Ian Darragh chronicles the harrowing experience of Jewish refugees from the Nazis who were deemed enemies and imprisoned in internment camps in Canada during the Second World War.

Among the interned refugees were doctors, musicians, artists, engineers, architects, scientists and two future Nobel Prize winners. Some of the Jewish internees were survivors of Buchenwald and Dachau and were dealing with severe trauma. Many were teenagers as young as 16 who had been saved from the Holocaust by the kindertransport program, only to be arrested by the British as enemy aliens. Despite facing harsh and hostile treatment in Canada, these internees demonstrated remarkable determination.

Ian Darragh will illustrate his talk with photos and artwork created by the refugees themselves. He will describe the ambitious plans to commemorate this little-known chapter in Canadian history which holds many lessons for today. After his 60-minute talk there will be a question and answer session.

Ian Darragh edited and wrote the foreword to Blatant Injustice: The Story of a Jewish Refugee from Nazi Germany Imprisoned in Britain and Canada during World War II (McGill-Queen’s University Press). He was the communications lead for the Government of Canada's Holocaust Education outreach program. He was editor-in-chief of Canadian Geographic magazine and then a feature writer for National Geographic, travelling across Canada.