Majlich Mark Kanal

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/03/03/nyregion/20080309_JEWS_...

Jewish Refugees in New York | The Story of Mark and Rachel Kanal

Mark Kanal was the sole member of his Jewish family to survive Auschwitz and make it to America. His wife, Rachel, had survived in Siberia. In 1952-53, the two met and married in Munich, where Mr. Kanal was studying engineering. Together, as newlyweds, they faced tough decisions as they adjusted to life in New York. Here, the couple in Central Park.

Government papers issued to Mr. Kanal after he came to the United States as a Jewish refugee in May of 1951. He went back to Germany on a scholarship to earn his engineering degree, and returned with his wife, Rachel.

They arrived in New York on Dec. 1, 1953. Their luggage, the resettlement agency reported, contained “mostly books” — music books from the Munich conservatory where Mrs. Kanal was a student when they fell in love.

Mr. and Mrs. Kanal in Manhattan in 1954. That January, a caseworker suggested they “readjust their thinking” about observing Sabbath at sundown on Fridays, if Mr. Kanal wanted to keep his job. Mr. Kanal was not observant himself, but wanted to respect the religious practices of his bride.

“To come to a democratic country like America and not be able to practice your religion there the way you feel you should didn’t feel right to me,” Mrs. Kanal said. But she left the decision up to her husband. When his boss would not change his work schedule, Mr. Kanal left his job.

Despite leaving his first American engineering job, Mr. Kanal went on to a career as an aerospace engineer, eventually working on NASA’s moon program and the space shuttle. “This is the real America,” he said recently, recalling how Sputnik ended the gentlemen’s agreements that had kept Jews out of high technology. “You want to do it, you know you can do it — go, see what you can do.”

“She’s all I have,” Mr. Kanal said of his wife, momentarily forgetting their two children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Mrs. Kanal added: “It is worth living with ideals, even though it’s sometimes difficult. It’s worth fighting for a meaningful life.”