Bluehart 🇨🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🍎🐠✝️

This is my fifth Remembrance Day without my adopted grandfather Alex Polowin — a World War II hero who stayed with us until his 98th year. At just 17, Alex chose to go to war. He convinced his father — who couldn't read or write English — to sign a letter attesting to a falsified birth date so the Royal Canadian Navy would believe he was 18. He chose the Navy because he thought it would get him into action before the army. Alex was born in a small town outside of Vilnius, Lithuania in 1925. Three years later, he and his family moved to Canada. As a teen, he'd learn news from his family that remained in Lithuania about what was happening to Jews in Nazi-controlled Europe. Soon after becoming an able seaman, Alex found himself in dangerous waters. Being at war was one thing. Knowing the Nazis aimed to wipe out his family and all Jews was another. During the war, he never told any of his shipmates that he was Jewish. It was best to keep that a secret back then. On D-Day, the teenager and his shipmates were aboard the HMCS Huron. It was in the middle of the channel during the invasion, protecting the D-Day convoy from attack by sea. On June 9th, it helped sink a torpedo boat and run a German destroyer aground. Two of his uncles were killed during the Holocaust. Alex considered his service to be a debt he paid to them. Despite all of the grand honours the humble seaman received for his service, that was always his greatest honour. He was one of more than 17,000 Jewish Canadians to serve in the war. At first when Alex would join me on my shows, he wouldn't want to talk about being a Jew during the war. It's not that he wanted to hide it, he just didn't see the need to focus on it. But in our final on-air conversation for the D-Day commemoration in 2022, he wanted to talk about it. You see, Alex was getting worried. He saw the world changing. He saw the rise in Jew-hate. He had seen this all before... And didn't want to see it again. Part of me is glad Alex is no longer here. I wouldn't want him to have to experience this. Especially after he sacrificed his life to help fight for our freedoms. I miss him. I am grateful for him. And I thank you for remembering. And remembering Alex. Alex was the last man standing from all three of his warships. Despite losing almost everyone closest to him, he always found a way to find happiness. Please remember his words today: “I’m a person who learned practically from infancy to get along with people. I learned to adjust to the people I’m speaking to rather than expecting them to adjust to me.” May his memory forever be a blessing of light and strength.🕯️❤️