Blatant Injustice: The Story of a Jewish Refugee from Nazi Germany Imprisoned in Britain and Canada During World War II

J.L. Granatstein, Distinguished Research Professor of History Emeritus,
York University, served as Director of the Canadian War Museum from 1998
to 2000. His latest works are Who Killed Canadian History?, Who Killed
the Canadian Military, and Hell’s Cor

During the early stages of World War II, Britain interned Germans living
there. Some deserved to have been locked up, but many were refugees from
the Nazis who wanted only to fight against Hitler. Many of them,
including some German prisoners of war, were shipped to Canada and
initially put into internment camps, with refugees, Nazis, and POWs
mingled together. Making matters worse, the Canadian authorities did not
readily differentiate among the “enemy aliens,” and some of the Army
guards assigned to the camps were blatantly anti-Semitic.

Walter Igersheimer, later a distinguished psychiatrist, was a young man
when he went through the humiliation of internment. This book, written
after he managed to be set free and go to Cuba, is his account of his
reaction to the events he saw. There is much rage and frustration,
understandably enough, but there are also long recreated conversations
that do not ring wholly true. Igersheimer’s story is not strengthened
by the weak introduction to the book provided by Ian Darragh, a family
friend. Darragh confuses internees with POWs, and he accuses bureaucrats
and ministers of anti-Semitism with a very broad, inaccurate brush. In
other words, this is an interesting, useful account but one that needs
to be carefully weighed.