Dear readers,
May I, for once, depart from my normal practice of staying away from my personal history and draw your attention to my involuntary contribution to Canadian history.
From the National Post on February 7: How Jewish ‘enemy aliens’ overcame a ‘traumatic’ stint in Canadian prison camps during the Second World War
Eric Koch
Eric Koch’s new book, New Beginnings, was launched on September 20. The book is available from 
It’s a good article and the pictures are fine, but there could have been, and should have been, a much longer list of the people interned there who contributed significantly to Canadian (and US) life and culture, in music, science, literature, art, and education. A fascinating aspect of the history is the sturdiness of most of the people who went through this experience, and how they thrived in later life. That’s the part of the story that interests me the most.
A pretty accurate portrayal of my wartime adventure!
While I have read your book, Eric, thank you again for sharing this.
Eric, I’m moved and upset. There is a lot here I didn’t know. And I’m readier to receive it than I was 30 years ago. Thanks for publishing this.
Deemed Suspect: A Wartime Blunder by Eric Koch could very well be in your local library, and can be bought new at http://www.chapters.indigo.ca or used at http://www.abebooks.com. It includes a lengthy Who’s Who appendix.
Good for Tony’s info. Of course Deemed Suspect is basic reading on the subject - with lists of internees who allowed their names to be published. Styra Avins is right in observing that the immense enrichment of Canadian life that we owe to this group of co-opted Canadians is still vastly underappreciated. The National Post article is a small but important contribution towards rectifying that lack.
I read about this story several years ago in Maclean Magazine and was delighted to find out that Eric belonged to this group.
“Deemed Suspect” is fine literature but, more important, it is an important historical document. Isn’t this a perfect time to republish it, perhaps with a new introduction by the author?
Horace, I’d say yes to a new introduction, if it suits Eric to do one from today. The original came out in 1985, 30 years ago. We may be much changed, and maybe much the same as we were. Only Eric can tell us.
I also vote for republishing, I am always surprised how little younger people know about WWII and episodes such as this one. But I must confess that when I was younger I didn’t much care about WWI even though my late father was on the Italian front on the Austro Hungarian side.