Born December 7, 1919   |   Sacel (Sitshl), Transylvania, Romania

Died December 18, 1991   |   Calgary, Canada

Hard-working, quiet and wise, Solly took deep pleasure in spending time with family.

Solly was the second oldest of four sons born to Maier Jankov and Frieda (née Vogel) Feuerwerger. During World War II, as the border changed, Solly was among Jewish males forced into slave labour by the Hungarian military; he was assigned to road construction. Captured by the Russians, Solly was force-marched to Siberia during the winter. Shoeless and with only rags to cover his feet, he suffered frostbite so severe that the soldiers wanted to amputate. Solly refused, insisting that if he could not walk, they would have to shoot him. His toes spared, Solly suffered seven miserable years in a Russian prison. Having grown up in poverty, he was used to infrequent meals and managed to withstand the starvation that felled many of his fellow prisoners. 

After he was liberated, Solly returned to Romania in the hope of finding surviving family. He learned that his younger brother Wolf had been shot to death in a concentration camp. Fortunately, his older brother, Eli Feuerwerger, and youngest brother, Benny Katz, had survived. Solly met and married Fritzy—also a Holocaust survivor—after the war. They remained in Romania until April 1962 when Benny sponsored Solly’s and Fritzy’s immigration to Canada, helped them to settle in Calgary, and brought Solly and Eli into his adjacent businesses, Viennese Furriers and Shoprite Grocery. Solly and Fritzy did not have children of their own; loving and kind, they formed close bonds with their brothers’ children, especially their nieces, whom they treated like their own. Solly’s great-great-nephew Solomon (Sully) was named in his memory.