In Hindsight : Losing Canada

"Unfortunately, literally everything I said would  happen in 2015 has now come to pass."

"Trudeau's deficits will not be small. Mr. Trudeau has made tens of billions of dollars of spending promises; he said the budget will balance itself, he has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to these things." 2015

"These guys [2015 leadership opponents] would have had, in the last two weeks, us throwing open our borders and literally hundreds of thousands of people coming in without any kind of security checks or documentation."

"That would have been an enormous mistake."

Former (2006-2015) Prime Minister Stephen Harper 

Stephen Joseph Harper, who led the Conservatives for 13 years, saw his party win the first majority government in over a decade in the May 2, 2011, election, with 166 seats, representing an increase of 23 seats from the October 2008 election, in which Harper won a strong minority. (Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty)

 

He was one of the most effectively reliable prime ministers Canada has had; principled, intelligent, informed, a man of earnest integrity and love of country. Some of those who voted him into office -- one minority and two majority governments -- missed him from the moment the Conservative Party of Canada lost the 2015 election and the Liberal Party of Canada became the governing body under the most unsuitable, unprepared and unprincipled prime minister Canada has ever had; Justin Trudeau. 

 

Now, the current Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney promises to be the second-most unsuitable, out-of-his-depth prime minister of Canada.

 

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was an economist before he became prime minister and his administration bears no resemblance whatever to the current office-holder, a central banker, whose grasp of economics seems fairly incompetent. Perhaps not so much as his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, who felt the economy would look after itself:  "The commitment needs to be a commitment to grow the economy, and the budget will balance itself".

 

To that end, after inheriting a balanced budget, the Liberals claimed they would run a $10B deficit for three years to 'build infrastructure' after which a balanced budget would be produced by 2019. The first three years of Liberal mismanagement of the economy saw the deficit come in at $19 billion for starters. By 2025, when Trudeau left the prime ministership the national debt was $1.2 trillion, somewhat higher than the $612 billion he had inherited a decade earlier.

 

While in office, when the opposition Liberals and NDP insisted the government bring Syrian refugees into Canada en masse, PM Harper responded: "We do not want to pick up our entire communities ... and move them out of the region where they have lived for as long as history has been written. They do not want that. They want us to help them. That is why we provide refugee placements, friends. That is why we provide humanitarian aid." 

 

August 2015 long weekend, Harper stood outside Rideau Hall — dressed in Conservative blue — after asking Gov. Gen. David Johnston to dissolve Parliament, launching his fifth federal election campaign as party leader. He appealed to Canadians to consider leadership (and his experience) as the central issue at play. (Blair Gable/Reuters)

 

Fast forward ten years and "hundreds of thousands of people" entered Canada with scant security checks as the Liberal government ignored entire categories of quotas and checks on temporary immigration  (many dating from the Harper government); in the process seeing an unprecedented surge of temporary migrants entering Canada The number of 'non-permanent' residents soared by 1.7 million in three years, overwhelming the capacity to screen them. Leading to a 'standard' of foreign nationals claiming refugee status through an ever-so-convenient app. 

 

The Harper-era government brought in a measure to prevent corruption in awarding of contracts by government, leading to the Public Prosecutions Act, designed to prevent political interference in criminal prosecutions. The law enacted by the Harper government placed the situation in control of a politically independent 'director of public prosecutions'. It was this act that succeeded in revealing the 2019 episode when Trudeau pressed his then-justice minister to forgo a bribery case against a Quebec engineering company with close ties to the Liberals.

 

During his administration, PM Harper removed home delivery at the request of Canada Post management, reflecting the downward spiral of mail volumes making it too costly for letter-carriers to continue door-to-door daily deliveries. At that juncture, the national mail corporation still turned a profit and closing down home delivery meant the spigot of losing money was turned off. The Liberals campaigned on a promise to restore home delivery. Almost immediately it was restored hundreds of billions annually began hemorrhaging for Canada Post, leading it to the door of bankruptcy. 

