Progressive rock band Rush’s bass guitar extraordinaire, Geddy Lee got extremely bored during the pandemic. He is not someone who likes idle time, so he decided to write an autobiography. I have never read the autobiography of a musician before, so I really do not know where the bar stands for these things, but this one was quite an interesting read. A musician who spent 40+ years on the road is going to have some stories. Even without his music-related stories, his life is quite interesting.
His parents met as teenage, Polish concentration camp inmates in Auschwitz. They were eventually moved to separate camps during the war, but whatever spark they had upon meeting, managed to carry on throughout the war. They were both imprisoned for nearly the entire duration of WWII. It is a miracle that either one survived, let alone both. Many of their family members did not. Upon liberation, Geddy’s father walked hundreds of miles from Dachau to Bergen-Belsen to reunite with his love. They actually married in the officer’s quarters of Bergen-Belsen as it was then being used to house the newly freed prisoners.
His parents found that many Jews were not warmly welcomed back to their native Poland, and more often than not, all their property had been appropriated. With this knowledge, Geddy’s parents traveled to Toronto, where a relative had fled to at the start of the war, to start a new life. With almost no belongings, they started their new life. Little by little, they were able to buy their own house in a Jewish neighborhood in the Toronto suburbs. They eventually had three children, one of which being Geddy.
Their life was continuously improving as Geddy’s father manages to start a successful general store. Then tragedy hits. Geddy’s father passes away after a brief illness when Geddy is only 12. His father was only 45. The effects of six years of forced labor in the prison camps had taken their toll. His heart gave out.
to be continued….