Alex Levin (1) (1935–2016)

Alex Levin was born to a Jewish family in the shtetl of Rokitno, Poland (present-day Ukraine). He was only 10 years old when Nazi Germany invaded his country in World War II, and he ran deep into the forest to escape. Two years later, he emerged from hiding to find that he had lost his parents and his entire community. In 1944, after the region was liberated by the Red Army, Levin was sent to the USSR as a war orphan and enrolled in military cadet school. He became a professional engineer in the Soviet Army until he was forced out for being a Jew. He married in 1957 and had a daughter who was born in 1961. Levin decided to build a new life for himself and his family and was allowed to emigrate to Canada in 1975. There he settled in Toronto and worked first as an engineer and then as a successful builder. His memoir, Under the Yellow and Red Stars, was published by the Azrieli series of Holocaust survivor memoirs in 2009. He often spoke publicly about his experiences in the Holocaust.