The Holocaust in Hindsight

"This information would have been the building blocks to rolling out the Final Solution in Canada, allowing perpetrators of the Holocaust to know what cities to go to, to find Jewish people and how many Jews to round up."
"It's [the 1944 volume, purchased by Library and Archives Canada] an in-depth statistical report or census, of the American and Canadian Jewish communities."
"While this is certainly a creepy item, the decision to acquire it was simple in light of our mandate, though sometimes you have to think beyond your mandate."
"When we looked at this book and we saw the rise in Holocaust denial that is currently happening and we saw the rise in xenophobia that’s currently happening in the world, the chance to acquire an item like this reminds us the importance of memory institutions… and the role we play in ensuring the memory of the Holocaust is preserved."
Michael Kent, curator, Library and Archives Canada

The 137-page German language report, Statistik, Presse und Organisationen des Judentums in den Vereinigten Staaten und Kanada (Statistics, Media, and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada), is seen in this handout photo.

"We don't, and we shouldn't, choose only those records that portray past events in a positive light. "Historical significance does not come with caveats."
"The truth of history is woven from many sources, and it is only when history is presented in its entirety that it can support the free exchange of ideas that lies at the heart of a democratic society."
"In this case, it was not published in Canada, it was published in Germany and was being sold in the United States and so we had to acquire it, we had to buy it, but that's not our usual modus operandi."
Guy Berthiaume, Librarian and Archivist of Canada

Data in the 1944 German language book "Statistics, Media and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada," shows population information on Canadian cities including Jewish populations, Wednesday January 23, 2019 in Ottawa. The book, once owned by Adolf Hitler, has been acquired by Library and Archives Canada . THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

While Adolph Hitler ordered his henchmen to burn books considered to be subversive in nature or quite simply reflected an ideology averse to fascism, or works by Jewish authors, he commissioned reports for the direct purpose of advancing his plan to annihilate world Jewry. First he would proceed with exterminating the lives of Europe's Jews, rounded up from the many eastern and west European countries Germany dominated and occupied, and over the period from 1939 to 1945 used increasingly efficient methods for mass murder. The completion of the Final Solution would take place once Germany succeeded in becoming the conquering leader of the world.

To that end, the presence of the North American Jewish population was chronicled in depth by a researcher, Heinz Kloss, who conducted field work in the late 1930s in the United States, with outreach to Canada. Koss had links to American Nazi sympathizers enabling him to access sources to aid in his research and eventual publication of the 137-page German-language publication, Statistik, Press und Organisationen des Judentums in den Vereinigten Staaten und Kanada (Statistics, MEdia, and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada).

The book represents a compilation of general population statistics including the number of Jews throughout Canadian cities both large and small, covering Vancouver in British Columbia to Glace Bay in Nova Scotia and all points in between. Details such as ethnic backgrounds and languages spoken were all included. There is little doubt that given the situation in Europe, others besides Jews would be targeted for extermination; Gypsies, Homosexuals, Political opponents, the elderly feeble, and those classified as mentally and physically unstable.

The book, according to the aspirations of Library and Archives Canada is to be viewed as a tool in the arsenal of decency to push back against Holocaust denial, as well as a cogent reminder of the slaughter of millions of innocent people in Nazi-occupied Europe. A stylized eagle, swastika and the words Ex Libris Adolf Hitler, identify the book as among the collection of the Nazi leader. The book was purchased for roughly $6,000 from a dealer who came into its possession as part of a collection of a Holocaust survivor.

Among other sources, the book includes the 1931 Census of Canada and the 1937 Report of the Immigration Branch, among its Canada-sourced references. Printed on wartime paper, the volume was decidedly in fragile condition, requiring extensive restoration work before it could be handled, much less publicly displayed. The plan is to display this fearful publication to the public on Sunday, January 27, in synchrony with the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration, at Library and Archives in Ottawa.

While the world shudders in horror at the fate of millions of Jewish men, women and children exposed to the diabolical plans of Nazi Germany as it wallowed in genocide, the German authorities must have felt great glee over the fact that the free countries of the world which now deplore the Holocaust, at the very time when they might have saved thousands of Jewish children, much less their parents, chose to stand by, refusing to accept Jewish refugees, consigning them by their inaction, to certain death.

Canada, at that time, had a policy of not accepting Jewish refugees, as chronicled by historical documents and living memory where at the time the adage that "None is too many" reflected the position of the-then government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King; an expression that Irving Abella and Harold Troper quoted in their book None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948 and when the infamous turn-back of the St.Louis crowded with desperate refugee Jews hoping to escape death aptly demonstrated the compassion extended to people no one would accept.

Library and Archives Canada