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Six days before D-Day, Max Meisels and his fellow Jewish soldiers got an order from their commanding officer.

“If the Germans catch you, you’re dead,” the officer told them. “You have 10 minutes. Go to the telephone book and get a new name.”

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Meisels emerged from that meeting as Martin Maxwell, the name he carried throughout his time in the British army and bears to this day.

Maxwell went on to play a key role in the early hours of D-Day, the opening salvo of the bloody Allied invasion that ultimately led to the defeat of the German army.

At the time, Maxwell felt he had helped strike a decisive blow against the rabid anti-Semitism that fuelled Adolf Hitler’s rise and led to the killings of millions of Jews, including his own relatives.

But today, as hate crimes against Jews surge dramatically in Canada and around the world, the longtime Toronto resident and decorated veteran isn’t so sure.

“I feel like I’m reliving the 1930s,” Maxwell, 95, said in an interview. “The rise of anti-Semitism is something unbelievable.”