REMEMBERANCE DAY 11/11/2022
Organization continues search to identify Indigenous veterans in unmarked graves
The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte have a long history of military service ranging from the First and Second World War to Afghanistan, but Chief Donald Maracle had always known many of the First Nation's veterans lay in unmarked graves in the community's cemeteries.
THEY ALSO FOUGHT WITH THE BRITISH
Maracle said that's because many Indigenous veterans who returned from war were not afforded the same benefits provided to other veterans, and their families often couldn't afford proper headstones commemorating their service to the Crown.
"What's important for Canadians to remember is that native people could not be conscripted into the military because they didn't have the right to vote during the First World War and Second World War, they were not seen to be British subjects," he said. "Native people volunteered in numbers disproportionate to our population."
But with some assistance from a Canada-wide organization working to identify Indigenous veterans lying in unmarked graves, eight Mohawk veterans from the Great Wars now have proper headstones marking their military service.
Maracle says the grave markers and respect are long overdue.
"Even though it is some decades later, it's better late than never," he said.
The grave markers are the product of a project led by the Last Post Fund, which launched its Indigenous Veterans' Initiative in 2019 as an effort to advance reconciliation by identifying and providing proper headstones for those lying in unmarked graves. Its other function is to provide traditional Indigenous names and cultural symbols to existing military grave markers.
Through the initiative, the organization has researched thousands of Indigenous veterans in Canada, found hundreds of their unmarked graves and provided more than 165 grave markers. But Last Post Fund's executive director Edouard Pahud said they've only scratched the surface of the issue and need First Nations to provide research, oral history and expertise on their own communities to ensure more are recognized.
"It means a lot to the families and to the communities where there is that strong relationship [with military service]. They are thrilled to see the proper recognition and commemoration," said Pahud, adding some Indigenous communities are not fully aware of their own history of members who have served.
"Indigenous veterans are as deserving as our regular veterans in terms of having a proper commemoration and proper military markers."
The Indigenous Veterans' Initiative is based on a list provided by Yann Castelnot, an amateur historian from France living in Quebec, who compiled one of the largest databases of Indigenous soldiers, including nearly 15,000 who were born in Canada.
Pahud said he never would have known many of the people on the list were Indigenous, noting several had French or religious names imposed on them during their time at residential schools or adopted new names in order to enlist in the Armed Forces.
Since many traditional military markers have specific regiments on them, the initiative's researchers went to Cree artist Jason Carter to design culturally relevant symbols, based on the Seven Sacred Teachings, that families can opt to have etched into the stones.
In order to confirm that an Indigenous veteran is in an unmarked grave, the initiative will typically reach out to an Indigenous community to gauge interest in helping conduct research. Maria Trujillo, the Last Post Fund's Indigenous program coordinator, said identifying veterans is highly dependent on research from and oral histories within First Nations communities.
"It's amazing when I mention the name of a veteran and people immediately connect them to the community," said Trujillo, adding oral histories become key when researchers can't confirm an Indigenous veteran's service records. "They know their people really well and it's helped with the research."
As a result of this collaboration with First Nations, the Last Post Fund's list of Indigenous veterans has grown through word-of-mouth, as communities help add names to veterans not on Castelnot's original list.
The initiative also tries to stir up interest by writing articles, taking out advertisements in newspapers and magazines — many of them Indigenous-focused — and attending Pow Wows. A documentary on the initiative in collaboration with Indigenous filmmakers is also in the works.
To date, the Last Post Fund has researched less than 25 per cent of the total names on their list of Indigenous veterans. Much of the research so far has focused on western provinces since the initiative's creation, and Pahud and Trujillo have opted to make Ontario a larger focus in the coming years, since Castelnot's list shows there are more than 5,000 Indigenous veterans in that province alone. So far, the initiative has researched less than 20 per cent of those veterans.
"A lot of people are surprised when I call into the community and they're like, 'I didn't even know this existed, I didn't know we had access to this,'" said Trujillo.
She said interest in the initiative has grown naturally over time, adding feedback from veterans' families and First Nations communities leave her optimistic that more will hop on board by supporting its research.
"I really think if more people know about us, we're going to get more families contacting us directly."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2022.
———
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Tyler Griffin, The Canadian Press
AGAINST THE FRENCH AND YANKEES
Maracle said that's because many Indigenous veterans who returned from war were not afforded the same benefits provided to other veterans, and their families often couldn't afford proper headstones commemorating their service to the Crown.
