Holocaust survivors in Canada : exclusion, inclusion, transformation, 1947-1955 /

Goldberg's model study, revised from a PhD at Clark University, chronicles in illuminating detail the experiences of some 40,000 Jews, most of them Holocaust survivors, who migrated to Canada between 1933 and 1955. Her book fills a vacuum between None Is Too Many (CH, Jan'84) by Irving Abella and Harold Troper, which examines Canadian immigration policy, and Delayed Impact (CH, Apr'01, 38-4639) by Frank Bialystok, which shows how survivors shaped Holocaust memory. Goldberg (education director, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre) focuses on the immigrants themselves: their challenges, interactions with social workers, and efforts to find work and build families. In contrast to students of Holocaust survivors in the US, who generally portray them as a monolithic group, the author carefully attends to gender and devotes separate chapters to adults, war orphans, child survivors, Hasidim, atheists, and converts, as well as those who arrived later as transmigrants from Israel and other lands. The chapter entitled "Keeping the Faith" is particularly fresh and significant. While Goldberg overlooks Yiddish sources and pays little attention to the Yiddish community so ably described by David Roskies in A Bridge of Longing (CH, Nov'95, 33-1357) as well by as other writers, her research is otherwise comprehensive and her writing straightforward and readable. A valuable contribution to Holocaust studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University