#Prayer for d day remembrance series#

Some 280 Jewish Canadian women also served in uniform. Similar to their non-Jewish countrymen, about 39 to 40 percent of eligible Jewish men enlisted. More than one million Canadians served on land, at sea and in the air during the Second World War. This extract is provided courtesy of the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives, which holds the copyright for this volume. While most would serve in our country's military, men like William Nelson (an ace pilot in Britain's Royal Air Force) and Robert Mirvish (a radio officer in the United States Merchant Marine) joined the forces of other Allied countries.įlight Lieutenant William Henry Nelson is honoured in this illustrated article. This connection meant the call to serve felt by many Jewish Canadians could be very personal. With relatives often living in occupied Europe, the distant war did not seem as far away as it might have for other Canadians. There were also other, less public, pressures to enlist. Ultimately there were three editions of this unique publication, with each issue containing eight pages of exciting stories that shone a well-deserved spotlight on the heroism of Jewish service members who were fighting with the Allied forces.

#Prayer for d day remembrance series#

In 19, it even released a series of comic books called Jewish War Heroes, which were hoped would hold special appeal to boys and young men.

The Canadian Jewish Congress, an influential advocacy group that would be active in our country for nearly a century, established its own recruiting offices in Toronto and Montréal and also publicized accounts of heroic Jewish service on the field of battle. They employed a variety of strategies, from public and private exhortations to creative media outreach efforts. Many Jewish religious and political leaders in Canada encouraged young members of their community to serve in uniform during the Second World War. Besides, as a Jew, I had a special score to settle with the Nazis.' Ben Dunkelman of Toronto, who would rise to the rank of major in the Queen's Own Rifles and came ashore at Juno Beach on D-Day, no doubt spoke for many Jews when he said, 'It was quite clear to me that, as a loyal Canadian, it was my duty to volunteer to fight.

This meant there were often close connections to their old homelands-countries that were now squarely in the crosshairs of the Nazi regime that was sweeping across Europe. With the outbreak of the Second World War, this virulent racism would soon escalate into the nightmare of the Holocaust.Īt the time of the Second World War, many Jewish families in our country had emigrated from Europe just a generation or two earlier-and indeed a considerable number of Jewish Canadians had actually been born overseas. Under the odious leadership of dictator Adolf Hitler, Germany had enacted many anti-Semitic policies that cruelly restricted the rights of Jewish people.

In addition to their loyalty to king and country, they had an intensely personal motivation to pick up arms to help defeat the Nazi regime. The Second World War erupted in September 1939 and by the time it finally came to an end in August 1945, its fighting had raged across bloody battlefields, on unforgiving seas and in dangerous skies around the globe for more than six years.Īs Nazi Germany invaded and occupied neighbouring countries in Europe during the opening phases of the conflict, it soon became apparent that only a massive international effort could defeat the powerful enemy war machine.Īs part of a great national mobilization in Canada, many members of our country's Jewish community heeded the call to serve. The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment soldier was killed on July 25, 1943, during the assault on the town of Nissoria. Headstone of Private Issie Bell of Montréal in the Agira Canadian War Cemetery in Sicily.