Toronto · Arts & Life

The mere thought of Adolf Hitler gaining control over his beloved adopted country was enough to send Jan de Vries off to war.

For three years during the Second World War, Donald Stewart zigzagged across oceans; he and his shipmates preferred invisibility. Today he’s running for president of the residents’ council at the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre.

In the early fall of 1940, Vickey Fox and a fellow nurse suddenly found themselves caught on a deserted High Street in eastern Surrey.

Vilien Thang remembered the summer she was 14. Many young strangers came into her life.

In both wartime and peace, Pentti (Ben) Jarvenpaa, has relied on his instinct to survive.

Ken Chesser emerged from the Second World War a beaten man. Frail and thin from starvation in 1945, he shuffled past a barbwire fence to freedom.

Recently, after giving a talk at B’nai Israel Synagogue in Kingston, Ont., Robert Melson, 74, was asked why and where he’d been in the city. He neglected to mention the location of his talk.

For Beth Hancock, 86, there was never a greater dream-come-true than the opportunity to join the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRENS) in 1942.