VETERANS’ SERVICE RECOGNITION BOOK – VOLUME 20 / 11 THE LEGION IN THE COMMUNITY Norman Yaffe (1924-1943) Norman Yaffe was born in Liverpool, England in 1924. Little is known about his childhood, but he was the youngest of eleven children. His parents Isaac and Esther were born in Russia and wed in 1901 before their emigration. By 1902 they were in Liverpool where their first child was born. Liverpool had a Jewish community estimated at 5,000 in 1900 and it grew to some 7,000 on the eve of World War II. In 1939 the Yaffe household, residing on Russell Street in Liverpool, consisted of Norman’s parents, Isaac aged 57 and Esther aged 58, and three sisters and two brothers ranging in age from 34 to 20. Isaac was a tailor’s presser, as he was in 1911, and three of his children were engaged in this trade. Norman would have been around fifteen years old, but it is unclear as to whether he lived at home. The enumeration page has the listing for the eighth person in the family blackened out with the notation “This record is officially closed”. Norman joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1941. When he arrived in Canada, he had the rank of airman 2nd class and had been trained as a wireless operator. His arrival in Charlottetown was around two months before he died in an accident. Witnesses in their testimonies after the accident mentioned that they did not know Norman and had not interacted with him. On June 30, 1943 at 20:05 an “Aircraft had just started to taxy along the tarmac towards taxy strip when AC Yaffe who had been walking ahead of the aircraft and to one side of it turned sharply across the path of the aircraft and was struck and killed by the starboard propeller.” The aircraft in question was an Avro Anson with an RAF crew of three men. “AC2 Yaffe had been in the aircraft making a ground test of the wireless and, having completed it, left the aircraft and commenced walking towards No. 1 Hangar which was directly in front of the aircraft across the tarmac.” After reviewing the testimony of witnesses and examining the site and evidence, the inquiry determined that the cause of the accident was the “carelessness of AC2 Yaffe N.” The report added that “As he was of the Jewish faith he was buried according to the custom of that religion and within the specified twenty-four-hour time.” An announcement was placed in the Charlottetown Guardian. “Re: 1673290 AC2, Yaffe, N.S. – R.A.F.” (Deceased) calling upon any person having any claim against Norman Yaffe’s estate to submit the claim in writing to the President, Committee of Adjustment, R.A.F. Station, Charlottetown. Norman Yaffe was unmarried, and his family was in Liverpool. Unable to bury him in Prince Edward Island since there was no Jewish cemetery on the Island, he was laid to rest in the Moncton Jewish Cemetery. It was the closest Jewish cemetery. No further details and images for Norman Yaffe have been located. (It should be noted that an extensive search of British resources was not conducted.) It is unfortunate that I was unable to include a photo of him and thus put a face to the name, but I was able to tell a bit of the story of the person beneath the monument. His memory is recalled in Liverpool with his name inscribed on the Role of Honour in the Childwall Hebrew Congregation. For persons visiting the Moncton Jewish cemetery, I hope they will also remember Norman Yaffe, a younger Jewish man from Liverpool who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war against the Germans and their allies. If you do visit his burial place, please consider leaving a small stone on Norman’s monument. And, this Remembrance Day, let us honour the memories of two Jewish servicemen who died during World War II while stationed on Prince Edward Island. Sam Levine was among the more than 44,000 men and women in the Canadian armed forces who died in defense of Canada and its allies during this war. Nearly 450 Jewish Canadians lost their lives. Norman Yaffe was among some 20,000 Jewish men and women, around six percent of Britain’s Jewish population, who enlisted in the RAF. Over 900 of them were casualties of war. May Samuel Meyer Levine and Norman Yaffe be of blessed memory. Dr. Joseph B. Glass is continuing his research on the Jewish history of PEI. His article “The Jewish Peddler on Prince Edward Island” was published in The Island Magazine, issue 85, Spring/Summer 2019, pp. 2-11. If you have information, memories, stories, photographs, and other sources about the Jewish presence on Prince Edward Island that you would like to share, kindly contact him at: josephbglass@yahoo.com Charlottetown Guardian, July 6, 1943, page 5, courtesy of Island Newspapers, UPEI Robertson Library.
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