Jews in Hong Kong to pay tribute to Canadian soldiers killed there in the Second World War

Sai Wan War Cemetery, Hong Kong (courtesy Commonwealth War Graves Commission website)

Timing is everything. And the Internet is a miraculous instrument. And both are about to connect a Canadian Jewish community in Hong Kong with the surviving next-of-kin of four Canadian servicemen who were killed in the Second World War there.

I am just finished writing the first draft of my chapter about Hong Kong, for my new book about the Canadian Jewish servicemen who were killed in the Second World War. 

This week I interviewed a Toronto businessman. We met for a coffee at What a Bagel, on Bathurst Street in Thornhill. I had asked for an interview because his father was one of four Canadian Jewish servicemen who lost their lives in the battle for Hong Kong, in 1941. He had just marked the 74th Yahrzeit (anniversary of his father’s death).  He was a baby when his father David “Morris” Schrage died.

Then, I received an email from a Canadian banker, Garry Stein from Hong Kong. He is a long time Hong Kong resident and a member of their synagogue, the United Jewish Congregation of Hong Kong. He wrote to me in response to a note I’d placed last year on a website devoted to all things Old Hong Kong. It is called gwulo   I had asked for help looking for the descendants of a Sgt. Robert Macklin. He was also one of the four Canadian Jewish Hong Kong casualties.

Macklin was with the British Army. After the invasion, he was a POW for about a year, and, like so many hundreds of other Canadian POWs, suffered inhumane treatment. He died in late 1942. 

Also thanks to the Internet, and specifically to gwulo.com, I was contacted by the grandson of Robert Macklin’s best friend. He told me an incredible story of how their family has been honouring the Canadian soldier all these years. You’ll have to read all about it when my book comes out.

There are two other Canadian Jewish servicemen who were lost in the Battle of Hong Kong. They came on the troop ship carrying the 1,970 members of C Force to shore up the British Garrison against a possible Japanese invasion in the fall of 1941.  Max Berger from Sarnia, Ontario, was with the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. 

And there is Hymie Greenberg, of Spedden, Alberta. He was with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. He is buried in another cemetery, the Stanley Military Cemetery. 

Now back to Garry Stein. 

Mr. Stein wrote to tell me that on November 11, and again on December 6, 2015, he and others will be at a Remembrance service at Sai Wan. The December 6th one is run by the Canadian Consulate. He will say Kaddish for the Canadians and the other Jewish casualties.