Collection search - Gollom, Nathan - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Gollom, Nathan - Interview

Item number (ISN):

379048

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-07-17

Item number (ISN):

379048

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

THE GREAT WAR AND CANADIAN SOCIETY PROJECT

Accession:

1975-0098

Media:

Sound

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1974-07-17

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, Lori Rotenberg

Description:

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Interview of Nathan “Nat” Gollom, age 77, who was born in London, England in 1897 to Polish-born parents and moved to Canada in 1904. He talks about: not liking his work as a collar maker; becoming an apprentice in a printing shop; his father’s work as a tailor and establishment of a factory in Toronto; life in Toronto; the family’s Orthodox Jewish faith; life in their Jewish neighbourhood in the Queen, College, Spadina and Bay Street area; going to public school; childhood activities such as going to movies and playing basketball; his father’s factory; a Hebrew newspaper and Jewish books in the home; speaking English to his parents and his parents answering in Yiddish; getting the Toronto Star and the Toronto Telegram; left public school at age 14, without graduating, because he had to go to work; his job making extension bracelets in a jewelry factory; his salary and working conditions; his apprenticeship in a print shop before the war; working as a typesetter; his role on a union committee during the big printers’ strike in 1922; the International Typographical Union; getting another job during the strike; reasons for the strike; various jobs as a printer; his family life; dating; his membership in a Zionist club, where he attended picnics, dances and other events; being conscripted in 1918; training at Niagara-on-the-Lake; his not thinking of enlisting when war broke out because he did not want to kill anyone; not feeling any social pressure to enlist; enlistment by Jewish people; more on training; not liking the food at training camp; meeting non-Jews in the military; service overseas in France and Germany; his work as an interpreter in Germany on Armistice Day; service with the Army of Occupation; training in England; nearly being court-martialed because he took pictures of a convoy; the relationship between the soldiers and the officers; going to France early in 1918; not seeing any fighting in the field; no difference in the treatment between conscripts and volunteers; the pre-war attitude that Germans were cultured people; the lack of any real hostility to Germans during the First World War; changing his attitude about Germanswhen Hitler came along; Armistice Day on the middle of a battlefield in France; soldiers in Belgium; soldiers meeting up with other soldiers’ widows; his engagement to an English girl, of which nothing ensued; his mother’s upset when he was conscripted; his return to Canada; being met by the Salvation Army and turning in his rifle at Exhibition Park; adjusting to civilian life; joining Jewish Legion No. 256 on Eglinton Avenue; part of his army pay going to his family; his mother being physically unable to do volunteer work during the war; getting a parcel from his family and sharing the contents with other soldiers; in Germany after the Armistice; return to Canada from Le Havre aboard the Olympia; religious observances; no religious services for Jews when he was in the army; rumours that some troops shot officers who were bullying them; lice in the trenches; army food; wanting to forget about the war and not talking about it to his family; censorship of his letters to his family; canteens in England run by the Salvation Army; treats such as canned fruit and parcels from home; Jewish women sending socks and handkerchiefs to soldiers overseas; being beckoned by a woman as he walked down a street; being afraid of getting social diseases; getting a broader outlook after meeting other people during wartime; Canada after the war; recreational activities in Toronto such as canoeing on the Humber River and going to movies; his postwar career; his marriage in 1924; the lack of integration of the Jewish community and non-Jewish communities; more on his jobs as a printer; working conditions; technological changes in the printing business; typesetting by hand and Linotype; more on the 1922 printers’ strike; and participation in political organizations.

Language:

English

Notes:

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1. The interviews took place in 1974 and resulted in the publication of a book entitled "The Great War and Canadian Society" edited by Daphne Read - copyright 1978 - New Hogtown Press, Toronto.~2. Release forms, data sheets, and summary analysis/transcripts are available in binders labelled Opportunities for Youth - War and Canadian Society in VSA's audio-visual section.~3. Part of a series of recorded interviews with elderly citizens who lived in Canada during the period of World War I. The interview material consists of their opinions and observations about the war, the war years, and the effect on Canadian society during and after WWI.~4. The interviewee signed an agreement giving consent for a recording of this interview to be placed in the Public Archives of Canada for the purposes of historical research and also signed a publication agreement allowing any transcribed portions of the interview to be used in the book under the condition that no full names, addresses or phone numbers would be published.~5. Subject description is based on information found in the fact sheet, deposit agreement, publication agreement and summary analysis.

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

436382

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C01394

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

439265

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2007-06-0007

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

79:28

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

439266

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2007-06-0008

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

62:08

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

736988

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/092

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

736989

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/093

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

1003829

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2007-06-0007

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

C01394

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

1003830

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2007-06-0008

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

C01394
C01395

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

A1 2007-06-0007
A1 2007-06-0008

Restrictions on consultation:

No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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