Image, living in a cramped, filthy, bug-ridden area with hundreds of other people because you were different from the community. There is barely any food for you, or your children and you barely ever see water to drink or shower in. Everyday, you can hear the screams and cries of the Jewish people around you being dragged off to their deaths, whether it be machine gunned t to death in a pit, stood up against a wall and shot in the head or eaten from the inside out from poison gases within the German gas chambers.
This is what it was like for the Jewish population in the European countries in WW2, Surely the Jewish people were having a great life over in their neighboring continent North America, right? Well, you would be very wrong, in fact, lives in Canada for the Jewish population was a living hell. People were being mocked, beaten and tormented daily because of their believes and race. Swastika’s from the Nazi Germany made their way to Canada to strike fear into the hearts of the Jewish people. They even had their houses burned down, their windows smashed, and their businesses destroyed in an act of religious hate.
The worst case of these antisemitic crimes was on May 13th, 1939 when the German transatlantic liner, the St. Louis sailed away from Hamburg, Germany, on their way to the Cuban islands with over nine hundred Jewish lives onboard. The boat’s goal was to free as many Jewish lives from their hellish lives in Europe, to a safer environment down in the Cuban republic until they could move up into the United States of America. The long journey to Cuba had come to a dream shattering end on May 27th, 1939 when the Cuban government refused to allow the Jewish refugees into their country.
With heavy hearts, the boat had to find another place to dock. The closest stop was the USA, who declined them right away. Their last hope was the growing country of Canada. Everyone on the ship was hopeful, Canada was a good place to be, correct? Wrong. The government had turned them down without a second thought. They had nothing to do with the refugees. The St. Louis had to turn back to Europe, with many upset and scared Jewish passengers on board. When they arrived back in Europe, England, France and Belgium took responsibility for the Jewish population, and allowed them into their countries.
The Jewish people had finally found a place to stay away from the Jewish killing concentration camps, or so they thought. The Jewish people who were sent to Belgium and France were taken by the Nazi’s when they invaded the two countries. They were put in concentration camps, and most never escaped. On the other hand, those who went to England were finally at some sort of peace.
Canada did not regret turning the boat away because in the country they had their own “Jewish infestation” problem to deal with. Those people who had heard the rumors and saw the ads about Jewish people being terrible human beings believed in everything that was being said to them. They wanted nothing to do with them and in some cases, they wanted to harm them, to scare them away out of Canada.
The holocaust was a horrible event in history, and it just proves to show that the lies being told about one’s race can cause havoc, riots, violence and discrimination. Canada had joined in on the bandwagon, and it has caused a significant role in our history.
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