’s Division, as well as the Mothers in Israel Program, and was awarded a Golda Meir Club Pun at a tea hosted by the State of Israel Bonds Women’s Division to honor their biggest donors in 1989.

Material posthumously donated by Jacob Gora’s daughter, Cynthia Blumenthal.