What did Canada do for the Jews during the Holocaust?

Question

Do you think they did enough for them soon enough? Why or why not? ^___^

Answer 1

The Holocaust: 1933 - 1945

It is always good to remind those who think of the Holocaust as being the persecution of only European Jews that it was also the persecution of anti-fascists, communists, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally retarded, and others.

Why not ask what Canada did for those victims as well?

Before Canada entered the Second World War in 1939, and began the long process of training, equipping, and sending its armed forces to go overseas to fight the Fascists (both German and Italian) it went through a similar political crisis it once did during the Great War (World War I) when there was large opposition in Quebec to going to war - since they believed this war, like the last, was only in aid of an Imperialist England, and not the liberation of Europe from tyranny.

Canada went to war on the side of the Allies. The Allies liberated Europe from further persecution by the Fascists.

Another reason is Canada did not have a refugee policy. By doing "enough for them soon enough" you are assuming that Canada could and would accept those who managed to leave Germany (or Europe under Nazi occupation) under some kind of a refugee policy. It was only after World War II that Canada began to develop a refugee policy. There are other reasons, but you can read them in Claude Belanger's article: 'Why Did Canada Refuse To Admit Jewish Refugees in the 1930s?'

Two other important facts to consider are:

The Armenians were also largely denied asylum in Canada.

To apply today's standards to yesterday is to commit a grave historical error.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, we didn't do much at the beginning. Most people and countries around the world were quite anti-semitic at the time, and nobody really thought that Hitler and the Nazis would actually do much to the Jews, so very few countries allowed them to immigrate, and those that did only allowed very few. Canada, Britain, and the US are all guilty of this.

Unfortunately the death camps were real, but nobody found out about them till late in the war, so there wasn't much that could be done short of winning the war by beating the Nazis.

For this part, Canada did more than it's fair share. At the end of the War, Canada had the 3rd largest Navy, the 4th largest Air Force and the 4th largest Army in the world - from a country with about 12 million people -the same population as the CITY of New York at the same time! We had more than 10% of the country in Uniform, and just about the rest of the entire country was doing War Work in one way or another. Canadians can be VERY proud of that.

Prejudism is a terrible thing, but doing nothing about it can be just as bad as being part of it.