by Carol Matas
October 19
The official list of prisoners of war from Hong Kong was released from Ottawa today. And there was Morris’s name in the paper, along with Isaac’s. Daddy suggested to me that I should be happy for such good news, but how can I be when any moment the news could be bad?
October 21
During dinner Mommy and Daddy were unusually quiet. After we’d eaten Daddy asked me to sit with him in the living room. I started to get nervous. Daddy cleared his throat. “Devvy,” he said, “Auntie Aimée finally had the courage to go through Sarah’s things. When she did she discovered a letter Sarah had started writing to you right before she died.” He picked up a piece of paper from the side table. “Auntie Aimée sent it to you.” He passed it over to me without another word. I took it and went to my room to read it. Here it is.
Ma chère Devorah,
I know that I am very ill. Should something happen to me, I hope you will not despair, but that you will carry on working to help end this horror. I feel that I am enveloped in blackness and that if I die, or when I die, only then will I feel warmth, see light, and be happy. Perhaps then I will be able to play music and run freely and laugh out loud for no reason. Perhaps then I will be able to hug the friends I will never have and to kiss the children I will never have. Perhaps then …
October 22
I couldn’t go to school today. I stayed in bed. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t listen to the radio. I can’t even write in these pages.
October 23
Daddy keeps wanting to talk to me but I just stick my nose in a book.
November 1942
November 1
I know I haven’t written, but I haven’t been able to. I go to school and I come home, but I feel like nothing matters anymore. I don’t care. The world is a bad place, a very bad place. Sometimes I wish I could die and be with Sarah. Yes, diary, I do!
November 2
A letter from Adam just for me. Remember I asked him about whether the world was good or bad?
Dearest Dev,
What hard questions you ask, little sister. I have thought quite a bit about life and death, though, so I do have some things to say to you. Every day I see men take off from these airfields and every day I see some who return and others who don’t. Do I think God decides who should live and who should die? Although many people believe that, and believe that there is a reason for everything, I can’t accept that. It just seems to be luck, nothing more. After all, what is the reason for an innocent child like Sarah dying? Surely God isn’t punishing her. And I don’t believe He is punishing the Jewish people for not following His path. Such a God would be like a cruel and demanding parent. I can see why people thousands of years ago believed that, but in this modern age I find it hard to swallow.
So if there isn’t a reason for God to take these lives, why do people die? Is it all for nothing? Is there no rhyme or reason in this life?
I think, Dev, it’s up to us to find a reason. Maybe Sarah didn’t die because God wanted her to. Maybe she died because Hitler wanted her to. God has given us free will and so many have made the wrong choices over the last few years.
And now to your big question — is the world friendly or is it unfriendly? Dev, I have my opinion, but you’ll have to decide that for yourself. Just think about this question. How does everything grow? Where does life come from? Here’s a hint: love!
As you know, I saw Sarah in person not that long ago. She was a lovely child. Very sensitive. And she played piano like an angel.
She had a good friend in you and I know that meant a lot to her. And you had a good friend in her. So you were both lucky. Do you think Hitler has any really good friends?
Love,
Adam
November 5
I’ve spent the last few days thinking about Adam’s letter and his question to me, How do things grow? I don’t know! It’s such a mystery, isn’t it? I asked Daddy. He gave me a scientific explanation. I asked Mommy. She said she was too busy to think about such things. So I sat in the backyard after school, staring at the withered flowers and looking at the yellow leaves on the ground. Everything in the world grows. But Daddy’s science only goes so far. What made the science? God? And is God everywhere? And is that what Adam meant by love? Does he mean that love makes everything grow?
That would mean that the world is a good and friendly place, not a mean and cruel place, even though mean and cruel things happen in it. I guess I’ll never know for sure, but I can decide what I want to think about it. And it seems to me, diary, that life won’t be so hard and miserable if I look at it from the good side instead of the bad side. Elizabeth does it naturally, but she tries to pretend the bad doesn’t exist. That’s a mistake, I think. And Marcie will occasionally be happy but mostly she won’t be, will she? So maybe there is a middle way and maybe that’ll be my way. There are people who act out of love and there are people who don’t and I guess whatever happens, I’d rather be the kind that acts from love. I’m lucky. People who act from hate must be so miserable and they make others so miserable and thank goodness I can choose not to be like them.
I’ve filled up almost this whole diary and soon will have to start a new one.
I can’t stop bad things from happening. But I’m named after a fighter, Devorah from the Bible, and I’m going to fight, just like her, and do everything I can to help win the war. If I don’t then Hitler wins, doesn’t he? I mean, if he can make me so sad and mad that I don’t care enough to fight, he’s won and I’ve lost and Sarah died and nothing matters and something has to matter. Something has to matter.
Maybe this will be the last war ever. When people see how bad it is, maybe … or maybe there will always be people who want wars and there will always be people who have to fight them. That would be sad, wouldn’t it?
