Northern Ontario woman feels connection to Syrian refugees
A northern Ontario woman says she's feeling compassion for the plight of the Syrian refugees after discovering her father's wartime story.
Martha Heidenheim sees her father in the faces of refugees fleeing conflict
CBC News ·
Dieter Heidenheim fled from Germany and then Holland during the Second World War and was deported to Canada. (Martha Heidenheim)
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When Martha Heidenheim from Hearst Ont. watches news coverage about the Syrian refugees her thoughts turn to her father.
Martha Heidenheim says she feels compassion for the Syrian refugees after discovering her father's stories of escaping the conflict of the Second World War. (Martha Heidenheim)
Dieter Heidenheim was just 18-years-old when he escaped Holland during the Second World War, fleeing by boat.
He was deported to Canada where he spent years in an internment camp in New Brunswick.
Martha Heidenheim has been pouring over her father's wartime letters and diaries.
She told the CBC Superior Morning host, Lisa Laco, her father's accounts of fleeing a conflict and coming to Canada holds many parallels to the plight of the Syrian refugees.
Listen to their conversation.
Superior Morning9:06Martha Heidenheim on refugees — and how her father fled conflict in WW2
Family history holds parallels to the Syrian refugee crisis, for one northern Ontario woman. We'll hear the emotional tale of how her father fled the conflict of the Second World War.
