Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941

Ian A. Andrews is editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus and co-author of Becoming a Teacher.

Hanna Spencer (ne Fischel) is professor emerita, Department of
Languages, University of Western Ontario. In 1938 she was a young school
teacher in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia, holding a Ph.D., and
dating a rising star German composer. Being Jewish, she was prevented
from pursuing her career in Hitler’s expanding German Reich. When
increasing discrimination and anti-Semitism made regular life in
Czechoslovakia impossible, Hanna’s contacts helped her gain entry into
England as a domestic and governess. There she experienced a range of
emotions while trying to adapt to a different language and culture. She
also experienced deep frustrations while corresponding with Fred Blair,
the Director of the Immigration Branch of the Canadian government, who
commonly restricted Jewish immigration. Eventually, she was reunited
with her family in Prescott, Ontario, gaining entry into Canada as a
“skilled worker” in her uncle’s glove factory. As Hanna’s
background became known, she was invited to speak on the banquet circle,
becoming friendly with newspaper editors and influential people. Senator
Carrine Wilson was instrumental in getting her a teaching job at the
prestigious Elmwood private school for girls in Ottawa.

The strengths of Hanna’s Diary come from the contrasts Hanna draws
between a wartime Europe and the peaceful Canadian countryside. The book
leaves the reader wondering how many European Jews, like Hanna and her
family, could have been rescued from the terror of the Holocaust, if
Canada had followed a more lenient immigration policy.