The dark history of Canada's response to Jewish refugees during the Holocaust

 

'None is Too Many' is a book that documents Canada’s indifference to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution before and during World War II.

As I listened to Canadian Holocaust survivor Marie Doduck being interviewed on the CBC recently about her memoir, A Childhood Unspoken (2023), I heard her refer to Mackenzie King and the now commonplace expression ‘none is too many.’

Doduck was one of a group of 1123 Jewish orphans brought to Canada from Europe in late 1947, when Mackenzie King was prime minister of Canada. None is Too Many is the title of a widely praised book by Irving Abella and Harold Trope (1983), which documents Canada’s indifference to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution before and during World War II.

Today, Canada, a country of 40 million people of widely diverse origin, is home to almost 400,000 Jews, the fourth largest Jewish community in the world. In 2022 alone, almost 440,000 immigrants (plus tens of thousands of refugees) from all over were admitted to Canada. But it wasn’t always so – particularly for Jews – and minorities.

Because of the Depression and a struggling economy, but largely because of antisemitism, only 5000 Jews were admitted to Canada from 1933 until 1945. (Only 500 were admitted from 1939 to 1945, when sanctuary was most desperately needed.) Admitting Jewish refugees to Canada was not popular politically, and the frantic efforts of the leaders of the then 160,000 member Jewish community were largely futile.  (more...)

The dark history of Canada's response to Jewish refugees during the Holocaust