{"id":334440,"date":"2025-07-15T16:51:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T21:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=334440"},"modified":"2025-07-14T23:35:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T04:35:21","slug":"canada-father-abortion-holocaust-survivor-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canada-father-abortion-holocaust-survivor-trauma\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s ‘father of abortion’ was a Holocaust survivor. Did trauma make him a killer?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Campaign Life Coalition<\/a>) It has long haunted me how Henry Morgentaler, sometimes referred to as Canada\u2019s \u201cfather of abortion,\u201d survived Nazi concentration camps only to go on to perpetrate similar horrors against the smallest and most vulnerable members of the human family: preborn children.<\/p>\n

How did a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Poland\u2014someone who endured the worst of man\u2019s inhumanity to man at the infamous Nazi camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and later Dachau\u2014go on to dehumanize and destroy tens of thousands of preborn human beings, robbing them of their most fundamental right: the right to life?<\/p>\n

Deliberate dehumanization<\/h2>\n

Morgentaler\u2019s biographies provide vivid accounts of his survival, though some critics question the credibility of those accounts. Eleanor Wright Pelrine, in her 1975 book\u00a0Morgentaler: The Doctor Who Couldn\u2019t Turn Away<\/em><\/a>, wrote about how Nazis rounded up the 21-year-old Morgentaler from a Jewish ghetto in August 1944, herding him along with his mother and younger brother, Mumek (Mike), onto an overflowing train bound for the dreaded Auschwitz-Birkenau camp where over a million people were murdered.<\/p>\n

It was during the \u201cselection\u201d process after arriving that Morgentaler saw his mother for the last time. He and his brother were selected for work, their mother for the gas chambers. Prisoners had their belongings confiscated, they were stripped naked, shaved from head to foot, and provided striped prison garb along with wooden shoes. A huge chimney nearby spewed forth black, stinking smoke, a brief testimony lingering in the sky to those who were murdered in the gas chambers and were later cremated.<\/p>\n

Morgentaler was soon transferred to the Dachau work camp, where\u2014in a deliberate effort to dehumanize prisoners\u2014he was stripped of his name and identified only by a number: 95077. The camp routine consisted of 12 hours of hard labor and 5-6 hours of sleep. Food, consisting of watery soup and bread, was rationed and insufficient. Prisoners died from malnutrition, exhaustion, and exposure. There were constant beatings. Fear was everywhere. One day, Morgentaler, starving and sick, reported to the infirmary. He glanced at his reflection in the mirror. The emaciated figure he saw staring back at him filled him with horror.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked like death incarnated\u2014and I started to cry. I thought it must be the end,\u201d he recounted.<\/p>\n

As the war neared its end, Morgentaler and his brother were transferred from camp to camp as their captors tried to prevent them from falling into Allied hands. They had numerous close brushes with death. In late April 1945, the brothers escaped from a train that came under attack by Allied aircraft. Sympathetic German peasants helped them to freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 22, still young, had survived the concentration camp and serious disease,\u201d recounted Morgentaler. \u201cEverything was beautiful. Everything had evolved into a celebration of life.\u201d Eventually, he tracked down his sweetheart Chava (Eva), completed four years of medical studies, and immigrated to Canada by way of Belgium.<\/p>\n

Throughout his life, Morgentaler would experience nightmares of what he had endured. \u201cI\u2019m being pursued by high-booted Nazi soldiers, caught, and then I blank out or wake up in a sweat,\u201d he related. He maintained a deep-seated feeling of dread about being crushed by hostile authorities, helpless to do anything about it, like \u201can insignificant little worm, and there is not much I can do except wiggle out of some situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Personifying the abortion industry<\/h2>\n

Morgentaler\u2019s history of abortion activism is well-known to those involved in Canada\u2019s pro-life movement. After the war, he immigrated to Montr\u00e9al, where, in 1953, he finished medical studies and began to practice medicine. By the late 1960s, he openly defied Canadian law by performing illegal abortions.<\/p>\n

When abortion became legally permitted in 1969 under certain conditions, Morgentaler defied those restrictions, becoming the focus of numerous legal battles. These culminated in the 1988 Supreme Court decision (R. v. Morgentaler<\/em>), which struck down Canada\u2019s abortion law. As a result, preborn children were left with no legal protection\u2014a situation that persists today, where abortion is allowed on demand, for any reason or no reason, at any stage of pregnancy.<\/p>\n

For pro-life advocates, Morgentaler personified the abortion industry. He is viewed as the one most responsible for almost five million preborn children killed by abortion since 1969. He\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0that he had personally committed some 80,000 abortions during his medical career.<\/p>\n

He was a pioneer of vacuum aspiration abortions in Canada, refining the method and making it more efficient. He was so indifferent about the killings that he even invited a camera crew to\u00a0film him in the act<\/a>. The film captures what will one day serve as evidence of Morgentaler\u2019s crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

His abortion tools: murder weapons. The nurse who assisted him: an accomplice to murder. His clinic: a crime scene. [WARNING: Video below contains disturbing content.]<\/p>\n