 

In 2010 the Harper government suspended Canada's contributions to the UNRWA agency, a central provider of aid ad-infinitum to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Accusations the agency was intermingled with Palestinian terror groups such as Hamas led to that cancellation. The Liberals restored funding to UNRWA in 2015. By 2023 following the October 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel, hard evidence emerged of UNRWA employing members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad; including a top Hamas commander.

 

When the Liberals took the reins of power in Canada they spoke of an intention to 'modernize' the criminal justice system with the introduction of 'restorative justice' to reduce the number of Indigenous offenders in prison. Bill C-75, a crime bill, was made law in 2018 to simplify bail for accused criminals and codifying treating offenders more leniently based on race. Stemming from a 'vulnerable population', criminals received bail faster and were released earlier from prison. 

 

Since then, Statistics Canada's crime severity stats reflect that when Mr. Harper left office, homicides and violent crime were at lows never before seen in the history of Canada. Since his departure from office as prime minister, however, crime began trending uphill steadily, sitting now at the point where  homicides have hit 30-year highs. This represents the Liberal version of progress.

 

Mr. Harper and his wife, Laureen, visit the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem in 2014. The Mideast featured throughout Harper's tenure, including most recently the exodus of refugees from the war in Syria. Harper pointed to ISIS as the root cause of the refugee crisis in Europe and reiterated Canada's military commitment to combating the extremist group. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

 

The Battle for Freedom in Iran

Video footage from early January showed security forces storming a hospital in Ilam where activists said wounded protesters were being treated  Vahid Online 

 

"This regime is dying. Essentially, it's fighting, it's killing again, but it is also dying..."

"This regime has lost legitimacy The problem is it hasn't lost the capability to kill."

Former CIA  director David Petraeus 

 

"Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has emerged as a unifying figure for the democratic movement, has called for continued resistance through nightly chants and nationwide strikes."

"'The blood of the best and bravest children of our homeland does not allow us to remain silent or retreat', he wrote." 

"According to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, regime elites are moving billions of dollars out of the country in anticipation of its collapse."

"They are preparing their escape routes -- many of which lead to Western nations, including Canada."

Avideh Motmaen-Far, president, Council of Iranian Canadians 

Videos circulated via social media on Jan. 13 and verified by NBC News showed more than 200 bodies in bags outside Iran's largest cemetery in Tehran.  via X

 

Morgues overflow in Tehran, where families wander disconsolately through rows of bodies enclosed in black bags, searching for their loved ones. In the state-imposed digital shut-off only videos smuggled out through Starlink connects Iranians to the outside world. Yet, the world looks in at Iran as it undergoes the most contagious, forceful denial by its citizens of the dark world of the Islamist Republic they are forced to live within. 

 

The latest uprising, initiated on December 28 and responded to by the regime's military and policing bodies, the IRGC, Basij and regional Police by escalating force that more latterly turned into a military bloodbath targeting peaceful protesters, has drawn the attention of the United States of America, where President Donald Trump, in alarm over reports of thousands of people killed and mass hanging of those arrested has warned the Iranian government it will intervene if the killings persist.

 

The eyewitness reports of military-grade weapons deployed against civilians describe a scene of unbridled horror. Security forces blocked access routes preventing fire engines from reaching an area where protesters set fire to a mosque in an attempt to free detained friends; a deliberate move by the regime's enforcers to ensure that all in the mosque would be incinerated. Unhindered, the blaze spread and destroyed 300 shops in the historic bazaar.

 

A woman passes a damaged mosque in Tehran on Jan. 21.   NBC News

 

Over 1,000 people were reported killed in a three-night period in a northwest city, reported by a  witness, where some medical centre floors were steeped in blood. In another center, security forces fired directly at protesters, shot those wounded, while blocking others from reaching hospitals. In Tehran, prayer leader Ahmad Khatami called for the execution of all protesters that have been detained, speaking of them as "servants of Netanyahu" and "soldiers of Trump". 

