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In WWII, Canada Kept Jewish "Enemy Aliens" in Barbed Wire Camps
(Times of Israel) Julie Masis - Sherbrooke, Quebec, two hours east of Montreal, was the site of a camp where German and Austrian Jews were held as prisoners during World War II. In 1940, biochemist Reinhart Pariser was a student in his 20s at the University of Cambridge in England when one day police knocked on his door and gave him 10 minutes to pack. He was put on a boat crammed with German Jews and German Nazis - both labeled by the British as "enemy aliens." Some boats went to Australia, others to Canada. In Canada, Reinhart looked out of the window of the train and saw signs that read, "No dogs or Jews allowed." In Sherbrooke's Camp N, the men were housed in an old train repair yard. It was cold. There was one water faucet for 900 people, and only nine toilets. The men wore uniforms with a big circle on the back that looked like a target. There was barbed wire and watch towers. One prisoner lost his nerve and ran for the fence. The guards shot him. About a year later, Reinhart was released. He went back to England and joined the war effort. But other men spent years locked up. Many prisoners went on to become extremely successful. Walter Kohn and Max Perutz received Nobel prizes in chemistry. Walter Homburger became the director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. "This small group of refugees and the enormous contributions they made is an example of what could have happened if the world had opened its doors to Jews trying to escape the Holocaust," said Paula Draper, a historian who wrote her PhD thesis on the Canadian internment camps for German, Austrian, and Italian Jews during the war. "They were kept interned because the Canadian government knew they were Jews and didn't want them in the country." Still, she said, most of the former internees are not bitter because, after all, they survived the Holocaust.