Epilogue
Devorah and her friends, the TO’s, continued to work until the end of the war for the war effort. They were always at the forefront of school projects and also created their own projects, such as free baby-sitting and educational pamphlets. They stayed friends through high school and through college, and even after they were all married they would get together at least once a month for dinner. Often they would meet in the summers at Assiniboine Park for picnics with their children. They referred to each other as “the gang.”
Devorah also remained friends with Elizabeth, who became a doctor — quite unusual for a woman at that time. She looked after Devorah’s children, coming to the house any time there was a problem. Elizabeth had no children of her own but took care of many.
Adam was injured on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and sent home. He lost the use of his left arm. Because of his actions during the D-Day campaign he was awarded another bar for his Distinguished Flying Cross. He spent the rest of the war at bases in Manitoba, where he trained other airmen.
Morris returned home at the end of the war, but Isaac did not. He died of abuse at the hands of the Japanese. Auntie Adele never recovered from his death.
Jenny served in the Women’s Division of the RCAF in England and married a man she met there, Frederick, who was a pilot like Adam. He turned out to be from the gentry and lived on a huge estate. Auntie Adele and Uncle Simon moved to England and lived on the estate so they could be close to their grandchildren, Jenny’s twin boys.
Morris went back to school and became a psychiatrist. After the war ended, Adam also went back to school to study engineering; he became a professor at the University of Manitoba. They both married and each had three children. All the cousins would get together every Sunday, eat deli and sometimes talk about the war. But not often.
Devorah was always devoted to her brothers, never forgetting how lucky she was to have them both survive the war.
The Jewish refugee children in France were never given visas by the Canadian government. They were sent to Auschwitz, where they were gassed. Sarah’s family did survive in Paris, because the French Jews were not specifically targeted the way foreign-born Jews
were. Rachel was captured by the Gestapo, and tortured, but managed to escape. She later married and had six children. She said she had a few extra to make up for the ones Sarah would never have.
Devorah grew up to be a determined fighter for right. She went to college and graduated in political science. She married Joe, who became a lawyer; together they had three children. When the children were young she was a stay-at-home mom, but always busy with volunteer work. When they got older she ran first for school board and won, then for parliament and won. She went to Ottawa and worked hard on issues near and dear to her, especially human rights. And she made a difference.
Devorah named her first child, a daughter, Sarah.
Historical Note
The Second World War began in September of 1939 when the German leader, or Führer, Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. But Hitler’s war against the Jews started when he seized control of Germany in 1934. A series of discriminatory laws designed to isolate German Jews and portray them as undesirable were followed by direct attacks such as the November 1938 Kristallnacht, or night of broken glass. That night, Hitler’s Nazi thugs burned synagogues and attacked Jewish-owned businesses throughout Germany. The following day 30,000 Jews were arrested and taken to a new concentration camp at Dachau, as well as to Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen.
Canadians were deeply moved by news of the Kristallnacht. Large rallies of concerned citizens gathered in Winnipeg, Toronto and other cities to express their outrage and to urge their government to change its immigration policies that denied Jewish refugees entry to Canada. Canadians had long practised or accepted their own forms of antisemitism, limiting the access of Jews to universities, some professions and many private clubs, but Hitler’s violent racism shocked most Canadians. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Mackenzie King refused to order his officials to admit Jewish refugees, so nothing was done to alter Canada’s record as the country in the Western world that admitted the fewest Jews fleeing Europe.
With the outbreak of war, Canadians enlisted in large numbers. By the spring of 1945 more than one million men and women, from a population of eleven million, had volunteered for service in the army, navy, air force or merchant marine. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, tens of thousands of Canadian and Allied airmen learned to fly at bases in Manitoba, such as the one at Gimli, not far from Winnipeg, and in other Canadian provinces.
After the defeat of France, Canada became Great Britain’s most important ally in the war against Nazi Germany. Most of the Canadian army and air force was sent to Britain, while the navy and merchant marine concentrated on convoying goods to Britain across the North Atlantic.
In June of 1941 the war was transformed by Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union. The early successes of the German army in Russia encouraged the Japanese Empire to make preparations to wage war in the Pacific. British, Dutch and French colonies were to be conquered and the threat of American intervention dealt with by a surprise attack on the main American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The governments of Britain and the United States tried to persuade Japan to avoid war, both through diplomacy and also by making military preparations that they hoped would dissuade the Japanese from further action. American bases in the Philippines were reinforced, Australian troops were sent to defend Singapore, and Canada was asked to send a small contingent of several infantry battalions to reinforce the British and Indian troops at Hong Kong. The Canadian government agreed to send the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles from eastern Quebec to join the Hong Kong garrison, in the hope that a show of strength and solidarity would help to avert war. This decision was a serious mistake, as Japan had long since decided on war. After a brief, valiant struggle, Hong Kong surrendered. Canadian casualties were 297 killed and 493 wounded. Another 264 Canadians died while prisoners of war. Of the 1975 Canadians who sailed from Vancouver in 1941, just over 1400 made the voyage home when the war ended in 1945.