 

Without the active intervention of outside help it remains unlikely that the protesters who detest the Iranian regime would be capable on their own, despite their numbers and the passion of their rejection, to effect a regime downfall. Even if the Police forces in sympathy with the people, decided to cast their lot in with them in support of regime change, since they are not as ideologically driven as the IRGC and Basij, it is unlikely they could succeed.

 

With that reality uppermost in mind, Prince Reza Pahlavi has called for "surgical strikes" against the infrastructure of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps; the instruments of the IRGC oppression of the Iranian people. Any action that targets IRGC capacities to support operations targeting command and control structures of the IRGC could succeed in damaging the regime to the extent of abolishing it altogether.  

"I put one of the wounded in the boot of my car to take him to hospital, as I was worried that we would get in trouble if we were stopped by the police."

"For almost 96 hours straight - 'without interruption, without sleep, without even closing our eyes for a moment -' we were operating. We were crying and operating. Nobody complained."

"All our clothes and hospital gowns were covered in blood -' our outer clothes, our underwear, everything was soaked in the blood of these young people."

"[We operated on one man who had been shot in the leg and face at a protest.] A bullet had entered through his chin, ripped through his mouth and exited through his upper jaw."

Nima, Tehran surgeon   

An anti-U.S. billboard in Enghelab Square in central Tehran on Jan. 25.  NBC News

 

The Prospect of a U.S. Military Strike

The prospect of a US military strike against Iran over its violent crackdown on protests has laid bare a shift in Middle East geopolitics—one marked by the unexpected upending of long-standing rivalries between Iran and regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

When protests erupted in Iran on December 28, 2025, few anticipated that they would reveal deep-seated geopolitical anxieties in Riyadh and Ankara. As the demonstrations spread across the country and drew warnings from US President Donald Trump of possible military intervention in support of the protesters, Saudi Arabia and Turkey—along with Qatar and Oman—unexpectedly rallied behind the Iranian regime, primarily due to concerns about the potential consequences of a regime change in Iran.

To be fair, prior to the Iranian protests, relations between Tehran and its rivals Riyadh and Ankara were not tense; in fact, they were moving toward closer engagement, with Saudi Arabia following up on the Chinese-brokered agreement with Iran and Turkey even planning a presidential visit. The protests, by highlighting the fragility of Iran’s political order, triggered new threat perceptions in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, leading both countries to lobby the Trump administration to refrain from military action against Iran.

While Turkey and Saudi Arabia hold differing views on Iran, they share a rarely highlighted concern: Israel’s potential influence in a post-Islamic Republic Iran. Both initially assessed that the protests were unlikely to topple the regime, yet the emergence of Reza Pahlavi—and his January 8–11 calls that drew massive crowds to the streets—heightened their anxieties. Monarchist chants calling for the return of the Pahlavi dynasty dominated the protests.

Reza Pahlavi, who has built strong relations with Israel, is far from a unifying figure in Iran’s polarized political landscape. His rise has unsettled non-Persian communities and devout segments of the population. Yet, from the perspectives of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the surge of pro-Pahlavi chants across Iran suggested that Israel and the United States could expand their influence if the regime were to collapse. Amid the protests in Iran, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan went so far as to accuse Israel of orchestrating the unrest, highlighting Ankara’s deep concerns about instability in Tehran. Notwithstanding, Saudi Arabia and Turkey were almost certain that Iranian protests, if left to their own devices, would not succeed in toppling the Iranian regime. US threats of a potential military strike in support of the protesters, however, radically changed risk assessments in Riyadh and Ankara.

Depending on how the situation in Iran evolves, the alliance of the ‘elders’ may soon be challenged by an emerging bloc of younger Middle Eastern states—comprising the UAE, Israel, and the Republic of Azerbaijan—smaller states that share a convergence of strategic interests in Iran and beyond.

