Page 26 - Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations

Anne Frank was one of those “charming children” who could have been saved by the passage of this bill.
F.C. Blair, Canada’s Minister of Immigration at the time, said that Jews trying to enter Canada reminded him of his father’s farm during feeding time, with all the hogs trying to get into the trough at the same time.
After WWII ended, and the full extent of the tragedy visited upon European Jewry was known to all, a senior Canadian immigration official was asked about how many Jews would be considered for entry into Canada. His now infamous response? “None is too many.”
The Holocaust that took place in Nazi-occupied Europe was, for the most part, initiated and implemented by Nazi Germany. Yet the Holocaust was also enabled by the active collaboration of local European populations and the callous indifference of Western countries.
JUST LIKE ME
Those victims of man’s hatred
were children just like me Those who once had normal lives
were children just like me
Those one and a half million innocent souls
were children just like me Yes, those children of the Holocaust
were children just like me
And you, who killed my neighbors, my friends and my family
You too, were children just like me
—Jody Kasner, 16, March of the Living, 1990 (excerpted)
18