"What's important for Canadians to remember is that native people could not be conscripted into the military because they didn't have the right to vote during the First World War and Second World War, they were not seen to be British subjects," he said. "Native people volunteered in numbers disproportionate to our population."
But with some assistance from a Canada-wide organization working to identify Indigenous veterans lying in unmarked graves, eight Mohawk veterans from the Great Wars now have proper headstones marking their military service.
Maracle says the grave markers and respect are long overdue.
"Even though it is some decades later, it's better late than never," he said.
The grave markers are the product of a project led by the Last Post Fund, which launched its Indigenous Veterans' Initiative in 2019 as an effort to advance reconciliation by identifying and providing proper headstones for those lying in unmarked graves. Its other function is to provide traditional Indigenous names and cultural symbols to existing military grave markers.
Through the initiative, the organization has researched thousands of Indigenous veterans in Canada, found hundreds of their unmarked graves and provided more than 165 grave markers. But Last Post Fund's executive director Edouard Pahud said they've only scratched the surface of the issue and need First Nations to provide research, oral history and expertise on their own communities to ensure more are recognized.
"It means a lot to the families and to the communities where there is that strong relationship [with military service]. They are thrilled to see the proper recognition and commemoration," said Pahud, adding some Indigenous communities are not fully aware of their own history of members who have served.
"Indigenous veterans are as deserving as our regular veterans in terms of having a proper commemoration and proper military markers."
The Indigenous Veterans' Initiative is based on a list provided by Yann Castelnot, an amateur historian from France living in Quebec, who compiled one of the largest databases of Indigenous soldiers, including nearly 15,000 who were born in Canada.
Pahud said he never would have known many of the people on the list were Indigenous, noting several had French or religious names imposed on them during their time at residential schools or adopted new names in order to enlist in the Armed Forces.
Since many traditional military markers have specific regiments on them, the initiative's researchers went to Cree artist Jason Carter to design culturally relevant symbols, based on the Seven Sacred Teachings, that families can opt to have etched into the stones.
In order to confirm that an Indigenous veteran is in an unmarked grave, the initiative will typically reach out to an Indigenous community to gauge interest in helping conduct research. Maria Trujillo, the Last Post Fund's Indigenous program coordinator, said identifying veterans is highly dependent on research from and oral histories within First Nations communities.
"It's amazing when I mention the name of a veteran and people immediately connect them to the community," said Trujillo, adding oral histories become key when researchers can't confirm an Indigenous veteran's service records. "They know their people really well and it's helped with the research."
As a result of this collaboration with First Nations, the Last Post Fund's list of Indigenous veterans has grown through word-of-mouth, as communities help add names to veterans not on Castelnot's original list.
The initiative also tries to stir up interest by writing articles, taking out advertisements in newspapers and magazines — many of them Indigenous-focused — and attending Pow Wows. A documentary on the initiative in collaboration with Indigenous filmmakers is also in the works.
To date, the Last Post Fund has researched less than 25 per cent of the total names on their list of Indigenous veterans. Much of the research so far has focused on western provinces since the initiative's creation, and Pahud and Trujillo have opted to make Ontario a larger focus in the coming years, since Castelnot's list shows there are more than 5,000 Indigenous veterans in that province alone. So far, the initiative has researched less than 20 per cent of those veterans.
"A lot of people are surprised when I call into the community and they're like, 'I didn't even know this existed, I didn't know we had access to this,'" said Trujillo.
She said interest in the initiative has grown naturally over time, adding feedback from veterans' families and First Nations communities leave her optimistic that more will hop on board by supporting its research.
"I really think if more people know about us, we're going to get more families contacting us directly."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2022.
———
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Tyler Griffin, The Canadian Press
Dan Grummett - Global News
From her couch in a downtown Edmonton seniors home, Mary Lee squints through her magnifying glass at the binder on her lap.
The Mountain Park Cemetery is home to dozens of veteran's graves. Some are known and marked, others have never been identified.© Dayne Winter / Global News
It's mainly a photo album and it's as thick as a bed pillow. Lee turns through the pages, trying to read the captions underneath each picture that she wrote years ago.
"I can see there's colour, etcetera," said Lee. "But I can't tell the details."