So far, the US president’s decision to dial down threats of military action against Iran has contributed to preserving the status quo in the Middle East, especially after the Islamic Republic violently quelled protests. However, a significant military strike against Iran could open the door to profound geopolitical shifts across the region.

Said Khanafira, (doctoral researcher, Simon Fraser University, Canada) Geopolitical Monitor 

Reza Pahlavi, Geopolitical Monitor

 

"Hopefully, Iran will quickly 'Come to the Table' and negotiate a fair and equitable deal -- NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS -- one that is good for all parties."

"Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!"

"The next attack will be far worse [than that of the summer of 2025]."

U.S. President Donald Trump 

 

"Iran stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests -- BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!"

Iranian Embassy in Washington

A screen grab from a video taken between 9 and 11 January purportedly showing dozens of bodies outside a morgue in Kahrizak on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran's capital. Photograph: AP

 

Appealing to Muslim states in the Middle East, a desperate Iran has reached out in a manner totally unlike its usual cloistered relations with majority Sunni Arab states, as the sole non-Arab Muslim state in the region. The Damocles Sword of an imminent attack by the United States on the Persian Islamic Republic has generated panic among the mullahs of the regime. Attacked by their own persecuted population over economic hardships that ignited a protest against the sinking value of the rial and the rising cost of living, the bloody crackdown by the regime drew the ire of the Trump administration articulating a red line whose crossing would bring the regime's downfall.

 

The world has witnessed a number of widespread populist uprisings in the Islamic Republic of Iran. All of which were met with violence committed by the Basij and components of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps, ideologically-driven to stifle protest by all means that could be deployed through military-style intervention, while the Iranian Police, committed to the welfare of their country but informed through the metric of public order and security may have dealt less harshly with the protesting public. 

 

The deaths of thousands of protesting civilians in outbursts taking place throughout the country, in each of its cities where vulnerable courage has met implacable denial, first with conventional crowd-control measures and threats for people to return to their homes, then increasingly with deadly fire, has captured the notice of the world, with videos, photographs and personal accounts reaching the outside world until the regime closed down the internet and peoples' modes of communication were slammed shut.

 

Threats by President Donald Trump of wartime measures his country would take to defend the protest movement should the massive death count continue, and hanging of protesters proceed as threatened by Iran's judiciary, have had their impact. Fear of an invasion has shattered the level of bombast-confidence that usually issues from the regime's elite government circles. With an attack impending should Trump finally make that decision, Saudi Arabia and the UAE let it be known their air or ground or sea space would be off limits for any U.S. attack on Iran.

 

Photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet landing on the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 22, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/U.S. Navy via AP)

 

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been moved to the region along with a number of guided missile destroyers whose utility can be achieved though simply launching attacks from the sea. The American armada that has moved into position is prepared to achieve any goal commanded by the White House. With communications cut off, it is no longer possible to receive reliable information on killing of peaceful demonstrators and mass execution of detainees. 

 

Iranians have been ordered to remain in their homes. There have been reports of wounded being taken out of hospitals or shot in hospitals by the regime's enforcers. People have been forced to pay a ransom to receive the bodies of their loved ones, and not all have the wherewithal to retrieve the bodies for a funeral to take place leaving the families in the double grip of the desolate grief of deprivation. State media now refer to the protesters as 'terrorists', the preferred term of the regime. 

"I feel that my generation failed to give a better lesson to younger ones."

"The result of decades of teaching by my colleagues and me led to deaths of thousands, and maybe more injured and prisoners."

Mohammad Heidari, Tehran teacher  

Iranian authorities responded with lethal force as the protests in Tehran escalated on 8 January   Wana via Reuters

 

 

Canada, Straying Far From Its Rooted Values

"When the Qatari government [blessed by Washington] allowed the Taliban to open an office in Doha this week that had the Taliban flag flying outside and signs everywhere proclaiming the office to represent the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai took the symbolism as an affront."

