Episode 26 - Nazis, Canadian Jews and the Second World War

On War & Society

Jewish people are traditionally depicted as victims in the Second World War literature. This should come as no surprise, as six million Jews were killed at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Ellin Bessner, in her new book Double Threat, insists that at least in the case of Jewish Canadians, they were not just victims of the war but also active players in the eventual victory of the Allies against Germany and the Axis powers during the Second World War. Canadian Jews enlisted at the same proportional rates as the rest of Canada and served valiantly and bravely in the face of an enemy that not only wanted to see them defeated in battle but exterminated from the face of the earth.

References

Irving Abella and Harold Troper. None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933–1948. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1983.

Ellin Bessner. Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and World War II. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.