Manny Rotman

Manny was born to Hersh Leib and Chayah Yehudis Rotman in 1909, one of eight children in a tight family. His father was a Bible scholar and his mother worked and was the main breadwinner. In 1925, due to anti-semitism, when Manny was 16, he was detained and tortured by the Polish police. He was held for a year by the authorities before being able to escape and move to Canada. Years later, Manny lost both his parents and four of his siblings in the Holocaust, along with all of his cousins, aunts and uncles. His siblings and their families (including young children) were taken to extermination camps and gassed. His father was shot outside of his home by the Nazis in 1939, while his mother was murdered in Treblinka in 1941. Manny devoted the rest of his life to Jewish causes, Jewish and Holocaust education, and fighting anti-Semitism.