Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses: Confronting Antisemitism in the Shadow of War, edited by L. Ruth Klein (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012), xxiii + 302 pp., illus., hardcover $29.95, electronic version available

Abstract

In Toronto in June 2009 the Government of Canada and the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada co-hosted a conference entitled, “The St. Louis Era: Looking Back, Moving Forward,” which was also part of Canada's successful bid for membership in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, now the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Though the ill-fated voyage of the MS St. Louis served as the focal point for the conference, participants were encouraged to “look more widely at this era of prejudice and restrictive immigration policies” (p. xiii). The conference resulted in two things in addition to IHRA membership: establishment of the National Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (NTF); and publication of the volume under review. The purpose of Klein's compilation is to gain “a better sense of how much Canadians knew, and when, about the mounting persecution of the Jews.” To achieve this, Klein asserts, it is necessary to enter the “atmosphere” of Canada in this period (p. xix). In this pursuit, seven scholars from various disciplines, including history, media studies, and Jewish studies, examine various aspects of Canadian society from 1933 to 1945, concluding that most non-Jewish Canadians were apathetic in the face of Nazi persecution of Jews. It is unfortunate that the analysis focuses almost exclusively on the cities of Toronto and Montreal, and that French Canada is virtually ignored, yet no single volume can cover all aspects of a subject. In this case it seems that geographic and ethnic breadth was sacrificed in favor of multi-disciplinary inclusion.