My Jewish parents suffered terribly, as did all Jews, under the hand of the Nazis during World War II. Being originally form Zdunska Wola, Poland, they were imprisoned in the now infamous "Auschwitz Concentration Camp-Birkenau."  The viscous cruelty of the Nazis, under Hitler, was more than realized at Birkenau, for it is now known to have been the most notorious of all death camps, under the Third Reich.  More Jews were murdered here, than anywhere else throughout Europe.

Europe (Post War):

Once the war ended, and Birkenau was liberated, my parents made their way to a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Wolfratshausen, Germany. The place of my birth. My father first wanted to immigrate to Israel, but as my mother's family, who immigrated before WWII, were settled in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, he decided to go there, so in 1948, we sailed to Quebec City.  I can still remember my mothers speaking of how, on-board our vessel, she recalled me being so cute in my life jacket during safety drills.  I was 1 year old at the time so therefore remember nothing of our voyage. 

Europe to Canada (A New Beginning):

Montreal:  We arrived in Montreal by rail in Oct. 1948, the place I would call home from 1948- 1987. We, first, found an apartment in downtown Montreal, where we became accustomed to life in Canada. When I reached school age, my mother took me to the nearest school, and enrolled me there. For some reason they skipped Kindergarten, and started me in the first grade. That was the first error, another error they made, was changing my name from Harvey to Harry.  Years later when I married my wife, Carol, changed it back, because her father quote s name was, also, Harry. I quote m, now, known as Harvey, by Carol quote s family, but as Harry to all others.

In {1967) I proposed to and married Carol Schnarch, a cousin of my best friend, in high school.  After the wedding we were off to enjoy a honeymoon, in Mexico.

About a year later we had the opportunity to visit Israel, because, a friend of my father, originally from Poland , now, living in Israel, was visiting Montreal, where his brother now lived, and therefore we took this unexpected happening to accept his invitation to visit Israel.  It was only a year after the "Six Day War, "  and we took full advantage of all the new sites to be seen, in Greater Israel, with his family, my father's old friend from Poland, as tour guides. My father, Jacob, got so excited about our visiting Israel, that he had a heart attack, which, eventually, led to his death.

 I was unable to continue my education at Concordia University for I was now forced to take over and run the knitting plant. I first, made a rash decision to take my brother-in-law, Jean (Frenchy) into the business, maybe, because I lacked experience and self-confidence at such a, relatively, young age. My next colossal blunder was when I didn't recognize my nemesis, Bipolar Disorder, the illness, which would be affecting me throughout my life. This was the birth in me to try to put down my experiences as

1) the child of Holocaust Survivors

2) the sufferer of Bipolar Disorder. 

That gave rise to my poetry book, entitled IT, of which a number of the poems are included here on my web site. The highs and lows that continually incapacitated me. I went on a high, which made me feel invincible, so as to rid, me of any fear of being wrong in my calculations.  I proceeded to go on a buying spree, purchasing machinery, that we didn' t need, wasn't wise to attain.  It led to bankruptcy. 

After lying low for awhile, I went into partnership with Jedwab, a friend of my late father. We had moderate success, for a while, but when I received an offer to have Jedwab, bought out, with my retaining 25% of the company, by Scarves & Allied Arts, I jumped at the offer. Mr. Melnick, my new partner, had originally been my father's boss, and he and his employees, who, once, worked with my father, affectionately referred to me as the "kid"  This relationship flourished until it became apparent to Mr. Melnick and his son-in-law, David Berbriar, that the writing was on the wall for manufacturing in Canada. They advised me of their wish to sell their part of the business.

I, then made my next error in judgement, by, against the warnings of other people in related businesses, not to go into business with Calco, because of their bad reputation, I disregarded their advice. It was a costly mistake, in dollars and mental health. The marriage didn't last very long, and as I am implying, and ended badly, for both parties. Calco threatened to sue me for their losses, resulting from  our arrangement, and they were left with an operation which they didn't care to go on with. I, finally, settled said suit, by paying Cal Cogin, the president of Calco, a small portion of what he was originally going to sue me for.

While still working with Calco, a salesman from Canadian Sports & Marketing approached me with a, new, patented, item; a knitted scarf with pockets on each end, with the intention, of asking me if we could supply the item. Since I realized that my days were numbered at Calco, I offered to work with his company on this project, and with future projects in mind. His boss accepted my offer and we had a string of successful incidents with new customers.

On being introduced to a competitor, I met Monica, an employee of said company, and I decided to, as the man who got me into the company, was not performing up to par, to ask  the president of our outfit, to take in Monica, as my partner. He accepted my advice, and that led to an extremely close  relationship between Monica, a German, who quote s father was, probably a Nazi, and myself. Fate?

Anyhow, I, eventually, paid for my sins, when my mental illness took hold  of me again. I ended up in Hospital, again. This time, when I was released, I decided to act, on a long time resolution of leaving Quebec, because of

1) my inadequate use of the French language, 

2) the political climate.

 I decided that we would move to Toronto. My first requirements were

1) work

2) lodging for me and my family

3) conserving our finances. 

Toronto:  On the first issue, I decided to purchase a Sharpe scanner/printer, in order to print T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, etc. I, then, opened a retail outlet in the Lawrence Mall to sell said items. I, eventually, closed the operation, because I couldn't make a go of it. I, next, decided to work for various wholesale "T-Shirt,"  houses, like Mr. T-Shirt.

.After about a year Mr. T-SHIRT went bankrupt. At that point I had to make a crucial decision. To look for another job or go into business for myself. I decided that although I still suffered from Bipolar Disorder, which had got me into trouble in the past, I'd still be more comfortable being in control of my destiny. I opened Custom T-Club, a wholesale sportswear distributorship in DEC. 1995. It wasn't easy to run because I was hospitalized many times with my nemesis, Bipolar Disorder, but I stuck it out until my neurologist diagnosed MS, which proved wrong. After a long hospital stay, Carol  decided that I should give up the business and I was forcibly retired. Then, our family Doctor diagnosed me as having Parkinson's and Diabetes.The main regret I have is that my two sons, Jason and  Jeremy also suffer from Bipolar Disorder through heredity.

Jason, my oldest son, recently married his fiancee Natasha and have a son named Alexander James.

Now let's get back to the present. Since I was released from the Baycrest Hospital for the wrong diagnosis of MS in Dec. 1999,  I received a care giver, Haim, who's become a valued and trusted friend to our whole family.  As I was interested in the Internet, I took courses on the subject and I particularly wanted to learn how to create a web site; which I eventually did.  I then spread the word about my site on line, and the founder of Papa Mike Creations, Mike Boyles responded with an offer to rebuild my site professionally. The results were:

• www.harrykel.com  Personal (this site),
• www.backbeatband.ca is the official site for Backbeat band where our son, Jason, is a member.

Mike has become a very valued friend and computer mentor! I would greatly appreciate your registering on all the above sites.

I am currently a volunteer at the Betel Center, an organization where seniors gather, in their computer classes. It gets me out of the house on many weekday mornings and I feel good about being of some use. As I'm often housebound,  I spend much of my time on the computer or watching TV.

On March 2, 2007  Jason, with the help of our immediate family put on a Parkinson's event with the support of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. It was a great success! 

More to come!!