Max Eisen, a Canadian Holocaust survivor and educator who was the author of the award winning book “By Chance Alone” died Thursday at the age of 93, according to the CBC.
Eisen’s 2019 Holocaust memoir “By Chance Alone: A Remarkable True Story of Courage and Survival at Auschwitz” won the Canada Reads 2019 competition. In the book, he wrote about the events of 1944, during which he and his family, who lived in Czechoslovakia, were sent to Auschwitz.
After being liberated in 1945, he moved to Quebec City and eventually ended up in Toronto, where he became well known as a speaker and educator at the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, dedicating himself to speaking about the Holocaust and against hate.
The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, of whom Eisen was a longtime supporter and mentor, expressed their condolences in a social media post.
“Ontario’s police leaders are deeply saddened by the passing of Max Eisen, a Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to Holocaust education & combating hate in all its forms. Mr. Eisen was a strong supporter of police personnel & a friend & mentor to many police leaders,” the organization said.