Joe Schlesinger

Josef "Joe" Schlesinger , CM (born May 11, 1928 in Vienna , Austria ; † February 11, 2019 ) was a Canadian journalist , foreign correspondent and author of Austrian descent.

Live and act

Childhood and escape

Josef Schlesinger was born on May 11, 1928 as the son of Emmanuel and Lilli Schlesinger (née Fischl) in Vienna. He spent his childhood in nearby Bratislava in what was then Czechoslovakia , where his parents ran a shop for cleaning utensils. During the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939, he and his younger brother, nine-year-old Ernest, known as Ernie, were sent to England by their parents on a children's transport organized by Nicholas Winton . The escape began for the two of them, together with around 200 other children under the age of 17, on July 30, 1939 in Prague and led them by train through Germany and the Netherlands , and subsequently by ship to Dover in England. The parents who stayed behind fell victim to the Holocaust , probably in Auschwitz concentration camp . In March 1942 the brothers had received the last letter from their parents. In it, they said that they would be "resettled" by the National Socialists.

Professional career

Schlesinger began his career as a journalist after the end of World War II , when he worked, among other things, as a translator in the Prague office of the Associated Press in 1948 . After the Communists came to power in the course of the February revolution , when the new government began to arrest unpleasant journalists, he was again forced to leave Czechoslovakia. For this he paid an escape helper who took him and his girlfriend at the time to a border town with Austria. From there, the two fled across a frozen river into Schlesinger's actual homeland. He then came to Canada via Austria in 1950 , where his brother had been living for some time. After initially doing odd jobs here, he enrolled at the University of British Columbia and out of curiosity entered the offices of the student newspaper The Ubyssey , where, as he wrote in his memoirs, "found his new home". Through the student newspaper, he found his way to Vancouver Province , where he used his reporting skills to specialize in crime and crime. He was particularly noticeable here several times; For example, when he reported on a hotel robbery and outpaced the competition of journalists by asking the hotel's receptionist in Czech after he had previously recognized its dialect. He also briefly worked as a journalist for the Toronto Daily Star .

Since he felt parochial and restricted in his work in Vancouver, Schlesinger traveled to Europe again to report on events there as a foreign correspondent. In London he wrote for United Press International ; in Paris for the International Herald Tribune newspaper . While he was in France , he met Myra "Mike" Eileen Kemmer (1928–2001), an officer in the United States Foreign Service ( English Foreign Service Officer in the United States Foreign Service ) at a dinner party . The initial romance turned into a marriage that resulted in two daughters. In 1966 the family moved to Toronto , where the journalist Bill Cunningham - Schlesinger had previously worked for a number of years with a colleague of the same name in the Vancouver Province - brought Schlesinger into television and thereby associated it with CBC Television . At the time, Cunningham was in the process of redesigning the station's news service and initially employed Schlesinger as a foreign editor and newscaster to broadcast the world news on television. There he initially stood out for his strong Czech accent, which, according to Cunningham, was also the reason why he was so positively received by the audience. The Gravitas , which became associated with Schlesinger in later years, is in complete contrast to his on-air debut. In order to appear more authoritarian, Schlesinger insisted in the beginning on wearing glasses for his broadcasts, although he would not have needed them.

In 1970 Schlesinger moved to Hong Kong , where he worked as CBC's Far East correspondent. As one of the foreign journalists, he covered the ping pong diplomacy that ended China's isolation in 1971 and enabled political rapprochement with the United States and the West as a whole. In 1972 he reported another coup during the Easter offensive in Vietnam from the beleaguered An Lộc , after he had previously undertaken a helicopter flight with South Vietnamese paratroopers. Born in Austria, he was sent to Paris in 1974, but remained a Peripatetic journalist who covered a wide range of tasks and interviewed Brigitte Bardot as well as reporting on the Iranian Revolution . He also reported on a visit by Pope John Paul II. In the Auschwitz concentration camp , said to have perished in the once Schlesinger's parents. From there he expressed himself furiously at the mendacity and impassiveness of the organizers who served lunch right at the infamous unloading dock. In 1979 the naturalized Canadian moved to the Washington office of CBC, where he again took on a wide range of duties.

