Born March 14, sometime between 1904 and 1911   |   Warsaw, Poland

Died November 18, 1995   |   Montreal, Canada

George was a gentle soul with a wonderful sense of humour that sustained him despite the horrors of the Holocaust.

George was among the youngest of nine children. Prior to World War II, he established a successful sporting goods store, married and welcomed a son. George was among the Jews forced to reside in the Warsaw Ghetto. His sister Selina, a pediatrician, had some influence in the ghetto, which she used in the effort to protect him. George later survived the Dachau concentration camp and, at some point during the war, bravely escaped from a train. George’s brother Mordechai and sister Regina had respectively immigrated to Palestine and Tangiers prior to the war. Most of the Rosengarten family perished at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators, including George’s wife Naomi and their son David.

After the war, George and a friend established a wine business in Germany. George immigrated to Canada and settled in Montreal, reuniting there with his sister Regina and brother-in-law Shloimeh, with whom he had several businesses. Smitten with Holocaust survivor Ruth Teiblum when they chanced to meet in Montreal, George maximized the chances of a successful courtship by shaving years off his age. It worked; they married on June 19, 1949, and welcomed their son, Albert, in 1951. George and Ruth operated a successful home-based business selling housewares and clothing. George did not dwell on the past; instead, he and Ruth focused on building their new life in Canada. They had a wide circle of friends, mainly Holocaust survivors from Poland and their growing families. Challenged by health issues, George suffered a heart attack while still in his 50s. Proud grandparents of four, George and Ruth wintered in Florida where they lived happily, enjoying walks, good food and, most of all, the pleasure of simply being together.