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Lucky, Nathan

This paper examines British Columbia press responses to Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany and Eastern Europe from 1933 to 1939. Using the Vancouver Jewish community paper as its focus, the study juxtaposes its responses with three non-Jewish papers. Vancouver Jews responded to the persecution of their coreligionists in Germany and Europe by countering neutral and skeptical reporting in the mainstream papers with explicit reporting of persecution. They tried to catalyze divided Jewish communities toward a common effort to help European Jews through fundraising efforts and lobbied for Canada to allow Jewish refugees. By 1938, they adapted to appeal to mainstream Canadian views by calling for “refugees” and “immigrants” to enter the country. They dispelled myths circulated in the non-Jewish papers about refugees and worked to change minds and gather support to convince Canada to open its doors. Finally, they emphasized that the threat of fascism was a crisis of civilization.

Text

University of British Columbia. HIST 499

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0379763

Arts and Sciences, Irving K. Barber School of (Okanagan); History and Sociology, Department of (Okanagan)

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/