the story of my father's arrival in Canada
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Here's an account from my father of his arrival in Canada in 1956. He sent this by email yesterday.
the Arosa SunI recently came across this picture of the ship that I came to Canada on in 1956 when I had just turned 17.
Your Opa and I left Bremerhaven in Germany around May 12 and arrived in Quebec City 11 days later after quite a rough trip.
Once we had reached the St.Lawrence things were calmer and I can still recall watching the north shore of the river slide by with nothing but dark forest and no sign of people.
After disembarking we got on a train for Montreal where we changed to an overnight train to Toronto.
Woke up at first light when we were passing the GM plant in Oshawa with many cars parked by the tracks ready for shipment. But of course I had no idea at the time
what it was; just thought it was a huge parking lot.
And so my life in this country began.
Dad