Residents of the Rainy River District will have a chance to learn more about one of history’s darkest moments first-hand, from someone with an unexpected connection to the region.
Scheduled for next Tuesday, October 21, 2025, Holocaust survivor and speaker Nate Leipciger will be at the Townshend Theatre as part of a special program called “Bearing Witness: Holocaust Education and Survivor Testimony.” The event is being held free of charge thanks to the cooperation of several individuals and organizations, including the Fort Frances Museum and Cultural Centre and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is allowing the 97-year-old Leipciger to make the journey to the district.
Ben Mast is a resident of Rainy River and the pastor at the Rainy River Evangelical Covenant Church, who is sharing the news of Leipciger’s speaking event in the district in the hopes of bringing more people out to hear of the horrors of the holocaust and how to avoid repeating the failures of history. While Mast said he was familiar with Leipciger, due to the speaker’s prominence as a Holocaust educator and advocate, it was a chance encounter in Poland that set Mast on a collision course with Leipciger, and taught him of the man’s local connections.
“Earlier this year, I traveled to Poland to participate in a program called March of the Living: an annual event in remembrance of the Holocaust and in honour of remaining Holocaust survivors,” Mast said.
“When it comes to Holocaust education and advocacy in Canada, [Leipciger] is a very prominent voice, having given Prime Minister Trudeau a tour of Auschwitz Birkenau in 2016 having partnered and worked with the Toronto Holocaust Museum for a number of years, having also been a participant with March of the Living in years prior.”
Once at the event, standing near the Auschwitz 1 gate, the one bearing the infamous words “Arbeit mach frei” – work sets you free – Mast said he noticed amongst the faces gathered for the event that of Leipciger and, not expecting much, approached the man to introduce himself.
“He was a figure going into the event that I was aware of, just not expecting any personal interaction with,” Mast recalled.
“He published his book, so I actually had that with me in my backpack the day of the event. And he has just such an iconic look to him, with his signature cap that he wears. I went over to introduce myself, and though I urged him to remain seated, he stood up to shake my hand and embrace me with a hug.”
It was in small talk between the two men an unexpected connection was made. Mast noted that after Leipciger mentioned he was from Toronto, and asked Mast where he was from, the answer surprised him.
“That’s the most stunning and really just poignantly beautiful part of the story,” Mast said.
“We’re having a conversation and not really knowing what to exactly talk about with a figure that, in my eyes, I so revere and look up to, I ask him where he’s from and he says Toronto, and he asks where I’m from and saying Rainy River, and his response was ‘Of course. I worked for decades in engineering on the hospital there – as well as the hospitals in Atikokan, Sioux Lookout, and Fort Frances.”
Indeed, Leipciger was an engineer in his professional life, and his firm Leipciger Kaminker Mitelman and Partners Inc., served as the mechanical and electrical consultants for the Phase IV renovations to La Verendrye General Hospital back in the early 2000’s, as was confirmed in reporting from the Times regarding the project. The local connection to a monumental figure was significant, but Mast said he was moved by a more personal connection: that his son had been born in a medical facility that Mast had had a direct hand in contributing towards.
“My son was born last October, so we just celebrated his first birthday a few days ago,” Mast said.
“The emotion that overtook me standing below, not just a few dozen feet from the ‘Arbeit mach frei’ gate of Auschwitz, of feeling ‘wow, this man and his survival played a role directly in not only my birth there in the hospital in Fort Frances, as the electrical engineer of that hospital and other region hospitals, but in my son’s birth as well.”
Mast said that Leipciger’s daughter passed along their contact information, and from there, “dozens of people” in the district joined together to support Leipciger in making a trip to the region to share his story and advocacy work. Along with a representative from the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, Leipciger will speak on Tuesday, October 21, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Townshend Theatre, along with a talk to Fort Frances High School students on Wednesday, October 22, and Cornerstone Christian School students on Thursday, October 23.
Mast said Leipciger’s story is especially timely as the world grapples with a rise in hateful rhetoric and antisemitism, and that people need to be aware of the past to avoid repeating its mistakes.
“Nate’s story is a firsthand look at what happens when hatred of any people group, but particularly in his case, hatred of the Jewish people, is left unchecked, and so I think, for a variety of reasons, it is just so valuable and important, this opportunity that our district is being presented with,” Mast said.
“For one, you don’t need to look far to see the reality of rising antisemitism. There was a report released this year about antisemitism in Ontario K to 12 schools that goes into striking detail, not just on a personal observation level, but on a statistical analysis level, about the rise of hatred and conspiratorial thinking towards the Jewish people, and seeing that as a young person online, you don’t have to go far to to encounter a lot of those voices. And so I think for that reason there is such a vital importance in allowing this story to be shared of what can happen when hatred is allowed to fester and allowed to go unchecked. For myself growing up, it often felt as if the history of the Holocaust was ancient history. We’re looking back at events that are so far and so distant, at least, that’s what it seemed. And yet the reality of Nate Leipziger, here he is as a 97-year-old man, still living with a family, having himself lost his mother and his sister, murdered in the Holocaust, as well as much of his extended family, he himself and his story is a testament to the reality that the past is not past. It is very much in our present, with ramifications for our present. His story is really a call to all of us to take seriously the words that we say, the ideas that we allow to exist and the hatred that we allow to grow in our hearts for anyone, just a calling to stand for the dignity of every individual.”
Mast said he encourages everyone to attend Leipciger’s talk at the Townshend Theatre, and expressed his gratitude to those in the district who he said have contributed more than $5,000 to help bring the survivor and advocate to the District. He also said he wanted to recognize the resilience of Nate Leipciger himself, agreeing to make the journey from Toronto to the Rainy River District at the age of 97-years-old, to continue to share his story and work with more people.
“It’s not a for profit trip for him,” Mast said.
“He’s just passionate about his story being shared, and so I’m just blown away by that, and hope that our community can really steward and make the most of this opportunity that we have, because we will not likely in our lifetimes have this kind of an opportunity again, to hear a living witness to the Holocaust.”
For more information about Bearing Witness: Holocaust Education and Survivor Testimony, contact the Fort Frances Museum at 807-274-7891 or by email at museum@fortfrances.ca.
