Szymon Schein, was born in Krakow, Poland on April 4, 1923, the eldest of three boys. When World War II started in 1939, 16-year-old Szymon was the only member of the family to survive, because he was old enough to be useful as a slave labourer. The rest of the family died in a concentration camp. The middle son had a chance to survive, because the gentile maid of the family wanted to adopt him as her own, but Leia Schein refused, not knowing what horrors were to come. Szymon was incarcerated in four concentration camps - Plaszow, Mauthausen, Melk, and Ebensee - before being liberated in Austria in 1945. In 1948, he met Liza Esanu and married her in the displaced persons camp in Salzburg. When they emigrated to Canada, he anglicized his name to Sam.