Renee Naiman remembers her father saying that “if someone asks me for help, I’m not asking any questions.” This sense of kindness runs through the Naiman family story—a story of caring for others, resilience, and forgiveness.
Renee’s father Harry was born in Stashiv, Poland, trained as a tailor, and served in the Polish army. Her mother Helen grew up on a farm in Czestochowa, Poland, and, after her father died, worked as a nanny and later as a cook in a high-end restaurant. Theirs is a love story. Harry was a “hopeless romantic.” They met at a dance, married in 1939 just before the war, and worked together in a munitions factory until 1941–42, when they were separated.
Helen was sent to Bergen-Belsen and later liberated by the English. Harry was sent to Buchenwald and rescued while being transported via rail by the U.S. Tank Corps. Harry began searching for Helen—by train, hitchhiking, and on foot—driven by the hope that she was still alive. Helen, recovering from typhus, refused to go to Sweden for treatment so that she might find him. They met on a street near Bergen-Belsen, walking toward each other as if in a movie.
They returned to Bergen-Belsen, now a displaced persons camp, where Renee’s brother Joe was born, and later immigrated to Toronto. Harry worked as a tailor at Creeds, and Helen looked after boarders in their home.
Renee recalls that although her parents never spoke about the Holocaust, they carried no hatred and deeply valued their new life. They had quiet strength, never asked for pity, and were proud Canadians. They showed empathy and generosity within their means. From them, she learned “to be humble, regardless of what life gives us; to be tolerant in spite of intolerance and prejudice; and to love freely and openly.”
Born in Yorkville and raised in downtown Toronto, Renee attended Bloor Collegiate and worked her way through the University of Toronto studying sciences. She remembers feeling only love as a child.
Renee built a career in transfusion medicine, working at Red Cross and later Canadian Blood Services, where she rose to director of central Ontario. She continues her work at Canadian Blood Services, working part time in their hospital-based stem cell/cord bank.
Service has always been central to her life. Renee was a chaperone on the March of the Living but left the trip early to accompany home a survivor whose husband had passed away. She believes that “if you help one other person, you’ve done your job.” By creating a fund at the Jewish Foundation in memory of her parents, she hopes to pass on the importance of giving. As Renee says, “it is now our privilege to build an ongoing legacy of giving in their name.”