Papa Arthur, Grandma Dorothy and me at my high school graduation, circa 2002 (if you couldn’t already tell from my choker).
Arthur Bloch, my maternal grandfather, was a survivor. In a new article in the National Post, his story is being told, along with thousands of other men who came to Canada during World War Two. Treated as ‘enemy aliens’ aka Nazi sympathizers, they were interned in prison camps in (mostly) Quebec during the war years. The irony that they were escaped Jewish refugees, the opposite of Nazi sympathizers, is almost poetic. They had fled Austria and Germany to England during the late 1930’s, only to be eventually shipped across the Atlantic to Canada. Churchill sold them as prisoners of war and nazi sympathizers so that our country (who had peviously denied Jews entry into Canada) would allow them refugee/enemy alien status. The fact that thousands of these men were interned in Canada and their story remains untold is something that is slowly beginning to change. Books are being written and a touring exhibit, originating from Vancouver, is coming to Sherbrooke in March. After they left the camps, a “disproportionate number went on to illustrious careers in academia, law and the arts, including two Nobel laureates.” My Papa Arthur left the prison camp, married my Grandma Dorothy and had two children (including my mom, Helena). He owned one of the most successful meat supply companies in Montreal, always balancing his business and family life. He was an incredible athlete, biking and skiing long distances until his mid-eighties. While he was lucky enough to escape Germany during the Kindertransport, millions were not as fortunate. His parents, Josef and Freida Bloch, who were murdered at Auschwitz in 1945, mere weeks before the liberation. Never forget.
Read the article here: http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/07/how-jewish-enemy-aliens-overcame-a-traumatic-stint-in-canadian-prison-camps-during-the-second-world-war/
Gillian Sonin 