After spending most of his teenage years in a Nazi concentration camp, Manny arrived in Canada with limited formal education and work experience. But he brought with him ambition, determination, and a generous heart.

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1940s

A Fresh Start

After escaping the Holocaust, 18-year old Manny lands in New York City on December 26, 1946. He is greeted by his cousins Ben and Edith who offer him a home. Manny is happy to get a job at a manufacturing factory where he manages to save $800 dollars to start a new life in Canada. In 1948, he moves to Toronto where he is reunited with his mother and sister who have also escaped the Holocaust.

His Canadian journey begins with dreams of success.

“Unswayed by a night on a hard bench in coach class, I was convinced I would make it big in Canada.”

— Manny Drukier

1950s

Finding Opportunities

Into the 1950s, the fur industry is on the decline. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is successful, and women buy less fur products.

Manny must quickly find a new trade.

“My noble aspiration of becoming a craftsman, eventually to rise to shop manager, was out the window.”

— Manny Drukier

1960s

Manny Starts a Family

The middle-class Jewish community in the 1950s and 1960s has strict dating guidelines and young people usually marry in their early 20s.

Focused on business, Manny doesn't have much luck with dates. But that turns around when he meets his future bride Freda at a furniture show in 1959. Manny is 31 years old and Freda is 19. The courtship moves very fast. Over the next decade, they have four children: Gordon, Laurie, Wendy, and Cindy.

“We started dating in January, announced our engagement in the spring, and wed in October. Resolution, diligence, served me well in courting. I promised her beautiful children. Serenaded her that after me, she’d be spoiled for anyone else.”

— Manny Drukier

1970s

Business Booming

In the 1970s, Craftline expands rapidly and it quickly outgrows the factory and the warehouse. Manny and his partners buy nine acres of industrial land where they have room to build and expand. Manny travels the world looking for inspiration for new designs, including to Valencia, Spain; Taipei, Taiwan; and Milan, Italy.

The 1970s are a prosperous era in Canada and this is good news for Manny and his business, which keeps expanding. He soon comes up with the idea to manufacture ornamental objects, which leads to a new line of products – Craftique Originals.

“Surviving the Holocaust made me conscious at all times that I must make up for lost time in some extraordinary way, ideas which kept me going full speed at Craftline.”

— Manny Drukier

1980s

Manny Makes It Big

By the 1980s, Manny has become a highly successful businessman. He now turns his eye to hobby investing in publishing. His first partnership is with the English culinary magazine A la Carte. Despite its colourful recipes and dishes, A La Carte soon fails and Manny turns to a new publishing venture with The Idler periodical. Started by editor David Warren in 1985, the Idler is a literary periodical with conservative viewpoints. The Idler needs money and Manny is ready to invest. The partnership begins in 1986.

Manny soon gets the idea to start The Idler pub where he attracts an artistic crowd with literary readings and artistic staff. He hosts both the pub and the magazine in his building at Davenport Road and Avenue Road.

1990s

Manny Suffers Setbacks

Starting in the late 80s, troubles are brewing on the Craftline front, first with partnership conflicts and then with a crushing recession in the early 90s.

Manny parts ways with The Idler magazine due to lack of funds. But he keeps The Idler Pub running.

Reconnecting With The Past

In 1991, Manny and Freda head to Poland to reconnect with Manny's boyhood memories. It is here that Manny pens his Holocaust memoir, “Carved in Stone.” In the book, Manny tells the stories he and his family experienced during the war years. Freda is the first editor of the manuscript.

“Against all experience, I was born an optimist. Perhaps that was what got me through all the death and misery around me during my late boyhood. Or maybe it was just luck. When I grew up, remembering the Holocaust was so excruciating it was better not to think about it. Of course I could not avoid thinking about it from time to time, and out of those memories came my book Carved in Stone.”

— Manny Drukier

2000s

Manny Bids Farewell To The Idler Pub

He spends his retirement years alongside his wife Freda and enjoys the company of his 4 children and seven grandchildren who are now scattered across North America.

In 2017, he gets the opportunity to reconnect with his past when historian Anna Andlauer invites him to go to Germany to speak to young students. He and his family decide to go there together. Along the way, they visit Manny's childhood places in Poland.

You can explore his journey and learn more about his documentary.