The binder she's leafing through is actually less than half of what she's collected about Mountain Park Cemetery, the only remnants of a community abandoned 72 years ago.
More than 300 kilometres west of Lee and her binders, in the Alberta foothills, 31 small flags flap and flicker in what used to be called the "Valley of the Winds."
'It's gone back to nature'
Established in 1911, Mountain Park was a tight-knit coal mining community built on a hillside. Mainly accessible by train, it had a school, hospital, library, butcher shop, hockey rink and a cemetery.
Lee was born there in 1937.
"Everybody got along. We never locked our doors," she recalled.
Population peaked around 1,500 residents, some of whom fought in both the First and Second World Wars.
"We sent care packages over(seas) like you wouldn't believe," said Lee. "My mother made fruit cakes and everything and sent them over to the boys."
Read more:
Mom of last Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan chosen as Silver Cross Mother
Eventually, the oil and gas industry began to emerge in Alberta.
Alberta Coal Branch mining operations in Mountain Park wound down.
Flooding on the McLeod River cut off the integral railway.
In 1950, Mountain Park was abandoned. Lee recalled residents moving their entire homes from their foundation to other communities. Other structures were flattened.
Today, it's considered a ghost town.
"There's nothing there anymore. It's gone back to nature," said Lee.
To this day, the only visible evidence Mountain Park ever existed is its cemetery.
"We kind of forgot it was there."
Mary's reclamation project
Lee moved to Edson, west of Edmonton, after her Mountain Park days. But in the 1990s, the cemetery was suddenly back on her radar.
Another ex-resident was informed the cemetery was in jeopardy of being demolished by a mining company. A group, including Lee, began an initiative to save it.
After receiving a government grant, work began on the reclamation and Lee revisited the site for the first time in years.
"The buckbrush was up to my shoulders, probably. And as we cleaned it out, we were surprised what was there," recalled Lee.
The surprise came at the number of graves belonging to war veterans.
Lee sought out to determine exactly who the graves belonged to.
Some were unmarked or damaged. Wooden fences built to protect the plots needed to be rebuilt and repainted.
In the early 2000s, a cenotaph was erected in honour of Mountain Park's residents who served and sacrificed.
In the years following, Lee would return a few times per year to visit her parents and ensure the cemetery didn't become enveloped by nature.
But in time, time caught up with her. Lee hasn't been back since 2017.
A new form of recognition
Arleen Wambolt doesn't claim to know much about the history of Mountain Park. Wambolt was aware the cemetery had a military contingent and of Lee's efforts to preserve it all.
"It's amazing she took this on," said Wambolt of Lee.
Wambolt volunteers with No Stone Left Alone Foundation in Hinton. The initiative organizes youth to place poppies on the headstones of Canadian veterans each November.
From her couch in a downtown Edmonton seniors home, Mary Lee squints through her magnifying glass at the binder on her lap.
The Mountain Park Cemetery is home to dozens of veteran's graves. Some are known and marked, others have never been identified.© Dayne Winter / Global News
It's mainly a photo album and it's as thick as a bed pillow. Lee turns through the pages, trying to read the captions underneath each picture that she wrote years ago.
"I can see there's colour, etcetera," said Lee. "But I can't tell the details."
The binder she's leafing through is actually less than half of what she's collected about Mountain Park Cemetery, the only remnants of a community abandoned 72 years ago.
More than 300 kilometres west of Lee and her binders, in the Alberta foothills, 31 small flags flap and flicker in what used to be called the "Valley of the Winds."
'It's gone back to nature'
Established in 1911, Mountain Park was a tight-knit coal mining community built on a hillside. Mainly accessible by train, it had a school, hospital, library, butcher shop, hockey rink and a cemetery.
Lee was born there in 1937.
"Everybody got along. We never locked our doors," she recalled.
Population peaked around 1,500 residents, some of whom fought in both the First and Second World Wars.
"We sent care packages over(seas) like you wouldn't believe," said Lee. "My mother made fruit cakes and everything and sent them over to the boys."
Read more:
Mom of last Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan chosen as Silver Cross Mother
Eventually, the oil and gas industry began to emerge in Alberta.
Alberta Coal Branch mining operations in Mountain Park wound down.
Flooding on the McLeod River cut off the integral railway.
In 1950, Mountain Park was abandoned. Lee recalled residents moving their entire homes from their foundation to other communities. Other structures were flattened.
