Global Stories in Local Kingston
Department of History
Queen's University, Kingston ON
November 16, 2023
"Escape from World War II to Canada | Margarete Tichawa's Story"
As part of the Department of History's RU-vid series "Global Stories in Local Kingston," undergraduate student Katharine Kanters interviews Margarete Tichawa, a 92-year old German woman living in Kingston, ON. Margarete shares her story of growing up in Germany during the Second World War. She describes antisemitic violence against Jewish people that she witnessed as a child, including seeing Jewish people wearing the Star of David armbands, the burning of the Beuthen Synogogue in 1938, and walking through a concentration camp near Bremen, Germany following the war. Next, Margarete shares her experiences migrating from Germany to Canada in the early-1950s. She describes how she created a sense of community as a German immigrant in Canada, her experiences as a nurse in Kingston, ON, and how her family maintains ties to their German heritage.
Dr. Amitava Chowdhury, the Chair of the Department of History at Queen's University, describes the series as an opportunity to interview residents of Kingston who have had an interesting biography elsewhere in the world. The series shows how people and their life stories speak to global historical processes in the very local setting of Kingston.
This series was made possible by the generous donations from our benefactors, alumni, and friends of the Department of History.
Some materials, photographs, and artifacts shown in the video were provided by Margarete Tichawa and her family. The Department of History is thankful for their generous contribution.
This video was made possible by Dr. Swen Steinberg, Dr. Amitava Chowdhury, and Katharine Kanters. We would like to extend a special thank you to Margarete Tichawa and Linda Lloyd for helping us tell this story. We would also like to thank Josh Weisenberg-Vincent for recording and editing this video.
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