Winnipeg war vets sell legion building, but continue kinship

Vets find way to keep Winnipeg legion alive Michelle Gerwing on how Second World War veterans are maintaining their legion traditions after the sale of the building that housed it.

The General Monash Legion Branch 115 was created in 1933 by a group of Jewish men who served in the First World War.

They named the branch after General John Monash, a decorated commander of the Australian army, who was also a leader in the Jewish community.

For decades the branch did everything it could to help struggling veterans and their families in Winnipeg, but now the branch itself faces hard times.

"After the Second World War the legion's membership got as high as 600,” said Dave Chochinov, the acting president of General Monash Legion.

Today, the membership is made up of only 16 people, most of whom meet every Wednesday to play darts at the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre.

For decades the General Monash Legion had its own building at 1414 Main Street. It is still adorned with the branch name and the Star of David, even though they no longer meet there.

In August, of last year the legion was sold.

"We found that being in the building we were in was too much for us, because we were dwindling,” Chochinov said.

However, the spirit of the group remains strong.

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Of the remaining members, the ones who served in the Second World War get together as often as they can and each one remembers their role in the war well.

"I just enjoy getting together with the guys,” Gordon Keatch, 92, said. He served in the Australian Air Force and joined the General Monash because of its roots in Australian history.

Keatch first came to Canada to learn Morse code before being deployed. He moved back to Canada permanently in 1950, because he had fallen in love with a Winnipeg woman, who was working at an airman’s club.

"Everybody danced in those days, we wore out shoes dancing and we danced and kept dancing for the rest of our lives," Keatch said.

Like Keatch, Harry Rosenbaum, 91, joined the military when he was 18 years old.

"After the war was over they took my rifle away and gave me a bugle and I became the military bugle,” Rosenbaum said.

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He still has the bugle, a strict military style horn with no keys.

For 11 months he played it every day as he stood guard at a war crimes trial in Germany after the war was over.

Playing the bugle was a skill he learned in the General Monash Legion bugle band as child.

"I've been a member of the legion since I was 12 years old," he said.

One of the oldest Monash members is 96-year-old Israel Yamron.

He served at an airbase on Vancouver Island as an electrical technician.

"I used to walk on the planes where there was water and I can't swim. You know when you're young, you're fearless," Yamron said.

He fondly remembers the time he spent on base, but he takes the most pride in what he and the Monash Legion did for struggling veterans’ families after the fighting ended.

"I held every position in the legion, right from president, vice-president and we did everything."

The legion did everything from paying member’s tuition for school, providing meals, buying headstones for those who passed and erecting two war memorials for the Jewish soldiers, who never made it home.

The self-appointed ‘baby of the group’ is 86 years old and is the acting president of the legion, Dave Chochinov.

He was involved in selling the old General Monash building, a sacrifice that solidified the remembrance of the name.

The money from the sale is now funding many different charities and scholarships through the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.