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Interview of Basil Kallner by Emma Kallner.

Where were you born?
I was born in Johannesburg South Africa.

How many children were there in your family?
There were two children in my family.

What kind of education did you have (in the old country/Canada)?
High school in South Africa.

How far did you go in school?
Grade twelve matric.

When did you start your working career?

I started working when he was 16.

If you had a business where was it located?
Johannesburg

How old were you when you when you came to Canada?
I was 35

Did you come with your family?
Yes

What was your life like when you first came to Canada?
It was very difficult because we left our family behind, we knew nobody here it was just the five of us

Why did you choose to come to Canada?
It was a country that was democratic and free

How old were you when you first worked in Canada?
35

Did you get a fair wage?
No

Did you ever encounter prejudice or discrimination?
No

How many hours a day/ week did you work?
Worked 50 hours a week

Where you affected by the depression?
No

How old were you when you got married?
24

How did you meet your partner?
At family wedding

How many children did you have?
Three boys

Were you involved in the Jewish community? How so?
Yes. Our family where founding members of a synagogue in Richmond

What kind of Jewish education did you receive?
Cheder (afternoon school classes)

Did you come from an orthodox home?
Yes

Were traditions and customs important to your family? Which ones?

Yes. European customs such as celebrating all Jewish holidays in the European way




November 12, 2008

The Story of Basil Kallner

My Grandfatherís story is about how his family, and the generations before him, struggled to find a safe community for their families to live together and lead an active and rich Jewish lifestyle. This struggle required my Grandfatherís family moving across three continents in the last eighty years.

My Grandfatherís story starts in Lithuania in small village called Jasvin, now known Jasvinai. My great great great grandfather Isamenda Grinblat was a farmer just outside of the village of Jasvin. He lived a simple life and farmed vegetables and cattle food (hay, Lucerne). His son was Leibe Grinblat who was my great great grandfather. He had a mill on the river that ran through the farm and through the village. During the summer the mill ground wheat and corn into flour and during the winter the mill was converted into a sawmill and was used to cut lumber. There was a small lake outside of the mill where all the village kids would gather to swim in the summer. Around the mill there were large fields of strawberries that anyone could come and pick and which produced wonderful aromas in the late spring.

In the late 1920ís, the German Army moved into the area around Jasvinai were the Grinblatís had been living. In 1929, Leibe Grinblatís sister Hinda and my Mother, Roma Grinblat traveled to South Africa before the Holocaust started. They told Roma that she needed to help Hinda who was traveling to South Africa with two young children and required assistance on the ship. The intention was that once they reached South Africa Roma would then live with Hinda, her husband and children to help with the household. Roma's parents and Roma's two sisters were supposed to follow them to South Africa. Tragically, due to the German programs to exterminate Jews, all the Jews in the village of Jasvinai were brutally massacred by the Germans with their Lithuanian helpers. Roma was fourteen years old when she left her family to travel to a far away land. Her parents must have been anguished at the thought of never seeing their daughter again. Roma Grinblat lost her entire immediate family.

Due to the tragic circumstances of the loss of her parents and sisters, Roma spoke very little of her life in Lithuania. One evening, my grandfather (Basil) was sitting with my great grandmother and she started talking about her life back home. She told the story of her grandfather who was the farmer and his routine before Shabbat. Every Thursday he would load his horse and carriage with produce and go to his home where my great great grandmother would take what they needed for Shabbat. Then he would go to the home of my great grandfather and my great grandmother and they would take what they needed for Shabbat. He would then unhitch his wagon in the town square and allow any one who needed food or vegetables to take from his wagon. He made sure that he never knew who took the food and vegetables as this was his tzedaka to his community.

Once in South Africa, my great grandmother Roma was put into a convent to learn how to speak English. After six months she went to work in a department store where she worked for several years. Shortly after that she met my great grandfather Herman.

My great grandfather Herman was born in the village of Nainstadt, Lithuania. He left Lithuania in 1933 due to political up rising created by the Germans and the Russians. He came to South Africa with just his suitcase of clothes and went to work for an uncle who lived on a farm outside of Cape Town. They had a store on the farm and that is where he worked. While on a vacation to Cape Town my great grandmother met my great grandfather and they started dating. They eventually decided to get married and moved to Johannesburg. Their life was very simple and basic. They opened a corner store and rented a small house, between them and a friend, and lived there for many years. When my grandfather was born they moved into a one bedroom cottage and lived there until my grandfatherís brother was born seven years later when they moved into a larger house. Both of my great grandparents worked in the store. They had a small yard in the back of the store where my grandfather and his brother spent their days while my great grandparents worked.

My grandfather grew up in an area called Highlands North. The first house he lived in was a ten minute walk from the store that my great grandparents owned. My grandfather went to a public school which was also a ten minute walk from their home. He started school at 8:00 in the morning and came out of school at 2pm. Starting in grade 3, he would go to their store after school and would help his parents by packing sugar into paper bags and packing groceries onto the shelves. He would then walk home with his parents at 6pm and would then go out and play while his mother made dinner. On Wednesdays after school there were sports and he could play either soccer or cricket. On Tuesday and Thursday afternoon he would have to go to chayda (Hebrew lessons) for half an hour. Chayda was held at the synagogue and was run by the rabbi. My grandfather did not go on formal vacations but rather during school break he was sent to my great grandmotherís uncle Isadoreís (my great great grandfatherís brother) farm which was about 2 hours away. There he would spend most of his summer break. He really loved the farm because they had horses and cows and all kinds of small farm animals. He considered my great grandmotherís uncle to be his grandfather. He feels today that many of his life values where formed by the relationship he had with Isadore. My Grandfatherís life growing up in Johannesburg was very simple and although he lived in an area that had many Jewish families, his friends were both and Jewish and non Jewish. They felt very safe in their community.

An interesting story that my Grandfather tells is about the house where he lived which was in an established suburb of Johannesburg. He remembers as a child the street that they lived on was a sand street. My grandfather also remembers what a big occasion it was when one morning they brought equipment and prepared the roads for black top. All the kids came home early from school and sat on the sand sidewalk to watch the workers. This story is a great example of the simple life that my Grandfather lived while a child in South Africa.

My great grandfather was a member of a synagogue that had a rabbi who was also the Hebrew teacher, the chazzan and formed one of the first men shul choirs in Johannesburg. That choir is now world famous and is doing concerts. As a young boy my grandfather sang in that choir. My Grandfather remembers the many happy days he spent in the synagogue or hanging out with his Jewish friends.

My grandmother, Selma is the daughter of Ernst (Ephraim) Katzmann who was the son of Joseph Katzmann, the son of Jacob Katzmann. Ernst Katzmann came to South Africa at about 1938 from Fliden, Germany when his family fled the wave of violence towards Jews in Germany. He met and married my great grandmother Esther Jacobson who came to South Africa in about 1928 from Latvia.


My grandfather Basil met my grandmother Selma at a family wedding and started dating. In 1966, my grandparents were married in South Africa. They lived in Johannesburg and had three sons Jonathan, Joel and Howard. They were very involved in the Jewish community and by tradition of their parents kept an orthodox home and lived an orthodox lifestyle. They had many friends and my Grandfather operated a successful business.

In 1975, due to the political unrest in South Africa, my grandparents felt that it would be wise to move as a family somewhere in the world where there would be more stability and a better future for their children. They observed the unrest in the streets of Johannesburg and saw police rounding up black people, putting them in paddy wagons and taking them away. This made my grandparents and their children very uncomfortable because it gave them images of what had happened to their family in Europe.

Once again the family would be separated in search of a safe community for future generations. They chose to immigrate to Canada and specifically chose the Vancouver area because of the climate and business opportunities. My grandparents established their home in Richmond. My grandfather started a business and my grandmother who was a qualified teacher stayed home to care for their children. My grandfatherís business involved repairing industrial trucks and trailers as well as selling parts for trucks and trailers. After several years of being in business my grandfather bought the land and building that was used for his business. He later bought more land and buildings and leased them to other businesses. Throughout this period of establishing his business my Grandfather worked long days and often into the night.

My grandfather and grandmother chose to live in Richmond rather than in Vancouver because it was more affordable. Being new immigrants to Canada and starting a new business meant that my grandparents had to take advantage of the lower cost of housing. However, this created a different challenge as there was a lack of Yiddishkeit in Richmond at the time. The small Jewish community held an Oneg Shabbat every three months and high holiday services. My grandparents did not send their sons to Jewish day school as they could not afford it.

In an effort to provide a Jewish environment for their three young sons, my grandfather and grandmother joined with a group of ten families and together started holding regular Friday night services in their homes on a rotating bases. These Shabbat services provided both a religious and social foundation for the group of new immigrants who were not only from out of the country but were also from across Canada. After several years of moving from house to house, the families acquired an older house, remodeled it and formed a small synagogue which later became known as the Eitz Chaim synagogue. At the same time the Beth Tikvah synagogue was formed in Richmond. I belong to this synagogue today.

From his very early days of settling in Canada, my grandfather contributed back to his community. Whether it was starting and building a synagogue, going to South Africa to bring a Torah back for the young Jewish community in Richmond or sitting on the board of directors of the Louis Brier home. He also became involved in other charities after he retired including the Richmond Hospital Foundation and the Richmond Gateway Theater. This practice of giving back to the community finds it roots in Jasvin where my great great Grandfather would leave food in his wagon for the community.

When asked, my Grandfather will tell you that despite all of his accomplishments and experiences, he is most proud of his family and especially his grandchildren. Today he has seven grandchildren with one more on the way. All three of his children have university educations. All of his grandchildren live either in Vancouver or Richmond. The fact that three generations are all living together in the same community has not happened for many generations in my family. War, political instability and security forced many generations of my family to leave their homes, parents and grandparents behind. My grandfather, by moving his family to Vancouver, has given his family a chance to live together and for future generations to live together also.

It would be hard to imagine what it would be like to leave our family and move to a foreign land, not knowing what our travels and new home would bring. We are so fortunate that my grandfather, and the generations before him, struggled to find a safe community for their families to live and have a rich Jewish lifestyle.


By Emma Kallner

Emma and Jeremy Kallner

  Kallnerfamily.com

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