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www.oakvillebeaver.com Beaver THE OAKVILLE A member of Metroland Media Group Ltd. Vol. 47 No. 140 Sheridan professor releases first book PAGE 31 0 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2008 % FINANCING www.oakvillemazda.com HELD OVER CELEBRATING 25 YEARS! Between Kerr & Dorval 175 Wyecroft Rd. Oakville 905.845.6653 www.lockwoodchrysler.com YOUR FRIEND IN THE BUSINESS "USING COMMUNICATION TO BUILD BETTER COMMUNITIES" 40 Pages $1.00 (plus GST) A Holocaust survivor's tale For two years Betty Laron and her family lived in fear in a hidden apartment By Melanie Cummings SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Inside Opinion........................................6 Artscene ....................................25 Sports ........................................36 Real Estate ................................40 Classified ..................................43 Full Delivery: No Frills, Home Outfitters, Zellers, Shoppers Drug Mart, Starsky Finest, Food Basics, Vistek, Superstore, Longo's, Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire Partial Delivery: Sobeys, Pharma Plus, Appleby Home, Rabba Fine Foods, Fortino's, Maytag, Sears, Telus Mobility, Staples Business, Michael's, The Source, Shoppers Drug Mart, M&M Meats, Rogers Wireless, Metro Canada, Terra Green, M&M Auctions, Water Depot, Price Chopper, Gino's Pizza, Home Hardware, Mark's Work Warehouse, Shop & Save, Toys R Us, Future Shop, The Barn, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, 2001 Audio, Pier 1 Imports For home delivery & customer service call (905) 845-9742 Mon., Tues. and Thurs. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Wed. 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Fri. 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat 10 a.m.-3 p.m. NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS call (905) 845-9742 or subscribe online @ www.oakvillebeaver.com See inside today's paper for special subscription offer. A "bomb" dropped in Betty Laron's world on a sunny afternoon in 1942 when her father announced the family would have to go into hiding. Verging on teenhood at the time, Laron recalled with clarity the 66-year-old memory in her hometown of Zevenaar, Netherlands. "We were sitting on the back porch and my dad said, `Now the time has come.'" Laron told her story of life during the Second World War to the B'Nai Shalom Congregation of Halton-Peel -- an egalitarian conservative sect of Judaism -- on Saturday (Nov. 15), at the Monte Carlo Inn. The presentation by Laron, a member of the congregation, was part of B'Nai Shalom's Holocaust Remembrance Month program. Since May 10, 1940, the German occupation in Laron's country steadily signaled danger for Jewish people. `No admittance to Jews' signs reared, curfews were imposed, travel permits to use buses and trains were required, bikes and radios owned by Jews had to be turned in to the new regime. A NIKKI WESLEY/ OAKVILLE BEAVER FAMILY PORTRAIT: In a family picture with her parents, Josef and Frederika Rosenberg, Betty Laron is wearing the bright yellow star on her dress all Jewish residents were forced to wear in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during the Second World War. backpack had to be at the ready because an order to work in a labour camp meant immediate departure. A bright yellow star with the Dutch word for `Jew' had to be pinned on clothes while outdoors. "For me it was humiliating to wear that star, I felt labelled," said Laron. Already grain, cattle, fruit, wood and coal had been siphoned from the nation and sent to fortify the German troops. "The Germans said they came to protect us from the French and English, but they really just wanted us to be poor, isolated and defenceless," said Laron. The search for a safe haven began. Guided by the maxim that smart refugees don't go far, Laron's father worked through Christian friends to find the family's eventual "hero" Franz Heister. He was a carpenter, who lived around the corner with his wife and two teenage daughters. "He considered it his duty to save a Jewish family," said Laron. During January 1943, Heister stealthily converted his second Betty Laron www.carstaroakville.com 547 Trafalgar Rd. 905-845-7579 2212 Wyecroft Rd. 905-847-2595 · Full Mechanical Repairs · Emissions Testing & Repairs (Only at Wyecroft location) * See Neighbour page 2 905.849.5483 905.338.1288 243 SPEERS ROAD, OAKVILLE · BETWEEN DORVAL & KERR IN THE OAKVILLE HOME IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT