The Tailor Project Book will be published by Second Story Press in 2020.
The Tailor Project book brings together a collection of stories narrated by tailors and their families who immigrated to Canada during the 1948 – 1949 Garment Workers Scheme, one of the most significant and successful bulk-labour schemes in Canada. Stories range from memories of the death camps and displaced persons camps, to rebuilding a life in Canada as a tailor, to raising their children as Canadians. Throughout, families share original documents and photographs of their experiences. This material has never been brought together before.
The experiences and successes of these tailors illustrate the impact the Garment Workers Scheme had on their lives and on Canadian society. These tailors were displaced persons who survived the Holocaust. They were separated from their families, robbed of their belongings, subjugated to terrible violence and trauma, and forced to live in unimaginable conditions. They experienced devastating loss. And yet, through the Garment Workers Scheme they were able to seize an opportunity to rebuild a life with dignity, demonstrating their unyielding resiliency, determination and resourcefulness. We have a lot to learn from their stories and those of their children.