Mykhailo Soltys
Husband, grandfather, ostarbeiter, Ukrainian and Canadian patriot. Born on June 19, 1927, in Ulashkivtsi, Ukraine; died on Nov. 29, 2015, in Toronto, of natural causes, aged 88.
Mykhailo Soltys was 15 when Nazi troops stormed his home, taking him and 150 other teenagers from his Ukrainian village to serve as slave labour in the Third Reich. They became ostarbeiter (eastern workers), considered subhuman by the Nazis and subjected to terrible conditions.
After being transported in a cattle car to an iron-ore mine in France, Mykhailo and the other ostarbeiter were housed in dilapidated military barracks. They were packed dozens to a room, working in shifts, the lights on constantly, sleep almost impossible. Meals consisted of gruel and watery soup, with 10 men sharing a loaf of bread. After three months, Mykhailo was moved to Germany, to a foundry in Neunkirchen, a frequent target for Allied bombing.
With the end of the war came his liberation by American troops, after which he found himself in a displaced persons camp in Germany. Mykhailo narrowly avoided forcible repatriation to Soviet-occupied Ukraine, and eventually found work as a farm hand near Birmingham, England.
In 1951, at the age of 24, he immigrated in Toronto, sponsored by his uncle. Mykhailo soon came to believe Canada was the best country in the world – and never changed his mind on that.
When not working as a formulator at Canada Packers (where he would be employed for 45 years), he played competitive soccer for the Ukraina Sports Club. His fancy footwork attracted the attention of Stephania Smendziuk, a young woman from Alberta who was working as a sales clerk at Eaton's department store. They married in 1954 and raised a son, Taras, and a daughter, Danusia.
Mykhailo was committed to his heritage and helped to run weekly meetings and summer camps of the Ukrainian Youth Association, to which his children belonged.
Later in life he and Stephania welcomed four grandchildren (Natalie, Chrystyna, Mark and Paul). For them, Dido was the best grandfather a child could wish for. When fishing replaced soccer as Mykhailo's favourite pastime, they all spent many weekends searching for the perfect fishing hole.
He was heartbroken when Taras died in 2007, followed two years later by Stephania, the love of his life. He remained in the home they had shared for more than 50 years, only accepting the assistance of his daughter and grandchildren because of the great pleasure he found in spending time with them.
Mykhailo never forgot his homeland. Like many émigrés, he supported his family there financially and morally, joining the diaspora's lobbying for Ukrainian independence. He rejoiced when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. He and Stephania were immensely proud when their children and grandchildren served as election observers in Ukraine in December, 2004, following the Orange Revolution.
Although he despaired, a decade later, over Russia's invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, he firmly believed Ukraine would one day be a free country. With his death, Ukraine and Canada lost a true patriot.
Alexandra Chyczij is a friend of the Soltys family.