The Canadian Jewish News: Tailor Project survivors, families to mark Yom ha-Shoah

Two and a half years after the Second World War ended, businessman Sam Posluns addressed the Toronto Cloak Manufacturers’ Association. Posluns, one of four men who visited the war-torn Europe in the company of Max Enkin, a representative of the men’s clothing industry in Toronto, was making a pitch to his colleagues in the needle trades to open their businesses to displaced persons (DPs) who were still languishing in refugee camps in Europe.

The Jews in Europe who had survived the Holocaust were in need of jobs and homes, he said, but also compassion, human warmth and patience.

“Not only is housing needed, but the need for love and warmth and friendship, which must be forthcoming from us, is needed as badly as the accommodations themselves,” he said.

In the end, the Tailor Project managed to bring 2,000 refugees from Europe to work in the rapidly growing needle trades, mostly in Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg. Half of them were Jews, plucked from DP camps throughout Europe.

Full article: https://thecjn.ca/perspectives/tailor-project-survivors-families-to-mark-yom-ha-shoah/