Today, it's considered a ghost town.
"There's nothing there anymore. It's gone back to nature," said Lee.
To this day, the only visible evidence Mountain Park ever existed is its cemetery.
"We kind of forgot it was there."
Mary's reclamation project
Lee moved to Edson, west of Edmonton, after her Mountain Park days. But in the 1990s, the cemetery was suddenly back on her radar.
Another ex-resident was informed the cemetery was in jeopardy of being demolished by a mining company. A group, including Lee, began an initiative to save it.
After receiving a government grant, work began on the reclamation and Lee revisited the site for the first time in years.
"The buckbrush was up to my shoulders, probably. And as we cleaned it out, we were surprised what was there," recalled Lee.
The surprise came at the number of graves belonging to war veterans.
Lee sought out to determine exactly who the graves belonged to.
Some were unmarked or damaged. Wooden fences built to protect the plots needed to be rebuilt and repainted.
In the early 2000s, a cenotaph was erected in honour of Mountain Park's residents who served and sacrificed.
In the years following, Lee would return a few times per year to visit her parents and ensure the cemetery didn't become enveloped by nature.
But in time, time caught up with her. Lee hasn't been back since 2017.
A new form of recognition
Arleen Wambolt doesn't claim to know much about the history of Mountain Park. Wambolt was aware the cemetery had a military contingent and of Lee's efforts to preserve it all.
"It's amazing she took this on," said Wambolt of Lee.
Wambolt volunteers with No Stone Left Alone Foundation in Hinton. The initiative organizes youth to place poppies on the headstones of Canadian veterans each November.
Read more:
This year, she was tasked with bringing a commemoration ceremony to Mountain Park cemetery.
"It doesn't matter if the cemetery has one veteran or 1,000. It's honouring every veteran that served our country," said Wambolt.
At more than 6,000 feet above sea level, Mountain Park has the highest elevated cemetery in Canada. That can make weather and road conditions unpredictable, especially in the winter.
Wambolt knew the ceremony couldn't wait for November.
In August, she and some friends drove the winding gravel road to the cemetery. Instead of poppies, which would easily blow away, they planted poppy flags next to headstones. Wambolt counted 31 in total.
"It's just moving. You almost reflect at each one that you do it. You kind of thank them silently for their service," she said. "I kind of get chills when I do it."
The reason this is here is because of Mountain Park
The buzz of a whippersnapper fills the air with sound, as Paula (Resek) McKay chops down some overgrown grass. The Resek family had a home in Mountain Park pre-1950.
"My dad's house was up on one of those hills over there," said McKay, pointing to the hillside and former townsite west of the cemetery.
Read more:
She was careful not to damage the white cross of Sgt. Tony Resek, her cousin, who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Resek is one of the 31 markers Wambolt counted. No one seems to believe any of the veterans physically buried at Mountain Park actually died in combat. Many served and died in the First World War but others also served and returned to Canada to live out their lives.
Some returned to Mountain Park and they or their families requested to be buried at the cemetery upon their death.
"I think about all the young men from Mountain Park that answered the call to go to war," said McKay, who helped with the No Stone commemoration ceremony in August.
The August ceremony was missing a youth component.
Most of the broader area's school-aged children live in or close to Hinton and Edson on the Yellowhead Highway, according to Wambolt. Her hope is to work with county school divisions to organize a youth contingent to travel to Mountain Park to plant the poppy flags as soon as next year.
"I'd like to see more youth coming out here. Maybe through a field trip?" suggested McKay.
Longing to return
Lee would happily host a youth expedition to Mountain Park.
But while flipping through her photo album, she's reminded of why she cannot.
"I'm sitting here and I'm realizing how much of the vision is gone," said Lee, who is visually impaired.
But her memories are not fuzzy and the motivation behind her cemetery custodianship is as clear now as it was 25 years ago.
"That's part of the history from up there that should not die," she said, vowing to return one way or another.
"I'll tell you right now, that's where I'm heading back to. So you better look after it good," Lee said with a chuckle.
One of last living Black Canadian WWII veterans is from Sask.
Dayne Patterson - CBC - 11/11/2022
Alvie Burden is one of the last surviving Black Canadian veterans who served in the Second World War. A historian says stories like Burden's need to be told.
