‘Watching the universe unfold’

Veteran CBC journalist spent decades covering war zones and global events

TORONTO Longtime CBC foreign correspondent Joe Schlesinger, who spent decades covering war zones and global events that shaped history, has died.

The public broadcaster says Schlesinger died after a lengthy illness. He was 90.

Fellow journalists, politicians and others were quick to praise him and offer condolences:

“With passion, courage and authenticity, Joe Schlesinger brought the news to Canadians, and his contributions to Canadian journalism will not be forgotten,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter. “My condolences to his family and loved ones.”

“Look at a map,” tweeted veteran CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge, “and it seems you could point to anywhere and remember a story Joe did from there. Storytelling that few will ever match and in ways that made us all better informed about the planet we live on. You’ve earned your rest Joe.”

Canadian journalist Nahlah Ayed tweeted: “Legendary journalist Joe Schlesinger, who brought us the world, has now left it. RIP.”

Schlesinger was born in Vienna in 1928 and raised in former Czechoslovakia. When Hitler occupied that country in 1938, his parents sent him and his younger brother, Ernie, to England as part of the Kindertransport, organized by Sir Nicholas Winton, that rescued 669 Jewish children.

When he returned home in 1945, Schlesinger discovered that his parents had been killed in the Holocaust.

Schlesinger appears in and narrates the 2011 documentary Nicky ’s Family, about Winton and the Kindertransport.

“I have a career of wandering around the world, watching the universe unfold and actually getting paid for it. It’s like a little boy ’s dream.”