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‘A score to settle with Hitler’: Ellin brings the story of Canada’s 17,000 Jewish WWII servicemen to the Royal Canadian Military Institute

Royal Canadian Military Institute 426 University Avenue, Toronto

When most people think about Jews and the Second World War, they think about the victims of the Holocaust. But now a new book by Canadian journalist Ellin Bessner tells the untold story of how and why more than 17,000 Canadian Jews put on a uniform and served in the war, as the liberators. And how Canada's tiny Jewish community mobilized men, money, and equipment to win the war.

Ellin speaks to Rose Reisman’s monthly lecture series ‘Rosebuds’ in Toronto, on Monday Nov. 18, 2019

Contact organizer for address Toronto, Canada

Although the Second World War was a man’s war, and 17,000 Canadian Jewish men served, a tiny but important group of 270 Canadian Jewish women dared to overcome their family and community’s disapproval, the lower pay, and sexual harassment, and joined the Canadian forces after 1941. That is when the government allowed women to enlist. They served in many jobs at home, and behind the front lines, overseas.

For International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Congregation Habonim of Toronto Jan. 24, 2020

Congregation Habonim 5 Glen Park Avenue, Toronto, Canada

On the eve of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, journalist and author Ellin Bessner will bring the story of the Canadian Jewish military personnel who fought for Canada in WWII, helped defeat Hitler, and rescued the survivors of the Holocaust. Bessner's new book "Double Threat", published by the University of Toronto, tells the story of these 17,000 Canadians of Jewish faith who were serving not only for King and Country, but also on a sacred mission to try to save the Jewish people of Europe. They faced great personal risk, and tremendous antisemitism at home, and on the battlefield. As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, Ellin will speak about the Jewish Canadian private from Montreal who arrest the “Beast of Belsen”, and the Jewish airman from Toronto who took the Belsen orphans on picnics, as well the lasting impact on the mental health of these Canadian soldiers after their encounters with Hitler’s Final Solution.

Ellin speaks at the Lodzer Congregation + the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research Toronto branch March 4, 2020

Lodzer Centre 12 Heaton, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

On the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII, and the Liberation of Holland and other parts of occupied Europe, Ellin Bessner will share stories of how Canada’s fighting Jewish men in uniform acted with great compassion to rescue the survivors as the soldiers came face to face with the truth about the horrors of the Final Solution

Copyright © Ellin Bessner