Leslie Vertes (1924–2022)

Leslie Vertes was born Laci Winkler to a Jewish family in the small village of Ajak, Hungary. His parents Alexander (Sandor) and Ilona Winkler moved first to Kisvarda, a larger town, and then to Budapest for his father's business as a shoemaker. In 1944, Nazi Germany occupied his homeland in World War II. Leslie, aged 20, was sent to a forced labor detail but escaped, and survived by assuming a false identity. His fiancée Ibolya Rosner was killed in the last days of the war. After the Red Army liberated Budapest in 1945, Leslie was detained and sent by the Soviets to forced labor for two years. He returned to Budapest in 1948 and found himself alone in his old apartment, as his remaining family had been dispersed. He changed his surname from Winkler to Vertes in 1950. In 1952, he married Vera Neiser, also a survivor, with whom he had a son. Following the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, they fled the country, arriving in Canada the following year and settling in Montreal. Leslie got a job in a shoe factory and went on to become foreman and then office manager. After his retirement, he devoted his time to Holocaust education and volunteering for various charitable organizations. In 2015, he received Quebec's YMCA Peace Medal and the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award in recognition of his contributions. His memoir, Alone in the Storm (French translation, Seul dans la tourmente, was published that same year as part of The Azrieli Foundation Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs.