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None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948
One of the most significant studies of Canadian history ever written, None Is Too Many conclusively lays to rest the comfortable notion that Canada has always been an accepting and welcoming society. Detailing the country's refusal to offer aid, let alone sanctuary, to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1948, it is an immensely bleak and discomfiting story - and one that was largely unknown before the book's publication.
Irving Abella and Harold Troper's retelling of this episode is a harrowing read not easily forgotten: its power is such that, 'a manuscript copy helped convince Ron Atkey, Minister of Employment and Immigration in Joe Clark's government, to grant 50,000 "boat people" asylum in Canada in 1979, during the Southeast Asian refugee crisis' (Robin Roger, The Literary Review of Canada). None Is Too Many will undoubtedly continue to serve as a potent reminder of the fragility of tolerance, even in a country where it is held as one of our highest values.
Irving Abella and Harold Troper's retelling of this episode is a harrowing read not easily forgotten: its power is such that, 'a manuscript copy helped convince Ron Atkey, Minister of Employment and Immigration in Joe Clark's government, to grant 50,000 "boat people" asylum in Canada in 1979, during the Southeast Asian refugee crisis' (Robin Roger, The Literary Review of Canada). None Is Too Many will undoubtedly continue to serve as a potent reminder of the fragility of tolerance, even in a country where it is held as one of our highest values.
375 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 26, 2017
The Jews of Europe were not so much trapped in a whirlwind of systemic murder as they were abandoned to it. The Nazis planned and executed the Holocaust, but it was made possible by an indifference to the suffering of the victims that sometimes bordered on contempt.
What a lot of hard facts there are in None Is Too Many. As a nation of immigrants, Canada might have had our own Statue of Liberty; some beacon of hope announcing, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"…unless we're talking about Jews. As early as 1933, argue Irving Abella and Harold Troper, European Jews could see what was in the air, and desperately reaching out to Canadian relatives, begged them to be their sponsors. But Immigration Canada had a nifty Catch-22 set in place (ostensibly to protect the Canadian workforce during the Depression): Jews could only apply to immigrate as farmers -- to populate the vast empty spaces in the Prairies -- but even if they had the assets and the experience to buy and operate farms, their applications were rejected because everyone knows that Jews don't farm and would just migrate to Toronto and Montreal like the rest of them and upset racial balance. This policy was in place as Hitler's power grew, as the Jews were ghettoized, outlasting kristallnacht and even the eyewitness reports coming back from Auschwitz and Treblinka.
Prime Minister Mackenzie King seemed sympathetic throughout these years, but the virulent anti-Semitism of what the authors refer to as the "unholy triumvirate" of the Immigration Branch, the Cabinet, and External Affairs used bureaucratic red-tape to prevent refugees in general, and Jews in particular, from finding protection here throughout WWII. In Quebec, Maurice Duplessis used a mere proposal to admit some hundreds of refugees into Canada to inflame the province into electing his isolationist government into power (plus ça change…) Frantic Canadian Jews formed lobbying groups, trying to stir up public sympathy, but were repeatedly told that keeping refugees out was for their own protection; to shield them from the anti-Semitism of the Gentile masses. They were told to remain quiet and patient, to trust in the working of the government, and being powerless, they did.
Even after the war was over, as hundreds of thousands of Displaced Persons languished in holding camps, the Canadian government dragged its feet over changing its immigration policies. Eventually, C. D. Howe persuaded Cabinet that an economic boom was imminent if Canada could attract a larger workforce, and selection committees were sent to Europe to find "the right kinds" of immigrants. Despite the special horrors that the Jews had been subjected to, Canada didn't prefer them as refugees since everyone knows the men aren't fit for mining or lumber work (the main labour force needs) and the women would likely refuse to work as domestics or nurses (despite having done that work previously in Europe). Even when the Jewish aid groups lobbied to allow in skilled tailors and furriers (guaranteeing them employment and offering to pay all processing and transportation costs) the government only agreed to a strict quota, not to exceed 50% Jewish. This process dragged on until Britain handed Palestine over to the United Nations and the state of Israel was created. Jewish interest in immigrating to Canada faded, and Canada patted itself on the back, having admitted a whopping 8000 Jews from 1933-48.
This book has a slightly angry tone -- which might have rubbed off on me -- but it's a lot to be angry about, and especially because this isn't the history that we're taught in school. By the end, the authors have done a good job of explaining the prevailing attitudes and customs that could allow for this official indifference, and point out only three villains -- Thomas Crerar, Frederick Charles Blair, and Vincent Massey -- but, as it turns out, it only took these three obstructionists to condemn untold numbers of Jews to their fates.
It was also interesting to learn here that a manuscript copy of this book was given to Joe Clark's government in 1979 and helped to convince them to admit 50000 "Boat People" from Vietnam.
November 28, 2019
This book is a horrifying account of how tens of thousands of desperate persons were denied refuge in Canada and mostly perished in Hitler's death camps, due to widespread, institutional anti-Semitism. In particular it spotlights government policies and bureaucratic procedures designed to make it practically impossible for Jewish immigrants or refugees to enter Canada. The devil is in the details, they say, and the authors go deep into the details of how cowardly or racist politicians and bigoted civil servants used every dodge, stall or catch at their disposal to prevent Jewish applicants no matter how qualified (or, often, over-qualified) from being admitted. The chief villain in in the piece is Fredrick Charles Blair, director of Canada's Immigration Branch from the mid 1930's until 1943, the advent of the Holocaust. No matter the case put before him, Blair simply put on his bureaucrat's blinkers and stood by the rigid application of the rules ( most of which, the book points out, he wrote himself). The authors unearth correspondence that make Blair's personal anti-Semitism clear, such as his comments on how Jewish "unpopularity" and their "certain habits" are responsible for their persecution. It's clearly pointed out, however, that Blair could not have operated without the blessings of his political masters, and how, while there "were no votes to be won" by saving Jews, there "were many to be lost." The book is fair in describing the pressures on the politicians of the day, notably Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon McKenzie-King: the high unemployment and economic hardships of the depression, the Nationalist sentiment from Quebec, and the everyday anti-Semitism of many Canadians of that era. But how these Christian and civilized men (as they all considered themselves) could ignore the horrors coming out of Europe and of which, the authors prove, they were well aware, only leads to the conclusion of a fundamental and deep rooted prejudice.
This is one of those infrequent books of scholarship and research ('Silent Spring,' 'Unsafe at Any Speed') that had an immediate impact on public policy. Even in manuscript form it was, as recounted by the authors, instrumental in generating a charitable approach to the Vietnamese (ethnic Chinese) "Boat People" refugee movement of the 1970's. It's relevance is evident in how it continues to be cited in the ongoing debate over immigration and refugee policy.
While it can be fairly argued that it wasn't in the book's scope. I personally felt the authors owed their readers a more detailed examination of anti-Semitism in Canada. They seem to adopt the position that it simply existed and that it was everywhere. It was neither natural or simple, nor was it universal. There are repeated references to the anti-Semitic sentiment in Quebec. That it was real, there is no doubt. To understand it , though, it is necessary to consider the policies of the British colonial and later Canadian governments towards Quebec, which favoured assimilation (much as their policies towards Jewish and other non- Anglo Saxon immigrants did). Quebec's struggle to maintain it's language, religion and culture informed its xenophobia and, it can be argued, does so to this day. The book touches upon the 19th century immigration policy for the peopling of western Canada, especially how it encouraged agricultural settlers from eastern Europe and the Ukraine but it ignores the inherent anti-Semitism this policy engendered. There's no mention of the extensive Canadian propaganda campaigns of groups like the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's, that were not targeted at Afro-Americans but against Roman Catholics (French Canadians) and Jews. The book mentions but essentially dismisses the progressive non-Jewish elements of Canadian society: the left; labour; the clergy; academia and everyday people, as ineffective when it came to saving Jews during the Holocaust. That is evidently true, but it doesn't negate their decades of effort, before and after, in fighting racism and bringing about a more equitable society, culminating in the adoption of Multiculturalism as official Canadian policy and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which is briefly mentioned in the revised edition of the book). To be fair, in the notes are references to other books that presumably deal with these issues in some depth.
Three decades after its release "None Are Too Many" is still a book to make any thoughtful Canadian uncomfortable and ashamed and should be read by every Canadian.
This is one of those infrequent books of scholarship and research ('Silent Spring,' 'Unsafe at Any Speed') that had an immediate impact on public policy. Even in manuscript form it was, as recounted by the authors, instrumental in generating a charitable approach to the Vietnamese (ethnic Chinese) "Boat People" refugee movement of the 1970's. It's relevance is evident in how it continues to be cited in the ongoing debate over immigration and refugee policy.
While it can be fairly argued that it wasn't in the book's scope. I personally felt the authors owed their readers a more detailed examination of anti-Semitism in Canada. They seem to adopt the position that it simply existed and that it was everywhere. It was neither natural or simple, nor was it universal. There are repeated references to the anti-Semitic sentiment in Quebec. That it was real, there is no doubt. To understand it , though, it is necessary to consider the policies of the British colonial and later Canadian governments towards Quebec, which favoured assimilation (much as their policies towards Jewish and other non- Anglo Saxon immigrants did). Quebec's struggle to maintain it's language, religion and culture informed its xenophobia and, it can be argued, does so to this day. The book touches upon the 19th century immigration policy for the peopling of western Canada, especially how it encouraged agricultural settlers from eastern Europe and the Ukraine but it ignores the inherent anti-Semitism this policy engendered. There's no mention of the extensive Canadian propaganda campaigns of groups like the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's, that were not targeted at Afro-Americans but against Roman Catholics (French Canadians) and Jews. The book mentions but essentially dismisses the progressive non-Jewish elements of Canadian society: the left; labour; the clergy; academia and everyday people, as ineffective when it came to saving Jews during the Holocaust. That is evidently true, but it doesn't negate their decades of effort, before and after, in fighting racism and bringing about a more equitable society, culminating in the adoption of Multiculturalism as official Canadian policy and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which is briefly mentioned in the revised edition of the book). To be fair, in the notes are references to other books that presumably deal with these issues in some depth.
Three decades after its release "None Are Too Many" is still a book to make any thoughtful Canadian uncomfortable and ashamed and should be read by every Canadian.
August 26, 2022
None is Too Many (2012), originally published in 1982, documents Canada’s treatment of European Jewish refugees before and slightly after the Second World War. Canada’s immigration policy during the Great Depression consisted of strict rules that limited all immigration but specifically Jewish people attempting to flee the increasingly persecutory environment of 1930s Germany and the surrounding area. Indeed, Canada’s immigration department and federal officials mirrored the apathy and engaging in anti-Semitic tropes that the majority of non-Jewish Canadians held. The issue was a poignant one for Quebec and made any sorrows felt towards the Jewish population, for example after Kristallnacht, by Mackenzie King difficult to act on politically without creating division. While Jewish children in France and other parts of Europe required asylum, Canada acted with indifference and failed to save many of the children, instead focusing attention on British children fleeing the air raids and potential invasion by the Nazis. While Canadian Jewish groups, urged on by increasingly horrifying information conveyed in letters from extended family in Europe, pressed Canadian officials at the end of the day “they were not an important part of the domestic power equation” (p. 283). Even at the end of the war, Canada did little to help resettle Jewish families who lost everything in the war. Indeed, in the eyes of Canadian officials and the public even with news of the death camps after the war Jews had been so thoroughly othered that there existed little pressure to open immigration, especially when the emphasis was on non-Jewish European refugees. Abella and Troper powerfully demonstrate that anti-Semitism found a comfortable place within Canadian policy-making, and the Canadian identity as a whole, resulting in inaction, and sometimes purposeful and harmful actions such as in the St. Louis incident. While Canadians fought the Nazis abroad and with the support of the home front there was a clear contradiction in what they were fighting for. As this book exposes, Canada’s welcoming identity was, and remains, conditional.
February 19, 2017
I'm bad at reviews but I wanted to say something.
I think this is the first time in my 24 years on this Earth that a book has made me cry. Originally, I picked it up because I wanted to learn more about an issue I had heard about previously but never really looked into. I'm glad I did.
There's a lot to learn here about Canada's very sorry history, political activism, and the chilling depths of our own apathy towards others. It's an important book and it's hard to read but it's one that I think every Canadian should read at some point.
I think this is the first time in my 24 years on this Earth that a book has made me cry. Originally, I picked it up because I wanted to learn more about an issue I had heard about previously but never really looked into. I'm glad I did.
There's a lot to learn here about Canada's very sorry history, political activism, and the chilling depths of our own apathy towards others. It's an important book and it's hard to read but it's one that I think every Canadian should read at some point.
May 25, 2021
None Is Too Many was instrumental in opening up Canada's gates to vast numbers of desperate Vietnamese forced out into the rough, pirate-infested waters of the South China Sea in the late 1970s. The Canadian minister of immigration at the time, Ron Atkey, later told us that in the midst of the crisis, while he was being pressured by some to allow the refugees in and by many others to keep them out, he received an advance copy of some chapters of the book. These, he said, emboldened him not to behave in the same callous way a previous government had rebuffed European Jews. His courageous decision opened up Canada's doors to tens of thousands of valuable new citizens.
And 30 years later, that is our hope – that never again at any time for anyone, should none be too many.
Irving Abella is the Shiff Professor of Canadian Jewish History at York University.
And 30 years later, that is our hope – that never again at any time for anyone, should none be too many.
Irving Abella is the Shiff Professor of Canadian Jewish History at York University.
November 27, 2019
Fascinating, but very hard reading. It's not the kind of book that I would just pick up and read for fun - I was doing some research for a presentation on one aspect of the Holocaust (the story of the ship the MS St Louis), and I found some excellent material for my presentation. But the very sad story of Canada's record of antisemitism throughout the 1930s and 1940s was difficult to read.
July 9, 2021
No way Canada wanted Jews to arrive on its shores. Jews were undesirable. Canada preferred “civility over survival.��� Canada felt that whomever they had let in after World War I was quite enough, as not to further disturb their German, British, Scottish, French, Irish, northern European population. Proclamations, meetings, waiting for results, more proclamations, more meetings, refusal after refusals. Canada wouldn't take Jews fleeing from Germany and Austria, as they were from enemy countries. Canada wouldn't take Jews trying to flee Europe without a home country - Jews were stripped of citizenship. Canada wouldn't take in emergency groups because it would have set a bad precedent, making others believe that they too could get in. Canada wouldn't take relatives of Canadian citizens, who deposited money in Canadian banks and were able to bring businesses to Canada - didn't want those predatory Jews who only think about business. Canada would do nothing to rescue Jews in concentrations camps. If they were already there - so be it - fewer Jews for the world. Canada stopped allowing Jews traveling with visas to go through Canada to get to their final destination. Canada would not take in refugees, displaced persons, after the war. The desirability of immigration was directly proportional to the degree with which Jews were excluded. Canada was constantly approached by the US and England, who didn't want to take in Jews, either, and hoped that Canada might not mind filling up its vast, empty land with Jews, so Canada resisted this pressure from its important friends to take in the Jews not wanted there either. All complicit in the death of millions of people by abetting Hitler’s stated intentions. The Western world was prepared to eulogize Jews, not to offer them a new home. My own perspective here, with the recent growing shrillness of anti-Semitism, the eulogy is no longer acceptable either.
June 28, 2024
Revelation of Canadian attitudes and racism before and during WWII.
This is a harrowing read for a Canadian. Our image as an immigration friendly country is severely damaged when we read an honest assessment of the behaviour of Canadians towards the Jews of the 30’s and 40’s. The racism of the Canadian public convinced our follow-along Prime Minister King to block Jewish immigration even as they were being ‘disappeared’ by the Nazis and other groups in Europe. We knew of the murders of Jews, or could have if we had wanted to, and yet we did nothing. We, Canadians, are as racist and nasty as any other group.
This is a harrowing read for a Canadian. Our image as an immigration friendly country is severely damaged when we read an honest assessment of the behaviour of Canadians towards the Jews of the 30’s and 40’s. The racism of the Canadian public convinced our follow-along Prime Minister King to block Jewish immigration even as they were being ‘disappeared’ by the Nazis and other groups in Europe. We knew of the murders of Jews, or could have if we had wanted to, and yet we did nothing. We, Canadians, are as racist and nasty as any other group.
October 12, 2023
I just read this for an assignment in my immigration class and was completely blown away. Impeccable and unflinching writing that reveals how Canada's unwillingness to help the Jews of Europe during WW2 caused so much harm. Canada is always painted in such a positive light, but the history of this country is incredibly bleak and disappointing.
January 14, 2024
This thoroughly researched book provides insight into a shameful chapter of Canadian history. The consequences of deep-seated antisemitism and heartless political decisions during WWII years sadly still have resonance today. It's a difficult but important read.
July 5, 2021
Good book, but very dry writing
September 29, 2025
Alright.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews