Freda Lewkowicz was born in Montreal, Quebec where her parents, both Holocaust survivors, sought refuge after the war. She lives in Cote St.Luc, a suburb of Montreal, with her husband Peter Fogg and her daughter Sarah.

 

She graduated from Concordia University and McGill University with a B.A. in English, a Diploma in Education, and Certificates in Special Education and Reading Instruction. She began teaching at Rosemere High School in Rosemere, Quebec in 1974 and taught English there for 39 years. She recently retired, and she misses her students, colleagues, snow days and the annual field trips and writing contests she loved to organize.

 

Freda is the recipient of several Quebec government awards beginning with Le Prix Anne Greenup in 2005, a Quebec citizenship award for her anti-racism work. For four consecutive years, beginning in 2010 until her retirement, she also won the Quebec Ministry of Education Reading Recognition Award for her efforts encouraging reading and getting kids hooked on books.

 

While teaching, Freda began writing and her op-eds and comments on education, parents, and students were published in The Christian Science Monitor, Parade.com, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Montreal Gazette, The Ottawa Citizen, The Salt Lake Tribune and The Canadian Jewish News. 

 

At the present time, Freda is an advocate for her mother-in-law who is 105 and her parents who are in their 90’s.  Their stories inspired her to write her picture manuscripts about the Holocaust and dementia.

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Giving Testimony in Montreal in 2016

Montreal Holocaust Museum

 

 

In the final session of their filmed testimony, Holocaust survivors Mara and Marek Lewkowicz share treasured photographs of their friends and family. Here, they hold photos of their younger selves; Marek’s photo taken in Balkhash, Kazakhstan, and Mara’s taken in the Hasenhecke Displaced Person’s camp near Kassel, Germany.