Friends Connected Through Shared History

For over a decade, Danna Horwood and Georgina Rosenberg have shared a close friendship. What they did not know was that their family histories were connected in a profound and unlikely way.

In preparing for the opening of the Margaret’s Legacy Holocaust Learning and Jewish Advocacy Centre, new documents were uncovered and translated. Through newly reviewed records, it was discovered that Georgina’s mother, Sura Rosenberg (née Weisel), and Danna’s grandmother, Margaret Weisz, were deported to Auschwitz in June 1944.

In the months that followed, both women were transferred into the Gross-Rosen concentration camp network, a system of camps spanning parts of what was then Czechoslovakia. Conditions in these camps were brutal, defined by forced labour, starvation, and constant threat to life.

Both women survived. 

As the war drew to a close, they endured the death marches and forced evacuations under extreme conditions that claimed countless lives. Against overwhelming odds, both Sura and Margaret lived through these final months.

They were eventually liberated and, in time, made their way to Canada, where they rebuilt their lives.

The discovery of this shared history adds a new dimension to a friendship that already spanned years. It is a reminder that often stories that seem so separate can intersect in profound ways and you don’t realize until much later why you always felt such a deep connection.

As Georgina reflected, “I’ve always believed everything happens for a reason.”

The process of building the Margaret’s Legacy Centre has not only created a space for education, it has also brought forward stories like this one, reminding us that history is not static. It continues to unfold, and connect us, even decades later.

For additional background on this discovery, see coverage by Wendy Schneider from her Hamilton Jewish News article, which highlights the broader context and significance of this connection.