"For Karzai and his government, the announcement, the flags and the signs brought the enemy unwanted legitimacy. Instead of being treated as insurgents or terrorists, the Taliban got the symbols of statehood."

"Just a week earlier, Karzai had been in Doha speaking at the Brookings Institution’s annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum, clearly warning the Americans and the Qataris not to give the Taliban these symbolic victories."

Brookings Institute, June 20, 2013

Taliban security personnel stand guard as a burqa-clad woman passes by a market. AFP/Getty

 

"The terrorist [Hamas]organization’s leadership has been residing in Qatar for over a decade. It has enjoyed a life of luxury and privilege while there."

"Visiting Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, and other countries, those top Hamas officials have been able to fly around the Middle East. They felt safe and secure, even when they cheered the October 7 massacre on, watching Israelis being slaughtered."

"They watched as the Bibas family was carted off to Gaza; they celebrated as they viewed videos of the massacre of young people at the Nova music festival."

Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post  

Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya sits at a mourning house for assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, August 2, 2024. (photo credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

 

A Muslim country founded in 1971, Qatar is a monarchy ruled by Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who ascended to the throne in 2013 after his father abdicated his position. Qatar drew attention from around the world when it became an economic success through the discovery of natural gas fields. 

• Qatar has a critical relationship with the United States
• Qatar finances terrorism around the world
• Qatar is also the deal broker in the Middle East

 Qatar maintains a relationship with terrorists, demonstrated by a permissive legal jurisdiction that allows terror financiers to operate in the state and the close connections Qatar has historically held with such illicit channeling of funds. Aside from financing Hamas, Qatar’s alleged support of regional terrorist networks, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, has long been problematic. In 2003, Congress was alerted to several charities in Qatar supporting al-Qaeda. Since then, Qatar has been accused of not only providing refuge to terrorism financiers but also of directly funding terrorist groups.

Mid East Journal  

 

 

Interesting, is it not? Qatar elevating the Taliban -- long before it helped engineer an escape route for the United States out of the quagmire of Afghanistan, enabling the Taliban to return as the repressive regime that tormented its people with its totalitarian Islamist rule in 2021 -- as a 'state-in-waiting'. Much as it and the United Nations and indeed the Western world has been fairly unanimous in elevating 'Palestine' to the status of a state-in-waiting with the recognition of its nascent status, despite the Palestinian leadership refusing to recognize the right of Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

 

Spain, Ireland, France, the United Kingdom and Canada, all anxious to demonstrate their progressive credentials, condemning Israel for its assaults on Hamas in Gaza where the full-scale conflict initiated by the Palestinian terrorist gangs of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and ordinary Palestinian civilians flooding over the border from Gaza into southern Israel to launch a frenzy of mass rape, mutilation, murder and bloodshed on a genocidal scale, followed by abductions of children, families, women, foreign farm workers and IDF sentries into Gaza was answered as any country would, by a drive to destroy the terrorists' leadership, weapons caches and endless tunnels.

 

Qatar -- the backbone of the Muslim Brotherhood, financial saviour of Hamas, whose vast energy resources translate as wealth enabling it to buy an invested presence in the West, disarming suspicions of Islamists as threats to Western civilization -- has presented itself as a trusted interlocutor between democratic nations and the totalitarianism of Islamist jihad. It is as though an evil spell has been cast on those nations of the West whose leaders have allowed themselves to be mesmerized by wealth and assurances of innocently compatible relations.

 

Protesters marched over Westminster Bridge towards Whitehall   Getty Images

 

Canada's current Liberal prime minister, who has shunned and discarded Canada's traditional recognition of Israel as a democratic ally playing follow-the-leader with Britain, France and Australia, casts Israel and its Prime Minister as the villain in an existential battle against the forces of violent terrorism. To Mark Carney, as with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Anthony Albanese, the Palestinians 'deserve' to have a state of their own, alongside that of Israel. Despite that the Palestinian leadership has continually refused all offers of negotiation between it and Israel to that end.

