In 2014 Ainsley Cohen Henriques and David Matalon, leaders of the United Congregation of Israelites of Kingston, Jamaica helped Joan to restore her beloved sister Yvonne’s grave in the Orange Street Cemetery.
At the time of Yvonne’s burial on June 4, 1942, there was no rabbi nor prayer books, just two devastated parents, Hala and Ignas Krakowiak.
Top left - 1942 - The way Hala and Ignas left the grave. Bottom left - 1960 - The way Hala and Ignas found it when they visited, Bottom right - 2014 -The way Joan found Yvonne’s grave. Joan could only identify Yvonne’s grave by its position in the cemetery.
On the occasion of her book launch in 2017, Dreams of Re-Creation in Jamaica: The Holocaust, Internment, Jewish Refugees in Gibraltar Camp, Jamaican Jews and Sephardim, Prof. Diana Cooper-Clark organized a reunion of refugees, who had been evacuated to Gibraltar Camp on the S.S. Serpa Pinto in January 1942 and November of that year.
Approximately twenty-six of the refugees had been rescued first by Aristides de Sousa Mendes and a second time by the JOINT (American Joint Distribution Committee) which coordinated the evacuation with the Polish Government-in-Exile and the British government. During their time in the camp, they were supported by the HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society).
Inez Baker, a fifteen-year-old Dutch refugee, arrived at the camp in November 1942. She was the only one of the original evacuees able to attend the reunion. She came with her two sons to remember.
Joan represented her parents, sister, aunt, and uncle.
As a part of the reunion activities, Kaddish was intoned to remember Yvonne by Eli Gabay. Ainsley Henriques, Margaret Thompson (former director of the Jewish Book Fair of Toronto), Anna Ruth Henriques (talented jewelry maker), Amy Wachtel (the soulful radio-jocky Night Nurse), Kathryn Kates Casavant (delightful Canadienne journalist), Inez Baker and her family, Stephen Henriques and Robert Jacobvitz (Chair of the @SousaMendesFdn Advisory Council) honored Yvonne with their participation on that memorable day.
Thank you to Gary Robinson, Director of @CornerstoneJamaica who documented the Gibraltar Evacuee Camp Reunion (see video below).
L to R: Alan (Gary’s cameraman), Gary Robinson. Margaret Thompson, Diana Cooper-Clark. Amy Wachtel, Itzhak Halperin, Joan Halperin, Inez Bakers’ son (behind Joan), College student reporter on Gary’s Team, Robert Jacobvitz.
L to R: Amy, Joan and Margaret with Joan’s book My Sister’s Eyes, a tribute to Joan’s sister Yvonne (pictured on the cover).
Joan presents a plaque from the Sousa Mendes Foundation (SMF) to the Israelite Community of Jamaica in recognition of the role members of the community played in making life better for the Jewish residents of Gibraltar Evacuee Camp from 1942 - 1946 when the last evacuees left Jamaica.
L to R: Ainsley Henriques, Itzhak Halperin, Joan and Robert Jacobvitz, SMF Board Member and Chair of the SMF Advisory Council.
Photos: Hala and Ignas in front of Hut #62; the grounds of Gibraltar Camp surrounded by barbed wire.