When Ben’s parents pick him up from kindergarten one day in 1942, he doesn’t yet know that it’s the last time he will see them. The Nazis have invaded his hometown of Brussels, Belgium, and Ben’s parents, sensing danger, send their only child to live with a non-Jewish couple in the village of Baudour. There Ben learns to be a good Catholic boy amid the explosions of war. After the war, Ben finds a home in Ottawa, Canada, with his extended family. As he matures, Ben reclaims his Jewish identity and begins a lifelong journey toward personal and societal healing.

Ben Carniol has worked on issues of social justice, social change, and social services for over forty years. He is Professor Emeritus, School of Social Work, Ryerson University, Toronto, where he co-ordinates the delivery of social work education to off-campus Aboriginal students, in partnership with the First Nations Technical Institute. The Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work has awarded him an honorary life membership for distinguished contributions to social work education in Canada.

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Rebecca Clifford is a UK-based scholar and writer who studies the lives of child Holocaust survivors. Her 2020 book, Survivors: Children’s Lives After the Holocaust (Yale University Press), was the winner of the 2022 Yad Vashem Book Prize and a 2021 Canadian Jewish Literary Award.

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