'That was the last time I saw my mother': Vancouver-based survivor opens up on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
'That was the last time I saw my mother': Vancouver-based survivor opens up on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Marie Doduck was just five years old when she says the Nazis tore her family apart.
"Memories keep coming up," said the 88-year-old.
No memory more heart-breaking than a final goodbye she'll never forget.
"I saw my mother at the end of the street and my brother Albert," said Doduck. "As I was going to yell 'mama,' the woman put her hand across my mouth to stop me from yelling 'mama' and carried me away. That was the last time I saw my mother."
She says she hid with non-Jewish, Nazi-resisting families in Nazi-occupied Belgium for more than three years. She reunited with her surviving brothers and sisters at the end of the war. In 1948, she immigrated to Vancouver.
Nina Krieger is the executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.
"International Holocaust Remembrance Day is taking place this year in a world where we've witnessed increased antisemitism, racism and xenophobia," said Krieger. "The urgency around learning from the Holocaust and learning from eyewitnesses when there's few precious survivors around us is really as important as ever."
A 2019 study titled “Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Canada” found 48 per cent of Canadians believe something similar to the tragic event could happen in other Western democracies today.
According to the survey, 22 per cent of millennials said they hadn’t or weren’t sure if they had heard of the Holocaust.
"So today is really about remembering, but remembering with purpose," added Krieger.
Doduck went on to have a large family and shares her story publicly at schools across Metro Vancouver. She recently released a memoir titled "A Child Unspoken." Through her journey, she says she's learned a valuable lesson.
"Hate is not a thing to live with," said Doduck. "Hate doesn't belong in humanity."
Ottawa Police are investigating an attempted break-in at the residence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security advisor, the second such incident involving one of his top aides in recent months.
When two skiers collided on a beginner run at an upscale Utah ski resort in 2016, no one could foresee that seven years later, the crash would become the subject of a closely watched celebrity trial.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
A candidate for the United Conservative Party in southern Alberta has resigned after she posted a video claiming children are being exposed to pornography in schools.
A scientist at CAMH says video games have similar addictive features to gambling which cause social isolation of the individual and dependency on the activity.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a brief initial response to the final report from the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) into Canada's worst mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020. Vowing changes will come, here's what Trudeau said in Truro, N.S.
The federal Liberals are trending downward on three key measures while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has surpassed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when it comes to the question of who Canadians would prefer now as their prime minister, according to Nanos Research.
A coroner has denied a request from a former Toronto police officer to explore a theory that a distraught teen he shot was committing "suicide by cop."
A 32-year-old man from Campbell River, B.C., has been sentenced to four years in prison for the beating death of a 59-year-old homeless man in October 2020.
A candidate for the United Conservative Party in southern Alberta has resigned after she posted a video claiming children are being exposed to pornography in schools.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has yet to answer direct questions about a growing scandal of her alleged interference with the justice system, but her deputy premier has responded the media about the issue.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has yet to answer direct questions about a growing scandal of her alleged interference with the justice system, but her deputy premier has responded the media about the issue.
A 2021 plane crash at the Westlock Airport was caused by an "unstable visual approach" to the landing runway, a Transportation Safety Board investigator has found.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
Premier Doug Ford is slamming federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault as a “real piece of work” in the wake of public remarks he made suggesting that Ontario has “no plan to fight climate change.”
Just a week after Airbnb tightened regulations for Quebec listings following a deadly fire, hosts may already be bending the rules. Airbnb now requires its hosts to provide a six-digit policy number with their listing, obtained when a tourist lodging is registered with the provincial government. But a scroll through the Airbnb website suggests users are falsifying their permit numbers to sneak past the authentication process.
It's been two weeks since a major fire ripped through a heritage building in the heart of Old Montreal, killing seven people and forever altering the lives of families across the globe. For the families of those who died, the grieving process is only starting.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says the Vatican's rejection of a centuries-old doctrine that justified colonialism is going to change the public's perception of Canadian history.
A judge has acquitted a now-retired priest of forcing himself on a residential school student more than 50 years ago, saying she believes an assault happened but could not determine beyond a reasonable doubt who did it.
Students at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine are reluctant to speak up when faculty make racist comments, according to a new report from the human rights commission.
A Mass Casualty Commission report that came out on Thursday following a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020 may have a local impact on the RCMP Depot model being phased out.
A Mass Casualty Commission report that came out on Thursday following a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020 may have a local impact on the RCMP Depot model being phased out.
Two-and-a-half years after it was established, Nova Scotia’s Mass Casualty Commission has recommended sweeping changes to everything from gun control to mental health services, although there’s no guarantee any will ever be implemented.
When the store manager at La Noisette Bakery arrived Thursday morning to open the small shop on Oxford Street, she discovered that one of the two large circular windows at the side of their building was shattered.
There are exciting plans for Knox Presbyterian Church in downtown Sudbury. Built in 1927, the former church was sold after its congregation dwindled and will be transformed into a concert hall.