Alvie's youngest son Kelly sat beside his father in Armstrong, B.C., where Alvie now lives, prompting some of Alvie's stories and filling in some blanks. The conversation was occasionally punctuated by Alvie's hearty laughs.
"Don't ever go back to war, isn't that what you said before?" Kelly said.
Alvie chuckled. "Yeah. People [have] to learn to get along."
Alvie was living in B.C. when he joined the Canadian military at 19 years old, but since he was born in Tisdale, Sask., in 1922, he was sent off to the Prairies to join the Saskatoon Light Infantry division as a dispatch rider.
Reuniting with best friend from the military
Alvie was reunited this June with one of his closest friends from the war, Art McKim.
"I met him in Montreal, where we went on the boat to England and then to Sicily," Alvie said.
The two were in Quebec to train on machine guns. Alvie said they'd go downtown and meet French girls on their off time. He spent a lot of time in England with McKim on guard duty, according to Kelly.
Both friends ended up meeting girlfriends in Paisley, Scotland.
"We met them on the street," Alvie said.
"You were going to marry one weren't you?" Kelly asked him.
"Yup."
Kelly recounted how Alvie gave the woman a ring, but then later changed his mind. She gave the ring back, and it later ended up on the finger of Kelly's mother.
Alvie and McKim were waiting for a ferry in Sicily when they started "messing around" with gunpowder that had been left on the beach.
"The damn stuff went up in smoke," Alvie said. "Art, he had his eyes all full of sand."
McKim was temporarily blinded. Alvie had to lead him out of the area and help him to the hospital. It was the last time the men saw each other for decades.
Alvie spent years looking for McKim, even driving to where he thought Art was from.
They were finally able to track him down.
"It was a pretty big deal," Alvie said.
They didn't find out until they reunited that McKim's half-brother lived within an hour drive of Alvie, and his relatives played hockey with Kelly's son.
Injured in war
Alvie was driving over a ridge when an enemy tank shell landed behind him and sent him flying into the air.
According to Kelly, an allied tank straddled him to protect him as soldiers pulled him to safety.
He ended up with shrapnel in his head and wrists, and the embedded lead continued to fester.
Despite that, Alvie returned and started carrying machine guns on a half-track as the driver of a Bren gun carrier.
Black Canadian stories important to remember
Kathy Grant founded the website and Facebook page Black Canadian Veterans Stories as part of a promise to her father, a Second World War veteran, to honour the contributions of Canada's Black soldiers.
Since then, dozens of stories from Black veterans of various wars have been posted online.
Grant said she's been in situations where Black Canadians have been conflicted on Remembrance Day, asking what they had to celebrate. She would show them stories and pictures.
"We served," Grant said. "By putting these examples and showing we served … [even] after the war, it humanizes the soldiers by showing examples of us and not only showing examples of victims of racism."
Grant said there were about 1,300 Black Canadians who either enlisted or were conscripted to the military in the First World War, but in the early stages many were turned away by the commanding officer, who had the final say.
"There were hundreds that were turned away because of the commanding officer, but not because of policy," she said.
Things changed in the Second World War, and while some commanders still turned away applicants, Black Canadians joined the military much more easily.
"The majority of Black World War II veterans that I've interviewed indicated the racism … wasn't rampant, it was the odd occasion," she said.
"The racism that they would experience would be when they returned home from overseas, or also when they were stationed in certain towns during training, when they would go into bars or dancing or whatever."
She said her father was kicked out of a bar in Edmonton because of his skin colour, even though he was in uniform.
Grant believes Alvie is among fewer than five living Black Canadian Second World War veterans in the country.
While Alvie's uncle, Roy Burden, was in a segregated unit in the United States, Alvie said that during his time in the military, from 1941 until the end of the war in 1945, he didn't face race-related issues despite being the only Black Canadian in his company.
It was "all right, no problems," he said.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
Dayne Patterson - CBC - 11/11/2022
Alvie Burden is one of the last surviving Black Canadian veterans who served in the Second World War. A historian says stories like Burden's need to be told.
Alvie's youngest son Kelly sat beside his father in Armstrong, B.C., where Alvie now lives, prompting some of Alvie's stories and filling in some blanks. The conversation was occasionally punctuated by Alvie's hearty laughs.
"Don't ever go back to war, isn't that what you said before?" Kelly said.
Alvie chuckled. "Yeah. People [have] to learn to get along."
