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ARTS PATRON REMEMBERED FOR HIS GENEROSITY

Michal Hornstein, a Holocaust survivor who came to Canada with little and became one of its most generous benefactors of the arts, in particular, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), died April 25 at age 95.

Among his many honours, he is an officer of the Order of Canada and a grand officer of the Ordre national du Québec, and has an honorary doctorate from Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business and a Lifetime Achievement Award from McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management.

Classified as: Michal Hornstein
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Published on: 11 May 2016

Obituary: Michal Hornstein was one of city's most renowned philanthropists

As a young man in Poland, Michal Hornstein was arrested by the Nazis and set to be deported to Auschwitz, the notorious death camp where thousands were executed during the Holocaust.

But Hornstein evaded his captors by jumping from a train and hiding in the forests of Czechoslovakia. Of the 70 people who tried to escape the Nazis on that day in 1943, only seven survived.

Were it not for this twist of fate, it’s unlikely Hornstein would have survived the war, immigrated to Canada and become one of the city’s most renowned philanthropists.

Classified as: Michal Hornstein, Desautels Management Achievement Awards (DMAA)
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Published on: 28 Apr 2016
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