In 1988 he visited his former homeland as a reporter, noticing a politically heated atmosphere in Czechoslovakia. A year later, however, he witnessed the Velvet Revolution , which brought about a change in the political system in Czechoslovakia from real socialism to democracy . After the Cold War , Schlesinger moved to a different war zone when he reported on Saddam Hussein's led invasion of Iraqi forces in Kuwait and the beginning of the Gulf War . After the Desert Storm ground offensive began in 1991, CBC was given a seat in a convoy that was supposed to take journalists to the Saudi Arabia- Kuwait border . Since only one seat was reserved for CBC, Schlesinger and his longtime colleague Brian Stewart decided by tossing a coin who should get the seat in question. The choice fell on Stewart, who was 14 years his junior and who then traveled to Kuwait. On his return he discovered among the reporters present, who were arguing wildly with the military police, his older colleague, a man with gray hair and a stick, who was also trying to come to Kuwait. In later interviews, however, Schlesinger said that by this point he had already decided that this would be his last theater of war in his career, and that he would let his far younger colleagues go first. In the turbulent days after another failed amendment to the Canadian constitution , the Meech Lake Accord , the native Austrian became the chief political correspondence of CBC in Ottawa . In 1990 he published his autobiography, Time Zones: a Journalist in the World , which became a bestseller .

Retirement and Honors

In 1994, Schlesinger, now 66, retired and returned to Toronto, but continued to contribute regularly to CBC. Until shortly before his death he published articles regularly on the CBC website. He also played a major role in promoting Nicholas Winton's good deeds around the Kindertransport. The aforementioned docudrama from 2011, in which the two appeared, also contributed to this. More than 70 years after his escape, Schlesinger appeared at the side of his savior Nicolas Winton in the award-winning docudrama Sir Nicky - Reluctant Hero by director Matej Mináč .

Schlesinger was honored many times for his journalistic work; A major noteworthy honor was, among other things, the awarding of the Order of Canada in the third level Members of the Order of Canada (CM) in 1994. Other notable nominations and awards are his 18 Gemini Award nominations, of which he won three ( Best Reportage 1987 and 1992, and Best News Magazine Segment 2004), as well as the presentation of the John Drainie Award in 1997. Ten years earlier he received, among other things, the Gordon Sinclair Award in the category Best Performance by a Broadcast Journalist .

In 2009 he was honored by the Canadian Journalism Foundation for his journalistic life's work ( Lifetime Achievement Award ). On June 7, 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Queen's University in Kingston and delivered a speech to part of the 2010 graduating class of the Queens' Faculty of Arts and Sciences . Almost to the day exactly one year later, he was on 8 June 2011 an Honorary Doctorate ( Honorary Doctorate of Letters ) of the University of Alberta in Edmonton awarded, giving priority to the here after a speech to a part of the graduating class in 2011 Faculty of Arts held . Schlesinger received additional honorary doctorates from the University of British Columbia , the Royal Military College of Canada , Dalhousie University and Carleton University . In 2016 he was inducted into the CBC Hall of Fame .

On February 11, 2019, Schlesinger died after a long illness at the age of 90, leaving behind his brother Ernest, his partner Judith Levene, with whom he had lived since 2009, and their two daughters and his wife. His final resting place is on the side of his wife, who died of cancer in 2001, at Graceland Cemetery in Clintonville , Wisconsin .

Web links

• Joe Schlesinger led a life of daring escapes as a European refugee and CBC correspondent , accessed on February 12, 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Nicholas Winton: The man who saved children from Hitler (English), accessed on February 12, 2019
2. ↑ ^{a b} Myra Eileen Kemmer Schlesinger in the Find a Grave database . Accessed February 13, 2019.
3. ↑ Schlesinger's View ( Memento of February 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English), accessed on February 13, 2019
4. ↑ Nicky's Family Celebrates a Quiet Hero , accessed February 13, 2019
5. ↑ MR. JOE SCHLESINGER, CM, D.LITT. from the official website of the Governor General of Canada , accessed February 13, 2019
6. ↑ According to other sources also four
7. ^ Former Prime Minister Paul Martin among Queen's honorary degree recipients ( Memento of July 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 13, 2019
8. ↑ JOE SCHLESINGER AND GINETTE LEMIRE RODGER RECEIVE HONORARY DEGREES. (English), accessed on February 13, 2019
9. ↑ Joe Schlesinger on the official CBC website, accessed February 13, 2019
10. ↑ ^{a b} Veteran Canadian journalist Joe Schlesinger Dies at 90 , accessed February 13, 2019
11. ↑ Joe Schlesinger inducted into CBC News Hall of Fame , accessed February 13, 2019
12. ^ Joe Schlesinger, one of Canada's foremost journalists, has died at 90 , accessed February 13, 2019