Then the world witnessed the unthinkable: Hitler and his Nazi party began to imprison each and every Jewish person they could, as the radical leader began to expand his empire throughout the Eastern world. World War II was becoming more and more vicious by the day. Adolf Hitler had a hatred for the Jewish people that was unprecedented, and only paralleled by the most heinous of world leaders such as Stalin and later Idi Amin. Many countries felt the need to become part of the war to liberate Germany and the Jewish people of the Nazi disease.
One would think that countries who are willing to head oversees to fight in a massive theatre of war would also be willing to take in refugees who were being oppressed and imprisoned by the millions- right?
Wrong.
Inside Canada, anti-semitism was brewing. Not to the boiling point which Adolf Hitler had brought Germany but to a significant enough point that it becomes an issue of hurt pride for those of us who thought Canada was one of the more righteous countries in our modern world.
Provinces such as Quebec did not want Jewish immigrants because they felt that the Jewish religion was a threat to the Catholic values of the province. Quebec's federal politicians such as Rinfret, Cardin and especially Lapointed voiced in cabinet these anti-immigration views in general, and their opposition to the admission of Jewish refugees fleeing Europe. If only somebody like Romeo Dallaire were around then to at least try and help, to turn around this loose train car.
The SS St. Louis departed in May of 1939, and in June of the same year it attempted to land in Havana because the 600 or more Jewish refugees had entry visas to Cuba- there they were denied, as the government now said the visas would not be accepted. Their last hope was Canada and the U.S, who both turned them away. Canadian government stated that it was "not a Canadian problem" and made a statement which, to me, signified they believed that most of these Jews just did not want to live in Europe; what a gross misunderstanding this would turn out to be after the world discovered the Holocaust.
After being at sea for over a month, the governments of France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium granted the refugees temporary safe haven- they docked in Antwerp on June 17, 1939.
Was it possible that Canada didn't feel obligated to help these refugees because of the poor international response from other countries? The only significant numbers of refugees taken in were in Argentina (63,000 were accepted) and the United States (102,000 were accepted). Canada only took in 4,000 out of the 800,000 Jewish people who escaped the Nazis. It seems to me that following the rest of the crowd is just not an acceptable answer in a situation as severe as this.
Anti-semites have always accused the Jewish people of controlling and influencing government- this is as old as anti-semitism itself. So how was this justified when Canadian Jewish Congress was unable to have their brothers and sisters of Germany accepted in Canada? This shows that they in fact had little influence as a community. Was this cause or effect? Did Canadians have an irrational fear that the Jewish refugees would infiltrate the government somehow? It doesn't excuse anything.
A full year after the end of World War II, in 1946, and full disclosure of the horrors of the Holocaust, a poll conducted by the Canadian Institute of Public Opinion showed something disgusting- 60% of Canadians approved of the exclusion of Jews from Canadian immigration. Over half of our population (I realize not every single citizen took the survey but regardless) believed it was the right thing to do. Did they realize that almost 20,000 Jewish Canadians volunteered to fight for Canada during World War II? If they did, maybe they would reevaluate their attitudes.
I always pictured some brave soldier from Canada hopping through the trenches, climbing through barbed wire and the bodies of their fellow soldiers, racing towards the concentration camps, trying to kill the enemy. And yes, the ones who were fighting no doubt were doing this- these were the men who knew what was really going on, the seriousness of the situation.
Yet now, all I can think of is a bunch of bigoted citizens who were only thinking of themselves for foolish reasons. All I see is the government stamping some order stating there will be no Jewish refugees allowed here. All I can hear are the families on the SS St. Louis, sobbing, wondering where and when they will finally find a place to try and call home again.
Now imagine if we were being killed, and nobody would help us- what would we do?
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