Berta Grohmann-Babinec was 25 years old when she arrived in Canada. She had immigrated here with her family and settled down in the small town of Pictou, Nova Scotia. She describes her childhood, what she and her family went through during the war, the nightmares after the war, and her journey to Canada. Grohmann Knives Limited is a small family business with a big reputation. It is an Old World story that began before the second World War, when a commercial buyer from Quebec traveled once a year to a factory in Sudetenland, then a German region of Czechoslovakia, to buy pocket knives. Every year the buyer would urge Rudolph Grohmann the production manager at a plant in Mikulasovice (Nixdorf), to come to Canada , promising him help to get started. Mr. Grohmann would always decline as he was happy in his own country, but after the war, the political situation grew desperate and in 1949 Rudolph Grohmann accepted the offer. Rudolph's daughter Berta married Michael Babinec Sr who was from Rudno nad Hrohom. Within a year, Grohmann and his family arrived in Nova Scotia at the invitation of the provincial government-funded Pictou Cutlery. Grohmann Knives Limited was formed in 1961 by the family and was run by one of Grohmann's daughters, Berta, & her husband Michael Babinec Sr.

Grohmann Knives Limited > History
Immigrants > Nova Scotia > Biography
Businesswomen > Nova Scotia > Biography
Business enterprises > Nova Scotia > History
Knives > Canada > Nova Scotia > History
Pictou (N.S.) > History
Pictou (N.S.) > Biography

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