Kanada

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Based on events experienced by her parents, Wiseman’s Kanada, a
prequel to No One Must Know (2004), returns to a theme she explored in
My Canary Yellow Star (2001)—the treatment of Hungarian Jews during
World War II. Narrated episodically by 14-year-old Jutka, the book’s
action occurs between Sunday, February 13, 1944, and Friday, August 9,
1946. The story has three parts.

Part 1, “Limbo,” deals with the months up to June 30, 1944, as
conditions for the Jews in Pбpa, Hungary, worsen. After being required
to live in a ghetto, the community’s Jewish population is deported.
Part 2, appropriately titled “Hell,” begins on June 30, 1944, as
Jutka, her mother, and grandmother are herded into cattle cars bound for
Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, where Jutka’s mother and grandmother are
immediately sent to the gas chambers. This segment’s horrors conclude
on Saturday, May 5, 1945, when American troops liberate Mauthausen, a
concentration camp in Austria. The final section, bearing the ironic
heading “Paradise,” commences on Sunday, May 6, 1945. Jutka, having
learned she is her family’s sole survivor, cannot return to Hungary
because of lingering anti-Semitism and must instead live in a displaced
persons camp.

The book’s title has a twofold meaning. A pre-ghetto food package
Jutka received from a Canadian cousin included an illustrated book about
Canada, and Jutka dreamed of emigrating to this wonderful land. In
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Kanada was the name given to the area where the new
arrivals’ confiscated possessions were sorted and stored. Ultimately,
Jutka must choose between going to Eretz Israel with a love interest or
following her Canadian dream. This well-written story is highly
recommended.