Internment camp for Jews in Second World War a little-known piece of New Brunswick history

[Behind the Aegis]

RIPPLES, N.B.—As a 15-year-old facing the threat of Nazi Germany in Austria, Fred Kaufman could barely imagine that he would soon find himself separated from his family, peering through the barbed wire fence of an internment camp deep in the woods of New Brunswick.

Internment Camp B70, located in Ripples, N.B., housed more than 700 Jews in the early months of the Second World War. More than 70 years later, it is a piece of New Brunswick history rarely spoken of and little known by many.

As the situation for Jewish families in Austria worsened in the months leading up to the war, Kaufman’s father decided to send his son to England — one of 10,000 Jewish boys taken to the United Kingdom as part of a relief effort known as the Kindertransport.

“It was a tough decision to split up the family,” Kaufman said in an interview from his home in Toronto.

But then-British prime minister Winston Churchill was worried there could be spies among the Jews, and he asked Canada and Australia to house them as internees.

more:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/08/03/internment_camp_for_jews_in_second_world_war_a_littleknown_piece_of_new_brunswick_history.html

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This was something I had never seen or heard of before! Hat tip: Mosby in the Jewish Group

[yurbud]

1. who did churchill think the jews would spy for?

[BillyRibs]

2. Their were Many Jewish enlisted men and Officers,

In the German army. Hitlers Driver was Jewish.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. So Jews coming from all over Europe were potential spies for Nazi Germany?

There were likely Jews in the German army, some probably didn't even know they were Jews as many converted and were only considered "Jews" in that they had ancestors who were Jews.

[BillyRibs]

4. easy way to slip a spy in.

Spy's weren't necessarily Jewish, They just have to play and look the part not to difficult for a spy, or a good actor. But lets face it it was war time and paranoia ran deep.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Placing refugees in an internment camp was disgusting.

How would they have spied anyway? They were fleeing another country, not getting posted to military positions. The paranoia was nothing more than anti-Semitism.

[BillyRibs]

6. I see your point, I don't agree, Let's leave it at that.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. So you agree putting refugees in internment camps was OK?

Do you feel the same about the ones set up in the US for the Japanese or do you see that as racist?

[William769]

10. Let's not leave it at that. You have some explaining to do here.

And I'll be the first one to tell you you are skating on thin ice.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. That's the exact same sort of rationale that was used to intern the Japanese on the West Coast.

Germany was going to send spies that would "look the part" of a 15 yr. old Jewish kid trying to escape being sent to Auschwitz? Really?

It's a shitty, nasty rationale, let's leave it at that.

[yurbud]

11. Did he keep that driver until the end of the war?

[LeftofObama]

8. Interesting read!

I had never heard of this place before. Thanks for posting this.

[SidDithers]

12. I'm embarrassed to say I knew nothing about this...

thanks for posting.

Sid

[Behind the Aegis]

13. I have studied the Holocause all my life, and I NEVER came across this information!

If Mosby hadn't posted this in the Jewish Group, I would likely still not know.

[SidDithers]

14. I had knows that there were POW camps located throughout Canada...

and that many of the German and Italian POWs chose to remain in Canada after the end of the war.

There was a very interesting, older retired German gentleman that I got to know when I was working at the University of Toronto. He would come in almost every day to use the library. He was a German soldier, captured very early in the war, and interned at a POW camp outside of Barrie (about an hour north of Toronto). He had nothing to go home to in 1946, so stayed, became a Canadian citizen, attended University and became an electrician.

I'm sure he's passed on by now. This was almost 20 years ago, and he was 70 or 71 back then.

Interesting guy.

Sid

[Mosby]

15. Thanks for posting this here BtA!

I always forget about Good Reads.

I ruled out GD because it would just get buried.

I had never heard about this either, I looked around and found a pic of the shirts they made them wear:

[Judi Lynn]

16. Hard to see that circle as anything other than a target.

Really creepy, actually awful.

Thank you, Mosby!

Thanks for BtA for adding it to GRs.