Dr H. David Kirk

Dr Heinz “Henry” David Kirk

Born: March 15, 1918 in Düsseldorf, Germany

Died: December 14, 2019 in Waterloo Ontario

Grave-site details:
According to his obituary Dr. Kirk was cremated.
There is an inscription for him in Row D – Plot 13.

Gravestone Inscription:
Beverly Joy Tansey Heinz David Kirk
March 27, 1937 March 15, 1918
b. Long Beach b. Dusseldorf
California Germany
Shared Fate

Obituary published by Victoria Times Colonist from Dec. 21 to Dec. 23, 2019
KIRK, Dr. H. David Passed away at Lanark Place LTC, Kitchener on Saturday, December 14, 2019, at the age of 101 years. Beloved husband of the late Beverley Tansey. Loving father of Peter of St. Thomas, Frances of Kitchener, Deborah of Toronto and Bill (Bruce Lippert) of Kitchener. Survived by Beverley’s children Lisa Tansey and Benjamin Tansey (Karin) of California. Cherished Zeyde of Joshua (Andrea), Jessica, the late Ronza and Simon (Jamie). Great-Grandfather of Jackson, Eithan, Chance, and Camilla. Predeceased by his parents Simon and Anna Kirk and brothers Ernest and Mike. Dr. Kirk was a retired Professor of Sociology at the University of Waterloo. He will be deeply missed by many family members and friends. The family would like to express their gratitude to the caregivers at Lanark Place LTC for their wonderful care over the last few years. Private cremation has occurred. In memory donations to a charity of one’s choice would be appreciated and may be arranged through the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home, 171 King Street S., Waterloo

Biography:
Born into a Jewish family in Rhineland, West Germany in 1918. He and his family were living in England in 1935. By 1940 David was living in Los Angeles, California.

On October 30, 1942, in Pasadena, California. David was first married to Ruth Vail, daughter of Arthur J Vail and Edith Thorpe. They adopted 4 children.

By 1976 David was living in Canada.

David Kirk was a B.C. publisher based in Brentwood Bay. B.C. His small operation specializing in children’s books and Judaica was created in 1984 after David Kirk retired from teaching in the University of Waterloo’s sociology department. He and his wife Beverley (“Beve”) Tansey set up their own press in order to re-publish Kirk’s own previously published book Shared Fate, after the title had gone out of print. Having adopted four children, Kirk had examined the social and psychological meanings of adoption since the 1950s. His seminal work on adopted persons’ civil rights, Shared Fate (first published in 1964), remained available in hardcover for 18 years and became available in paperback, as did Adoptive Kinship: A Modern Institution in Need of Reform. Kirk’s Exploring Adoptive Family Life was re-published when he was aged 70 as Exploring Adoptive Family Life: The Collected Adoption Papers of H. David Kirk (Ben-Simon, 1988). Arguably, the most noteworthy book published by Ben-Simon was Lillian Boraks-Nemetz’ Holocaust novel for young readers, The Old Brown Suitcase: A Teenager’s Story of War and Peace, in 1994. H. David Kirk died in Kitchener, Ontario on December 14, 2019, at the age of 101 years.

To counteract revisionist tracts of David Irving falsifying matters regarding the Holocaust, H. David Kirk translated and published two essays by the German historian Eberhard Jackel, and provided his own commentary, in David Irving’s Hitler: A Faulty History Dissected (Ben-Simon, 1993), with a foreword by Robert Fulford

In particular, Jackel negated and disproved Irving’s absurd claim that Hitler was unaware of the Shoah. In doing so, Jackel quoted a prophecy made by Hitler in a Reichstag speech in January of 1939 when he said: “I shall once again be your prophet: if international Jewry with its financial power in and outside of Europe should manage once more to draw the peoples of the world into world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the world, and thus the victory of Jewry, but rather the total destruction of the Jewish race in Europe.” Hitler’s wartime speeches repeatedly cited this prophecy.

Parents:
Anna Catherine (Kirchheimer) Kirk (1889-1974)
Simon (Kirchheimer) Kirk (1883-1968)

Siblings:
Ernest Hellmut Kirk (1920-1991)
Gunther Michael “Mike” Kirk (1925-2013)

Spouse:
Ruth Vail, daughter of Arthur J Vail and Edith Thorpe (they adopted children)
Beverly Joy “Beve” Cherin Tansey

Children:
Adopted by Henry and Ruth:
Peter Simson Kirk of St. Thomas
Frances Palmer Kirk of Kitchener,
Deborah Susan Kirk of Toronto
William Shulman Kirk known as Bill (Bruce Lippert) of Kitchener.
Step father to Beverly’s children:
Lisa Tansey
Benjamin Tansey (Karin) of California