Jewish community member Joe Silverman tells the story of his parents’ love letters and wedding photos and how they are now featured in the historic Juno Beach Centre in France.
In early June, in honour of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, my sister, Rosalind, and I traveled to the Juno Beach Centre in France for the anniversary commemoration and the official opening of a permanent new exhibit called, “Faces of Canada Today."
The exhibit “was a wish of the Second World War Veterans who created the Juno Beach Centre, that the museum galleries end with an exhibition about what Canada became after the Second World War and the society, many of them humbly helped build, in the decades that followed,” is what is stated on the webpage about the exhibit.
In addition, the Juno Beach Centre states, “The Faces of Canada Today exhibition was inaugurated on the evening of June 4, 2024 in the presence of the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Veterans Affairs of Canada, the Honourable Stéphane Dion, Canada’s Ambassador to France, Colonel Jason Theodore Galuga, defense attaché to France at the Canadian Embassy, the delegation of Canadian Veterans and other distinguished guests.
The gallery illustrates how modern Veterans continue to serve the same ideals of stability, prosperity, and peace in a contemporary Canada and the world. It is dedicated to the memory of all Canadian Second World War Veterans who fought, without promise, reward or relief, in the hope of a better world.”
with Marie Eve Vaillancourt,
the Director of this new exhibit
Standing beside our D-Day veterans in full uniform, now ages 96 to102 at the opening, was a deep honour and the Juno Beach Centre shone brightly on the evening of June 4th.
The first picture in the exhibit is a large Second Word War wedding photo of my parents taken on October 11,1944 in a synagogue in London, England. As invited guests to the opening, Rosilind and I were expecting to see the small wedding photo of our parents that we had submitted to Elizabeth Todd Doyle from Heritage Services for this new exhibit.
The photo used was ultimately chosen by Marie Vaillancourt, Director of the Juno Beach Exhibition, after perusing our parents extensive Second Word War album full of photos, war records, and even Mum and Dad's first love letters. What a surprise to Rosalind and me to see our parents, larger than life, as soon as we entered.
Theirs is a beautiful story of one of the 43,000 London war brides and her Canadian rear gunner. Frances Kitrick met James Silverman, while he was on leave from the Canadian Air Force. Their romance began on a dance floor at Covent Gardens, London, on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
They danced the night away and Frances only knew her dance partner as “Jimmy.” The night ended and they parted ways. Frances learned that her dance partner was Jewish only when she received a love letter from “James Silverman,” which was quickly followed by an invite to Shabbat dinner. Their courtship continued through letters, and they were married on October 11, 1944. James returned to Canada in late November 1944. He invited his new bride to join him.
JIm and Frances courting in Hampton Court Jim and Frances at their Ottawa home
June 1944 on Belmont Avenue
Mum sailed to Canada on a French ship, the SS Pasteur, arriving at Pier 21, Halifax, on December 19, 1944. She then journeyed overnight by train to Ottawa a couple of days later. She often mused that the ship was packed with war brides from duchesses to street walkers. The settled into Ottawa and grew their family.
Fast forward to present day. Following the opening of the exhibit, came June 6, 2024, the actual anniversary of D-day.
My sister and I got up at 5 am to catch an Uber at 6 am so we could get seats on one of the many shuttle buses leaving the city of Caen for Juno Beach at 7 am. There were two commemoration sites, one at Juno Beach for the Canadian contingency and one Omaha Beach for the American, British, and French contingencies.
The sites were honoured with a security ring around Normandy Beach that extended for 15 kilometres through all the Allied Forces landing sites. Gazing out at the beach and the English Channel, I was filled with overwhelming pride to be present at such a momentous event.
In addition to the commemoration and the exhibit opening, two highlights come to mind. One was meeting Ruth and Arlene and their Chief from a Cree nation in Saskatchewan. They were there honouring their father who was injured on Juno Beach 80 years earlier. 
The second was conversing with a French woman who was a nurse from the region. She was interested to hear about people who had fought in the area, and she took a photo of my dad’s flight log record from the bombing of a German army depot on July 18, 1944, in Mondeville, just on the outskirts of Caen. As she lives close by, she was very excited to share this with her family and friends.
The French people of Normandy are truly grateful for their liberation by the Allied Forces. They not only welcomed us with open arms and made our visit most enjoyable but were extremely helpful in carrying our suitcases up and down the old metro staircases of the subway and train stations leading to and from Paris.
Since this was such an enjoyable and transformative trip, we would love to retrace our steps at the 85th Anniversary of D-Day in 5 years time. As Mum would say, "Perhaps we'll see you there.
