Born November 10, 1926   |   Nowe Miasto (Neishtat oif der Pilitza), Poland

Died May 17, 2020   |   Vancouver, Canada

Annette’s determination to honour the memories of those she lost during the war ensured that her family learned and grew from her strength, resilience and love.

Nine-year-old Annette and her family moved from Poland to Paris in 1935 to escape growing antisemitism, including vicious pogroms. But in 1942, the Nazis began rounding up Jews in Paris, including Annette’s oldest brother, Albert, who was later murdered at Auschwitz. Annette and her sister Helen fled to “Free France,” where they were hidden for 22 months by nuns at the St. Joseph Convent in Alban.

After the war, Annette and her sister reunited with surviving family in Paris. There she met and married Leon Krygier in September 1948. Receiving immigration papers in her maiden name, she travelled to Calgary as a “single” woman three months later. Leon soon followed, and they married again in May 1949. The Krygiers were loving parents to their children Shirley, Carol, Wayne and Marilyn. They worked side by side at their dry cleaning and tailor shop and, later, at their hotels. The extended Krygier and Groner family enjoyed holidays and Sunday potluck dinners filled with singing and storytelling. Immersed in Calgary’s growing Jewish community, Annette was an active volunteer at the I.L. Peretz School, the Hadassah Bazaar, and the Beth Israel Sisterhood. In 1988 she moved to Edmonton before settling in Vancouver in 2010. Through the years, Annette maintained a close relationship with the courageous Mother Superior and five of the original Jewish girls whose lives she and the other nuns had saved. It was a proud moment for Annette when her eldest granddaughter attended the 1995 Yad Vashem ceremony honouring Mother Superior Jeanne-Francoise Ramade as Righteous Among the Nations. Until her final days, Baba Annette’s greatest pleasure was a visit from her family, which grew to include nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.