 

While a massive resurgence of antisemitism has wrought havoc throughout the West with the most recent infiltration of Muslim immigrants, refugees and migrants in organized marches seeking to delegitimize Israel, accusing it of genocide against the Palestinians, threatening the Jewish diaspora that has lived for a millennia throughout Europe, creating chaos in the countries that have amassed a sizeable Muslim presence, few governments have taken steps to protect their Jewish communities, much less put a stop to events of public displays of hatred and threats against their minority Jews.

 

Canada being a case in point, where for over two years, rampant antisemitism has been on display in all cities of the nation, with municipalities, provinces and the federal government sitting back unresponsive to their duty enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteeing respect, security and freedoms to all citizens without exception. The example led by the federal Liberal party has been echoed down the chain of public policy; denounce antisemitism, while linking it to the crime of Islamophobia.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with President of China Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

 

In prime minister Carney's search to replace Canada's traditional trading partner under the stress of Donald Trump's egregious tariff wars imposed upon allies and enemies alike, he has taken himself to Beijing -- a repressive regime whose own global trade policies are rapacious and politically and socially abusive, to soften the enmity between Canada and China that has resulted when the Chinese Communist Party's penchant for bullying, stealth capture of government and private enterprise security and trade secrets have become too bitter to ignore -- to end up obsequiously grovelling to re-open favourable trade corridors for Canadian raw products.

 

Mr. Carney's zest for prostrating himself before human-rights-abusing states, those whose none-too-secretive advances meant to impede or outright destroy Western values, social cohesion, security and future prospects for peace and intellectual and economic advancement, has taken him further, to that most obvious of civilizational-destroying places, Qatar. Any self-respecting leader of any Western nation has but to look at their own nation's intelligence security reports' descriptions of Qatar to fully comprehend what it represents.

 

But that hasn't deterred Mr. Carney from making his mid-January trip to Doha, to appeal to its leader the emir, for a strong economic link, since they have so much to share: scientific advances, technology, agricultural best practises -- on Canada's part, investments in Canadian natural resources and production facilities presumably -- on Qatar's part. The property management colossus that Mr. Carney previously was associated with as its vice-chairman has inked a $20-billion AI investment scheme, paving the way for Canada's federal government to launch a bilateral agreement with Qatar.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, is greeted by Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, centre, as he arrives in Doha on Jan. 18. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

 

This is Canada -- bereft of confidence in itself as a decent, human-rights-supporting, modern nation that takes pride in its traditional principles -- in allying itself with other states sharing the same values. Integrity of purpose, pride in heritage, history and culture and the decency of the social contract have gone by the wayside in favour of catering to the very countries whose aspirations are the destruction of Canada as a beacon of freedom and equality, upholding global peace and security, offering friendship to those who deserve it, and reserved distance from those who do not.

 

Lest We Forget

 

 

June 12, 2942: Jewish babies, children, and elderly of Khmel'nik, Ukraine, are shot in a nearby forest.

 

June 13, 1942: Three thousand Jews are deported from the Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia camp/ghetto to their deaths. 

British Ambassador to the Vatican Frances d'Arcy Osborne observes about Pope Pius XII that his 'moral leadership is not assured by the unapplied recital of the Commandments'. 

 

June 14, 1942: Two thousand Jews break out of Dzisna, Belorussia.

 

June 15, 1942: Authorities in Riga, Latvia request a second gassing van.

Charge d'affaires in the Vatican, Harold Tittmann, reports to the State Department that Pope Pius XII is adopting 'an ostrich-like policy towards atrocities that were obvious to everyone'. 

 

June 18, 1942: Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, British-trained Czech partisans who mortally wounded Reinhard Heydrich on May 27, are discovered with several other partisans inside Prague's Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church. The church is besieged by German troops and SS. All partisans perish.