Alvie was living in B.C. when he joined the Canadian military at 19 years old, but since he was born in Tisdale, Sask., in 1922, he was sent off to the Prairies to join the Saskatoon Light Infantry division as a dispatch rider.
Reuniting with best friend from the military
Alvie was reunited this June with one of his closest friends from the war, Art McKim.
"I met him in Montreal, where we went on the boat to England and then to Sicily," Alvie said.
The two were in Quebec to train on machine guns. Alvie said they'd go downtown and meet French girls on their off time. He spent a lot of time in England with McKim on guard duty, according to Kelly.
Both friends ended up meeting girlfriends in Paisley, Scotland.
"We met them on the street," Alvie said.
"You were going to marry one weren't you?" Kelly asked him.
"Yup."
Kelly recounted how Alvie gave the woman a ring, but then later changed his mind. She gave the ring back, and it later ended up on the finger of Kelly's mother.
Alvie and McKim were waiting for a ferry in Sicily when they started "messing around" with gunpowder that had been left on the beach.
"The damn stuff went up in smoke," Alvie said. "Art, he had his eyes all full of sand."
McKim was temporarily blinded. Alvie had to lead him out of the area and help him to the hospital. It was the last time the men saw each other for decades.
Related video: 100-year-old veteran reflects on service in Second World WarDuration 4:53 View on Watch
Alvie spent years looking for McKim, even driving to where he thought Art was from.
They were finally able to track him down.
"It was a pretty big deal," Alvie said.
They didn't find out until they reunited that McKim's half-brother lived within an hour drive of Alvie, and his relatives played hockey with Kelly's son.
Injured in war
Alvie was driving over a ridge when an enemy tank shell landed behind him and sent him flying into the air.
According to Kelly, an allied tank straddled him to protect him as soldiers pulled him to safety.
He ended up with shrapnel in his head and wrists, and the embedded lead continued to fester.
Despite that, Alvie returned and started carrying machine guns on a half-track as the driver of a Bren gun carrier.
Black Canadian stories important to remember
Kathy Grant founded the website and Facebook page Black Canadian Veterans Stories as part of a promise to her father, a Second World War veteran, to honour the contributions of Canada's Black soldiers.
Since then, dozens of stories from Black veterans of various wars have been posted online.
Grant said she's been in situations where Black Canadians have been conflicted on Remembrance Day, asking what they had to celebrate. She would show them stories and pictures.
"We served," Grant said. "By putting these examples and showing we served … [even] after the war, it humanizes the soldiers by showing examples of us and not only showing examples of victims of racism."
Grant said there were about 1,300 Black Canadians who either enlisted or were conscripted to the military in the First World War, but in the early stages many were turned away by the commanding officer, who had the final say.
"There were hundreds that were turned away because of the commanding officer, but not because of policy," she said.
Things changed in the Second World War, and while some commanders still turned away applicants, Black Canadians joined the military much more easily.
"The majority of Black World War II veterans that I've interviewed indicated the racism … wasn't rampant, it was the odd occasion," she said.
"The racism that they would experience would be when they returned home from overseas, or also when they were stationed in certain towns during training, when they would go into bars or dancing or whatever."
She said her father was kicked out of a bar in Edmonton because of his skin colour, even though he was in uniform.
Grant believes Alvie is among fewer than five living Black Canadian Second World War veterans in the country.
While Alvie's uncle, Roy Burden, was in a segregated unit in the United States, Alvie said that during his time in the military, from 1941 until the end of the war in 1945, he didn't face race-related issues despite being the only Black Canadian in his company.
It was "all right, no problems," he said.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
Bernie M. Farber: The Jewish-Canadian hero of the battle of 'Sterlin Castle'
Opinion by Special to National Post -
During the Second World War, Canadian heroes came from every walk of life, a multitude of ethnicities, cultures and faiths. Perhaps though, the group that had most to lose if captured by the Nazis in battle were the Jewish men who signed up to fight in record numbers. European Jews were being slaughtered by Hitler’s madness as part of a modern genocide that saw the slaughter of over six million Jews between 1939 and 1945. Jewish allied soldiers captured by the Nazis were not treated as POWs. Instead, they were sent to concentration and death camps reserved for Jews, Roma and others caught in the Nazi ideology of genocide.
