Monument Presentation ScriptAnti-semitism in Canada:With anti-semitism being dominant in Canada during the 1930’s, Jews were the most affected through discrimination and outbreaks of violence. Anti-semitism was not only limited to one provence but throughout all of Canada. Some Provinces were affected by anti-semitism more than others but it wasn’t contained to only one. Jews faced discrimination throughout the 1930’s and were restricted of many of their rights that the typical “White Euro-Canadian” would have had during that decade.Prime Minister Lloyd Mackenzie King:Prime Minister Lloyd Mackenzie King was the Prime Minister of Canada for six year total during the 1930’s. During his time in office, anti-semitism had spread into the higher levels of government affecting how they would decide to treat Jews moving forward.
He eventually felt that the increase in Jewish immigrants would “pollute” Canada’s bloodstream and felt that something had to be done. He ignored the pleas made by thousands of Jews trapped in Europe and left them to fend for themselves. The Canadian government eventually put in place restrictions on Jewish immigration and Canada ended up with taking in the lowest amount of Jews than any other western country.The Night of Broken Glass:The Night of Broken Glass broke out in Germany on November 9, 1938 and lasted until the following day on november 10. The name came from all the shattered glass from store windows that covered streets and sidewalks. Just over a week before this happened, a 17 year old Jewish teenager assassinated a German official who was a diplomat attached to the German embassy in Paris. The German propaganda minister and other Natzi officials organized this pogrom prior to Joseph Goebbels public anti-semitic speech in Germany on November 9, 1938.
Not long after his speech, Natzi officials ordered the SA and other Natzi parties to attack Jews and destroy their homes, businesses, and place of worships which in this case were their synagogues. The violence lasted until the next morning leaving over 250 synagogues across Germany burned down, over 7,000 Jewish businesses burned and looted, Jewish hospitals, homes, and schools were looted while local police and fire brigades stood by and watched. In the end, several dozen Jews lost their lives that night and over 30,000 Jews were arrested for the crime of “being Jewish” and sent to either jail or concentration camps.
Germany then imposed a fine of what would be $400,000,000 nowadays for Jews to pay for damages and repairs.The Evian Conference:The Evian Conference took place on July 7, 1938 in Evian France and all 32 countries involved discussed how they could help the Jews fleeing from Germany. Although every country expressed sympathy for the Jews, everyone had an excuse to not allow jews in whether is was that they didn’t have a stable enough economy or that they were “at an extreme point of saturation”. Out of all the 32 countries, Dominican Republic was the only one that volunteered to take in 100,000 Jews in return for a large sum of money. By the time Dominican Republic was prepared to take in the Jews, only 800 actually ended up entering the country.
Because of the conference’s lack of effectiveness, Hitler realized that foreign governments were not going to interfere with his anti-semitic policies and moved forward with his plan to “eliminate all Jews”.Monument Description:Our monument is going to be a large round table with a piece taken out and with a Swastika engraved in the middle and people sitting around it dressed in red gowns. The piece taken out of the round table represents that Jewish people at the time were not treated equal to others.
There will be seven people sitting to represent the date that the St. Louis ship was forced to leave Canada’s shores which was on June 7 1939. Around the table will be shattered glass as well as a baseball bat leaning on the table. Multiple monuments will be placed alongside the East coast of Canada to represent the Jewish immigrants trying to flee from Europe but got turned down by the Canadian government forcing them to return.
