Mike Smith was born in the USSR, in the former republic of Belarus.  He grew up near Pinsk, in a traditional Jewish family.  When the war came to the USSR in 1941, he joined the Soviet Red Army, where he became a member of the Scouts’ Brigade.  Doing some of the most dangerous work behind enemy lines, he and his platoon fought in a succession of battles on the eastern front, all the way to Berlin.  Mike then was working in a DP camp, where he helped to smuggle Holocaust Survivors to destinations in the west.  Seeing his opportunity, he defected and went to the west himself, eventually making his way to Canada.  He initially settled in the north, working as a lumberjack in Kapuskasing, Ontario and in the mills in Rouyn and Sudbury.  Fate took him to Toronto, and a career in sales followed, as Mike established himself in the community.