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Hidden heroes: Canada’s Jewish men in uniform in WWII. Ellin speaks to the Applewood Probus Club for Remembrance Day 2020

Applewood Probus Club Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, 2500 Old Carriage Rd, Mississauga, ON L5C 1Y7, Canada, Mississaugua, Ontario, Canada

As we mark Remembrance Day and 75 years since the end of the Second World War, Toronto author and journalist Ellin Bessner brings us the story of some Canada’s hidden war heroes. 

Bessner’s book “Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and WWII” published by the University of Toronto Press -- paints a nuanced picture of how and why Canada’s tiny wartime Jewish community overcame widespread antisemitism at home and on the battlefield, to help defeat Hitler and rescue the survivors of the Holocaust. It is an important Canadian story that has not been comprehensively told before.  

Nearly 17, 000 signed up, or approximately 40 per cent of all eligible Jewish Canadian men served in uniform in the Second World War. They fought in all the major battles, from Dunkirk to D-Day, and beyond. Yet unlike their comrades, Jewish personnel faced a double threat: they served at great personal risk, should they be captured by the enemy, and their religion be uncovered.  

In Ellin’s lively interactive presentation, she’ll introduce you to some of the most high profile Canadian Jewish men and women who enlisted, including federal politicians like Barney Danson, Senators David Croll and Jack Marshall, entertainers Monty Hall, and Wayne and Shuster, and CFL football stars like Eddie Kushner of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Ellin speaks to the Mississauga South Probus Club about Canada’s Jewish fighters in WWII

Mississauga Golf and Country Club 1725 Mississauga Road,, Mississauga, Ontario, Ontario, Canada

As the world marked Remembrance Day 2020 under COVID-19, Toronto author and journalist Ellin Bessner takes us back in time to the days when Canadian troops began cleaning out the remnants of Nazi Germany’s occupation forces in Europe. During the spring of 1945, the troops were met with a joyous welcome by the Dutch people. But the Canadians also came face to face with the truth about the fate of Europe’s Jewish community, as they liberated Nazi concentration camps like Vught and Westerbork, and Bergen-Belsen.

Bessner’s new book “Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and WWII” tells the story of the 17, 000 Canadians of Jewish faith who served in WWII, helped defeat Hitler, and rescued the survivors of the Holocaust. Jewish Canadians served in all the major battles from Dunkirk to D-Day and beyond. They faced great personal risk, should they be captured by the enemy and their religion be discovered. 

Virtual Remembrance Day speech to the Probus Club Etobicoke Thursday Nov. 19, 2020

Probus Etobicoke , Canada

As the world commemorates the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and Holocaust Education Week, Canadian author and journalist Ellin Bessner comes to the Probus Club Etobicoke club to say we still have work to do to fight the rise of antisemitism in our time.

Bessner is the author of “Double Threat”, published by the University of Toronto Press, about the contribution of Canada’s tiny wartime Jewish community to defeating the Nazis. When the prime minister of the day, Mackenzie King, called the Second World War a “double threat” for Canadian Jews,  he meant that not only was freedom and democracy at risk but, so was the survival of the Jewish race from Hitler’s Final Solution. Canada’s wartime Jewish community sent over 17, 000 men and women to defeat Hitler and rescue survivors of the Holocaust.

Ellin speaks to Canadian Na’amat groups about the role of Jewish women in winning WWll

ZOOM for the Calgary Naamat group sbsacks@shaw.ca, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Ellin Bessner will take you on a fascinating journey to meet the Canadian Jewish heroines, both at home and at the front, who helped Canada win WWII. Their contributions to history have never been properly recognized.

You will “meet” Bessner’s own great-aunt, Cpl. Daisy Lazare, who served in Ottawa, along with Sgt. Miriam Freedman, who went overseas with Normandy Landings in 1944, S/O Rose Goodman, who served in Claresholm, Alberta and Pt. Esther (Bubis) Thorley, serving in Vancouver, as well as the legions of Jewish women volunteers who raised funds, packed boxes, made sandwiches and even built the bombs.

Bessner is the author of “Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and WWIl” (2019, University of Toronto Press) and a contributing author to "Northern Lights: A Canadian Jewish History" (2020, Lola Stein Institute).

Copyright © Ellin Bessner