Tailor Project

To alleviate Canada's labour shortages, the government grants entry to skilled workers in displaced persons camps. The Canadian Jewish Congress and predominantly Jewish textile industry devise a plan known as the Tailor Project, claiming an urgent need for more tailors. They receive approval to recruit in Europe's DP camps; however, the government imposes a quota that only 60% of the 2,100 selected tailors can be Jewish.

Black-and-white photograph of a group of six people, five men and one woman, standing in a room. One man is smoking a pipe and observing another man sitting on a table, hand sewing fabric.
Canadian Garment Commission examining a refugee’s sewing skills with a sewing machine in a DP camp, 1947. (Ontario Jewish Archives. Fonds 70)

Click and share!

Google+