Blatant Injustice

This is a unique first-hand account of what it was like to be a Jewish refugee imprisoned in Britain and Canada during World War II. Its immediacy is what makes it such a valuable eyewitness account. While there are other memoirs written decades after internment, Walter W. Igersheimer wrote this memoir shortly after he was deported from Canada because the Liberal government in the 1940s did not want Jews to become Canadian citizens. Igersheimer's only "crime" was that he was Jewish.

His story begins in the 1930s after Hitler took power in Germany. After escaping from the Nazis, Igersheimer was completing his medical studies when he was caught in the panic that led to the internment of 30,000 German passport-holders living in Britain. They were imprisoned behind barbed wire and treated as enemies. Many of the Jewish refugees were then sent to prisons in Canada.

There they were subjected to grossly unsanitary living conditions, cruel and abusive treatment by camp officials and the withholding of medical treatment.

But the internees did not let the authorities crush their creativity or desire for an education. They started a free university, mounted plays, and wrote musicals. Laced with black humour, Blatant Injustice is a story of resilience and determination.

This memoir is a harrowing account of the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism in Canada during World War II. Dr. Igersheimer, who went on to become a psychiatrist, has written a stark reminder that we must be ever vigilant to protect basic human rights, especially in times of war and national emergencies.