In this video, Professor Harold Troper and Professor Adara Goldberg describe the challenges that Holocaust survivors faced after the war. Many turned to displaced persons camps and waited for opportunities to emigrate. Canada's labour programs brought in more refugees from Europe, and approximately 1,200 refugee youth arrived in the country through the War Orphans Project. Source: Montreal Holocaust Museum, 2016
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Video begins with the title “1945-1955” in white text on a black screen while instrumental music plays and fades into the next frame.
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Cut to Historian Adara Goldberg, sitting in front of the dark wall. Dr. Goldberg looks towards the right of the camera. The camera shows a medium shot of her upper body as she speaks during an interview conducted at the Montreal Holocaust Museum in April 2016.
>> Adara Goldberg: By the end of the war, the Nazis and their collaborators had killed 6 million Jews and destroyed 1,000 years of Jewish life in Europe.
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Camera angle changes to a close-up shot of Adara Goldberg.
>> For the survivors, the period after liberation was fraught with challenges. They experienced physical ailments, psychological problems, challenges in comprehending the scope of destruction, as well as issues in returning physically to their home countries.
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Camera angle changes back to a medium shot of Adara Goldberg.
>> For those who did return to their communities of origin, they were often met by violence from their Christian neighbours, as well as the news that their families had been killed and properties stolen.
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Camera angle changes back to a close-up shot of Adara Goldberg.
>> Many of them, with nowhere to go, turned to the displaced persons camps that were being administered by the Allied nations.
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Camera angle changes back to a medium shot of Adara Goldberg.
>> And several of them spent many years in these camps waiting for the opportunity to immigrate to a free country.
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Cut to University of Toronto Professor Harold Troper sitting in front of a dark wall that displays text, which is out of focus. Professor Troper looks towards the right of the camera. The camera shows a close-up shot of his upper body as he speaks during an interview conducted at the Montreal Holocaust Museum in April 2016. The name “Harold Troper” and underneath, “Professor at the University of Toronto” temporarily display in white text on the right side of the frame.
>> When the war ended, there were tens of thousands if not millions of refugees, many of them Jews, in various parts of Europe. The Canadian government's attitude, indeed most of the Allies' attitude in the immediate post-war, was repatriation. If everybody went back to the country that they came from…
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Camera angle change to a medium shot of Harold Troper.
>>… the problem of refugees would be solved. As far as Canada was concerned, the immigration regulations that were in effect from the pre-war years still were in effect immediately after the war, and they were not about to let anybody in.
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Camera angle change to a close-up shot of Harold Troper.
>> Refugees began arriving in Canada in 1946 and early 1947, not because of any kind of sympathy for refugees, but because the Canadian economy was going gangbusters, and Canada was in desperate need of labour; additional workers, additional labourers to meet the needs of Canadian industry.
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Camera angle change to a medium shot of Harold Troper.
>> The largest pool of available workers was the refugees of Europe. So Canada opened its door. And among those who were admitted were Jews…
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Camera angle changes back to close-up shot of Harold Troper.
>> … many coming to work in industries that had a huge Jewish influence in Canada, like the clothing industry, like the fur industry, and so on.
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Cut to a medium shot of Adara Goldberg.
>> In 1948 alone, more than 1,800 men and women came on the so-called Tailors Project. Others came on farming, mining, construction, and lumber contracts.
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Camera angle change to a close-up shot of Adara Goldberg.
>> Order-in-Council 1647, or the War Orphans Project, was renewed and expanded, and nearly 1,200 refugee youth, 70% of them teenage boys, came to Canada through this project between 1947 and 1952.
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Camera angle change back to a medium shot of Adara Goldberg.
>> In the decade after the Holocaust, 35,000 survivors immigrated to Canada, constituting the third largest displaced persons group after Poles and Ukrainians. Despite many obstacles, most of the survivors successfully rebuilt their lives, raised new families, and forged careers that had been destroyed by the Holocaust. In spite of all of these obstacles, the members of this very interesting and unique immigrant group dramatically transformed aspects of Canadian Jewish life, as well as contributed to various elements of Canadian society at large.
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Credit pages appear in white text on black screen. Instrumental music continues.
Interview conducted by Laurel Ovenden, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, April 2016
Directing, Camera, and Editing: Helgi Piccinin; Colorization: Michaël Gravel; Assistant Director and Sound: Philippe Dubois; Audio Mix and Original Music: Pierre-Luc Lecours. [Logo for Chaire de recherche du Canada en patrimoine ethnologique]
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, copyright 2017.
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