Jerry Amernic is an author of fiction and non-fiction books. In doing his research for The Last Witness, he interviewed such people as noted Holocaust historian Sir Martin Gilbert, and met with real-life survivors who were children when they were liberated in 1945. Read More
[Published in The Globe and Mail, June 1, 2019] The other night, I watched Saving Private Ryan. It was Memorial Day in the United States. The opening sequence depicting the landings at Normandy on D-Day – June 6, 1944 – is riveting. Although the film never mentions Canada, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division penetrated further inland… Read more
Today we are grappling with how to address the rapid spread of online hatred in what is still the Wild West of social media. The problem is that what used to be only in people’s heads or maybe spoken in the privacy of their living rooms is now readily available for all to see. And… Read more
The oldest person I ever interviewed was Helge Ingstad, the famed Norwegian explorer who discovered the old Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. That put to rest Christopher Columbus discovering America since the Vikings had beat him by 500 years. Ingstad was 100 years old when I met up with him at his home… Read more
What do we make of it when a 22-year-old, hockey player can identify lyrics from classic rock’n roll hits of the 1960s and 1970s, but most of his demographic knows nothing about a major historical event like the Holocaust? On the weekend I watched a TV interview with Jack Eichel of the NHL Buffalo Sabres… Read more
Bridges to the past I cherish stories that provide a bridge to the past which is probably why novelist James A. Michener, who penned many historical epics, is my favourite scribe. But photographs can do this as well as books. One such photo, taken June 5, 1948, is of two men. One of them is… Read more
