Self-Portraits & Early Work

Nick had an anthropologist’s imagination and an artist’s eye. Throughout his youth Nick created an evolving series of self-portraits. These record his image as both actor and subject. From his joyous self-portrait with camera on the steps of Winnipeg’s St. John’s Technical Collegiate in 1931, to his last self-portrait anticipating his departure for World War II in 1940, his images show his evolving awareness of self.

 Photography & Air Flight: The Royal Air Force Pilot

Nick’s passions for photography and air flight merged in the 1930s. The rise of fascism in Europe drove him to enlist in 1940. In 1942 he deployed with RAF Squadron 104 from England to North Africa, under Field Marshal Montgomery during the second Battle of El Alamein. A pilot and warrants officer, Nick flew with British Squadron Leader Ivan Strutt, Australian gunner Geoffrey O’Keefe and three officers, moving to secret numbered locations in Egypt, enduring heat, cold, and hunger. On January 6, 1943, Ivan and Nick flew their Vickers Wellington II from Malta to Tunisia, attacking Nazi supply lines to Europe. On the return from their night mission, German flak ignited their bomber. Operation Records states it appeared as a flare in the sky, 60 miles south of Sousse. The entire crew perished.

Nick’s RAF attestation shows he tried to enlist the previous year. He excelled in the interview but ranked average, perhaps due to the antisemitism of the interviewing officer. Nick was one of some five hundred Jewish Canadian soldiers who died in World War II. Nearly 20,000 Canadian Jews—10 percent of the community--enlisted in the military. In 1940, the RCMP reported, “The Jewish community … has subscribed generously… not because they consider it a ‘Jewish’ war, but because they understand the clear-cut policy of decency versus brute force much better than people who take their freedom for granted.”