Don Andrews - Early Years

Early Years

Zlomislić was born to Croatian parents in the region of Vojvodina during World War II. His father was killed by the Nazis while fighting with the Yugoslav Partisans against the German occupation of Yugoslavia in late 1944. His mother, Rose, was shipped to Germany in 1943 to work as slave labour for the Nazis and Vilim was placed in an orphanage. In 1945, Rose was told that her son had been killed in an air raid. After the war, she met and married Frederick Andrews, a Canadian working for a United Nations agency in a German displaced persons' camp. The couple moved to Toronto.

Vilim remained at the orphanage and was a member of the Communist Young Pioneers in post-war Communist-ruled Yugoslavia. He suffered an accident during a camping trip and a botched operation on his leg left him limping and scarred for life.

His mother continued to search for him after the war through the assistance of the Red Cross which located Vilim in 1952 and brought him to Canada where he was re-united with his mother and re-Christened Donald Clarke Andrews.

In Canada, Andrews developed a strong antipathy for Communism which he blamed for his physical disability. After graduating from high school he began reading far right tracts by the John Birch Society and George Lincoln Rockwell and adopted far right and ultimately fascist ideas.

Read more about this topic:  Don Andrews

Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:

    Parents ... are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don’t fulfil the promise of their early years.
    Anthony Powell (b. 1905)

    There is a relationship between cartooning and people like Miró and Picasso which may not be understood by the cartoonist, but it definitely is related even in the early Disney.
    Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)

    The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
    —Bible: Hebrew Psalms 90:10.

    The Book of Common Prayer (1662)