 

June 19, 1942: Jews revolt at Glebokie, Belorussia: 2500 are murdered in the Borek Forest.

 

 

 

Spain and the Holocaust: The fall of France in 1940 unleashed a flood of refugees seeking entry into Spain. Initially, the Spanish government willingly granted transit visas, but then authorities became more hesitant to open frontiers. Still, many refugees slipped across the northern border illegally, trekking over hazardous mountain routes. By the summer of 1942, Jewish aid organizations helped an estimated 7500 pass through Spain to continue their journeys.

Spanish authorities worked to discourage refugees from remaining in the country, and established internment camps for those who did. When border crossings increased again in 1943, refugees were permitted to live in Spanish cities. 

Franco frustrated the SS by declaring descendants of Sephardic Jews eligible for Spanish citizenship, and thus entitled to asylum in Spanish embassies. Spain consequently became a main avenue of escape for Europe's Jews. Some hoped to find asylum within the country, but most intended to embark from Spanish ports for sanctuary overseas. 

 

November 5, 1942: An SS man in Ciechanow, Poland, politely asks a Jewish woman to hand him her baby. When she complies the trooper smashes the baby to the street headfirst, killing it.

Jewish men from Stopnica, Poland, are sent to a slave-labor camp at Skarzysko0Kamienna, while 400 old people and children are shot in the town cemetery.

Three thousand others are put on a forced march: many are shot along the way, and survivors are sent to Treblinka.

Peasants in Siedliszcze, Poland, gather scythes in anticipation of the day's roundup of Jews, for which they'll be paid for each Jew caught.

Six hundred Jews from Borislav, Poland, are deported naked to prevent resistance.

745 Jews, including 35 residents of the Rothschild Old Age Home, are deported from Paris to Auschwitz. After arrival, Jews awaiting entry into the gas chamber spy a truck loaded with corpses but continue on to their deaths.

 

August 7, 1943: The last trainload of Jews from Salonika, Greece, leaves for Auschwitz with 1800 detainees. Most will be killed at the camp. By this date, most of Salonika's prewar Jewish population estimated at 56,000 has been murdered.

 

December 1945: Antisemitic Poles murder 11 Jews in the town of Kosow-Lacki, Poland, which is located less than six miles from the site of the Treblinka extermination camp.

Oliver Cox, an American sociologist, concludes that Christians in the United States regard the Jew as 'our irreconcilable enemy within the gates, the antithesis of our God, the disturber of our way of life and of our social aspirations'. 

 

1945-1950: Between 250,000 and 300,000 Jews survive German concentration-camp incarceration. About six million Jews have perished. About 1.5 million nonincarcerated European Jews also survive. During this period, Jews emigrate from Europe en masse; 142,000 to Palestine/Israel; 72,000 to the U.S.; 16,000 to Canada, 8000 to Belgium; and about 10,000 to other countries.

Reactions of governments to the illegal, 1945-47 emigrations vary; the Soviets are mainly disinterested; Great Britain, irrationally jealous of its Palestine Mandate remains fiercely negative; the U.S. armed forces, mindful that pro-Jewish sentiment is taking hold at home, allow the illegal emigration to go forward unhindered. 

 

 

 

"There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world." Winston Churchill 

 

"Yet we, the survivors, are not only responsible toward the dead, but also toward the coming generations: We must pass on our experiences to them so that they might learn from them. Information is resistance"

"It is not enough to preserve everything in books, because a book can by contrast to a person not be interrogated. A witness must be a “living” witness. This is why I always admonished at survivors meetings at which I spoke: “You have children, you have grandchildren, your neighbours have children – you must speak with them. You must tell them everything that you experienced, and provoke their questions, so that they can in turn tell of these experiences. It is only in verbal narration that memory stays alive.”"   Simon Wiesenthal 

 

 

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