Book details twins' escape from Nazis, new lives in city
Polish-born hat-maker and restaurateur Wolf Wengrowicz sought to save the lives of his four-year-old twin boys when Nazi forces invaded Belgium in May 1940.
“He feared the worst when he heard Germany's Nazis were murdering Jewish people and reluctantly dropped off his sons Jacques (later renamed Jack) and Leon from the Jewish ghetto of Anderlecht in Brussels to the nearby Wezembeek orphanage,” Jack's son, Max Cohen, said.
“His fears were justified. He was picked up and sent to Auschwitz, where in just over fourand-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered close to at least one million deported Jews.
“Records show most prisoners were either gassed, starved, worked to death or sometimes killed in medical experiments.”
The boys' father, sent to Auschwitz on Oct. 31, 1942, daringly jumped from the train en route and returned home to work in a restaurant.
But he was found by the SS and sent to Auschwitz on Sept. 20, 1943. He perished there, along with his wife and teenage daughter.
New light on what happened to Jack and Leon is shed in a book by fourth-year Dutch law student Reinier Heinsman, 24, who volunteered to help a Belgian museum.
He contacted me from his home in The Netherlands, knowing “Jasper Jack” was wellknown in Edmonton as a businessman and philanthropist.
“I had a major motivation to write From The Children's Home to the Gas Chamber, which includes a story about Jack and his twin,” Heinsman said.
“My grandmother was born in Antwerp in 1937 and survived the war by hiding. But sadly, many other family members were deported and died in Auschwitz.”
Heinsman told me he had gathered some 50 testimonies and many photos during his Holocaust research.
About 10 files centred on murdered orphans, while the remainder were about surviving orphans from seven countries, including the U.S., Israel, Belgium, Canada, England, the Netherlands and Australia.
Cohen says Heinsman's book, available on Amazon, has added several missing pieces to his family tree.
“Reinier discovered, among many items, a photo of my dad, Jack, and brother Leon with a group of other children at Mechelen deportation camp, where Belgian Jews were gathered before their deportation to concentration and extermination camps,” Cohen said.
“He also discovered letters written by our grandfather, a letter from an aunt and photos we had never seen before of our grandfather, grandmother and aunt.”
Cohen said Reinier's work has helped complete “a part of myself that has been a void my entire life.”
Heinsman reports Jack and Leon were on their way to Auschwitz and almost certain death when trains were delayed through intervention by courageous individuals.
“The orphans eventually reached the attention of Yvonne Nevejean, leader of the Children's National Care Authority in Belgium,” says the author. “Some 150 children were saved.”
In 1947, the twins were among 1,116 youngsters brought to Canada by the Canadian Jewish Congress and settled in 38 communities.
HARRY COHEN ADOPTS TWINS
Edmonton businessman Harry Cohen, sent to Toronto by his wife Lillian to adopt a little girl, instead returned with the little twin boys, who spoke French and not a word of English.
“Harry Cohen was a loving man and our father, Jack, desperately wanted him to be his dad,” said Cohen, an entrepreneur. “He wrapped his arms around Harry's legs and wouldn't let go.”
Jack loathed school, Cohen said. At the age of 12, the twins quit and went to work in what became the family business, Harry Cohen's Jasper Auto Parts.
In 1946, Harry had founded the company in downtown Edmonton, a block north of Jasper Avenue on 95 Street.
“My dad Jack was a veritable encyclopedia on auto parts and could instantly tell the make, model and year of every vehicle manufactured from 1930 to 1970,” Cohen said. “He never had to use any parts reference book.”
When Harry Cohen died in 1965, Jack Cohen purchased Jasper Auto Parts, which moved to St. Albert Trail in the late 1950s.
In 1992 the St. Albert property was sold to the Alberta government, the land destined to become part of a transportation corridor.
Cohen owned Windsor Truck Parts on Edmonton's south side and continued to run Jasper
Auto Parts from there. He also owned Western Auto and Truck Parts in Calgary, run by his brother Leon.
Jack Cohen ran his businesses with wife Marilyn's help for 50 years, up until his death in 2017. Leon died only nine months after Jack.
LEGACY CONTINUES
Jack and Marilyn's daughter, Cherie, and youngest child, David, entered the family business more than 20 years ago and, since Jack's passing, have successfully run operations in Edmonton and Calgary.
Many years ago, I befriended Jack and enjoyed meeting his many friends, which included the business elite, entertainers, rabbis, police officers and bikers.
He amassed a highly valued collection of vintage cars and trucks and always just smiled when asked about the time he brought Muhammad Ali to Edmonton to promote boxing in Alberta.
Says Jack's wife Marilyn: “Reinier'ws book is well researched and written. I know Jack and Leon would be immensely proud to have their stories and photos included. We think of Jack every day.”