During the winter of 1941–1942, Canadians were playing a very large role in the Battle of the Atlantic and the air war. After the German invasion of Russia began, Britain and Canada tried to send supplies by convoy to northern Russia, and also sought to draw the German air force away from Europe’s Eastern Front by air attacks on Germany and German bases in France. Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilots were active throughout 1942, serving in the British Royal Air Force, as well as RCAF squadrons such as No. 402 City of Winnipeg Squadron. This unit was converted from Hurricanes to the faster Spitfire fighter aircraft in March of 1942. Adopting the motto “We Stand on Guard” and a badge with a grizzly bear, the squadron was involved in the largest single air battle of the war, which took place during the tragic Dieppe Raid on August 19, 1942. On D-Day (June 6, 1944), No. 402, along with other RCAF and RAF fighter squadrons, played a major role in the successful invasion of Normandy and the liberation of Europe.
Canadians also contributed large numbers of men to RAF Bomber Command. More than twenty percent of all its aircrew were Canadian, and in 1943 most of the Canadians were concentrated in No. 6 Group RCAF, which flew four-engine Halifax and Lancaster Bombers in the strategic air offensive against Germany.
By the end of the war, sixty million people had died. Canada lost forty-five thousand in the struggle to destroy what Winston Churchill called “a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.” But these numbers cannot begin to tell us the real stories behind every death, behind every act of courage, and about those who fought the war from their homes as best they could.
Canadians (and, at that time, Newfoundlanders, since Newfoundland did not join Confederation until 1949), have much to be proud of in the role they played in World War II. However, what Canadians might well wish we had done differently during those years, if we had the chance to go back and change our actions then, concerns a major chapter of World War II: Hitler’s “final solution” to rid his country, and its “master race,” of Jews.
On June 14, 1940, Paris, the capital of France, fell to the German army. On June 22, 1940, France signed an agreement with Germany stating that Germany would occupy the northern part of France while the southern part of France would remain unoccupied. In the unoccupied part of southern France the town of Vichy became the centre for a new French government. The Vichy government promised to cooperate with Germany. Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain became head of state of the new French government. Officially Vichy claimed to be neutral, but that was not what happened.
Almost immediately they began to pass anti-semitic legislation. In October of 1940 they passed the first statut des juifs, Jewish law, and the second in June of 1941. These laws gave the government a legal foundation for their persecution, excluding Jews from the army, the professions, commerce and industry, the civil service, and from public life in general. Jewish-owned property was confiscated. Foreign Jews were rounded up and sent to internment camps. In the latter part of 1942, the French police, not the Germans, rounded up mostly foreign Jews in the occupied and unoccupied zones. By the end of 1942 over 40,000 Jews had been deported, most of them ending up at Auschwitz–Birkenau, where they were murdered. By 1944, 77,000 Jews, most of them foreign, had been deported from France and killed. In the meantime, thousands of French Jews went into hiding or tried to escape to Spain and Switzerland. Many joined the Resistance and fought the Germans until the end of the war.
This brings us to the Holocaust. Jews had lived in Europe for over two thousand years, and unfortunately they were often the victims of a hatred called antisemitism. Raul Hilberg, in The Destruction of the European Jews, describes the six stages Hitler used to destroy the Jews: definition, expropriation, concentration, mobile killing units, deportation and finally, killing centres. The Jews were defined by the Nuremberg Laws passed in Germany in 1935 — if one of your grandparents was Jewish then you were Jewish. Then Jewish people were stripped of their property, businesses and homes. After that they were sent to live in ghettos, small areas (often in cities) where
a few city blocks held thousands of people crowded together, starving and being forced into slave labour.
The mass killings began in 1941 after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Entire populations of towns and villages were rounded up and shot. However, for Hitler this method was too slow, and too hard on his troops. So in 1942, at a conference of Nazi leaders held in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin, a new policy was put in place. Jews would be sent to centres where they would be killed in mass numbers and in a more impersonal way. The concentration camp, initially set up as a prison camp and a slave labour camp, ultimately included killing centres as well. Jews were not the only people sent to these camps — trade unionists, clergy, political enemies, male homosexuals, gypsies and mentally and physically challenged Germans were also killed.
What was Canada’s reaction to the terrible things happening to the Jews in Europe? Politically — complete indifference. In fact, in their book None Is Too Many Irving Abella and Harold Troper argue that Canada actually had the worst record of allowing Jews into their country of any nation that could have invited them in. Even Chile and Bolivia took in 14,000. Canada, from 1933 to 1945, allowed in only 5000! This record is truly shameful. The U.S., for example, let in 200,000 Jews — a stunning difference.
The Liberal Party, led by Mackenzie King, came to power in 1935. Head of the government’s immigration branch was Frederick Blair. His section was placed in the Department of Mines and Resources headed by Thomas Crerar. But Crerar was not interested in the immigration issue at all, so Blair had total power over all decisions related to refugees. It was unfortunate, to say the least, that he didn’t like Jews. He was an antisemite, and acted as if it was his personal task to keep Jews out of Canada.