My name is Ethel Kerzner

Summary: Ethel Kernzer (nee Kott) was born December 4 1931 in Troyanivka, Ukraine, to Mordechai and Risi (sp?) Kott. She had two older siblings, a brother named Moshe and a sister named Gittle. In 1942 at the age of 11 years old she became aware that things were changing in her town, neighbours became unfriendly and her father’s business went on the decline. Then one day all the Jews in town were called to come out to a big church in the center of the town and killings began. Ethel ran away and wound up living in the Ukrainian forest with neighbors, some family members, and others who had fled Troyanikva including other marginalized groups including Roma people or "Gypsies." They built an underground bunker in the forest and she recalls that at times there were as many as 75 living there. She stayed in the bunker almost continuously, only leaving once and a while for fear of being caught. It was dirty and crowded, and the bunkers residents were constantly hungry and covered in lice. She emotionally recalls one day her father and brother going out in search of food and never returning. Ethel also stresses that the gypsies were really good at “finding” things and recalls that they made improvised bombs and were fiercely protective of the bunker. She lived in the bunker for 18 months. After the war ended, she and the group of mainly young people who had survived living in the bunker made their way to Rafalivlka, a nearby town. They stayed there a while in an abandoned house but soon left for Lodz, Poland, as conditions for Jews remained unsafe in Ukraine. From Lodz she sought refuge in a kibbutz in Rosenheim, Germany. The plan was to transport these refugees to a displaced persons camp in northern Italy, where surviving relatives could find them. Others would be sent my ship to British-occupied Palestine (N.B. the State of Israel had not yet been established.) The journey form the German kibbutz to the Italian DP camp took many months, legs of the journey had to be made on foot others were made while smuggled in the backs of trucks. Ethel was meant to be placed on one of the ships carrying refugees illegally into Palestine; however, she would only go as far as Italy. In Italy Ethel received a letter from a relation of her mother’s in Canada. Ethel’s great-aunt who lived in Pembroke Ontario advised her to stay in the camp while arrangements were made to bring her to Canada. In 1947 Ethel boarded the ship that would bring her to the country she had only just learned existed. She travelled though Montreal where she stayed with another uncle and aunt. Ethel really liked Montreal where she had cousins her age and didn’t want to move to Pembroke. She eventually did travel to Pembroke but was very lonesome. Her great aunt and uncle understood that she would be happier in Montreal and accompanied her back to Montreal, a journey that had a 3 hour stop-over in Ottawa. While in Ottawa, a family friend named Syd Kerzner arranged to pick them up and took them for coffee. Not long after he would send a message to Montreal asking to see her again and in 1948 they were married in Ottawa. Ethel and Syd had four children, seven grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren. They were happily married for 56 years but Ethel had a deal with Syd that he never ask questions about her past. It was too difficult and too painful for her to revisit, something she had not felt ready to do until the making of this recording in 2015.