Details from© Provided by National Post
Such thoughts weighed heavily on those Canadian Jews who voluntarily chose to fight for Canada. Indeed, amongst the tiny population that made up Canadian Jewry at the time, 17,000 young Canadian Jews of fighting age — fully 20 per cent of the Canadian Jewish male population — enlisted in the Armed Forces. That was by far the highest percentage per capita of any minority ethnic/faith group in the country. Close to 700 lost their lives in battle and almost 200 were decorated for their courage. Amongst them was Lt. Mitchell Sterlin.
Mitchell Sterlin was born in Montreal in 1922. He was the son of Eastern European Jews who came to Canada in order to begin a new life. He was smart and outgoing, one of the few Canadian Jews of his time to secure a spot at the McGill medical school during a time of strict quotas against Jews. Sterlin could have avoided the war altogether as a result of his medical school position but chose to fight for his country and with the full knowledge of what was happening to his fellow Jews in Europe.
Following two years of part-time military training with the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps while at McGill, he enlisted for service in the spring of 1942. Receiving his commission in February 1943, now Lt. Mitch Sterlin was attached to the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) and set out to battle in June of that same year. Author and journalist Ellin Bessner noted in her remarkable biography of Sterlin ( Why a Canadian Army building is named after Lt. Mitchell Sterlin ) how he faced antisemitism even from within his own ranks.
Mitchell Sterlin could have avoided the war due to his medical school position but chose to fight for his country and with the full knowledge of what was happening to his fellow Jews in Europe.© McGill University Archives
“While en route to Sicily some of the other RCR lieutenants urged Capt. Ian Hodson of “D” Company to get rid of Sterlin because he was a Jew. Hodson reprimanded them in graphic terms about what would happen to them and how they would be returned to England if they said another negative word about Sterlin.”
Sterlin would live up to his captain’s faith in him. In December 1943 the RCR found themselves on Italy’s Adriatic coast where their eventual mission was to capture Ortona, a small seaport town. It was a brutal battle between German paratroopers and Canadian troops that became known as “Bloody December” for the violent hand-to-hand combat, mines and chaos of the surrounding area. It was here that Sterlin’s courage and tenacity became legendary.
Drenched by driving sleet and cold rain, and having to traverse landscape in which the Nazi forces had destroyed bridges, Sterlin’s “D” Company 16th Platoon were being bombarded. Sterlin and 10 of his men did not get the message that they were to retreat. Instead, they took refuge in a farmhouse where, with much smaller numbers than the German combatants, they engaged in fierce fighting. Two Canadians were killed during the battle. Nonetheless, with grit and valour, the Canadians won the day and the Germans surrendered. Following the battle, the area was nicknamed “Slaughterhouse Hill.”
Mom of last Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan named Silver Cross Mother
Sterlin was mentioned for his bravery in military dispatches and his commanding officers nominated him for the Military Cross, the Canadian medal awarded for “gallant and distinguished services in action.” However the papers were delayed as a result of the fighting. Sadly, only a few days after the battle of Slaughterhouse Hill, a German sniper shot Sterlin and he died on Dec. 19, 1943.
Regrettably, Lt. Sterlin never received his Military Cross, which to this day many feel he more than rightly deserved. As an ongoing tribute, the old farmhouse that was the centre of the battle became known as “Sterlin Castle.” And in the early 1990s the RCR marked the 50th anniversary of the Italian Campaign by donating an oil painting to regimental headquarters in Petawawa known as “The Defence of Sterlin Castle.” They also named the regimental HQ Victoria Barracks after Sterlin.
May the memory of Lt. Mitch Sterlin and all those who fought for freedom be a blessing this day.
Special to National Post
Bernie M. Farber is a human rights advocate, writer and speaker, and the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
Opinion by Special to National Post -
During the Second World War, Canadian heroes came from every walk of life, a multitude of ethnicities, cultures and faiths. Perhaps though, the group that had most to lose if captured by the Nazis in battle were the Jewish men who signed up to fight in record numbers. European Jews were being slaughtered by Hitler’s madness as part of a modern genocide that saw the slaughter of over six million Jews between 1939 and 1945. Jewish allied soldiers captured by the Nazis were not treated as POWs. Instead, they were sent to concentration and death camps reserved for Jews, Roma and others caught in the Nazi ideology of genocide.
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Such thoughts weighed heavily on those Canadian Jews who voluntarily chose to fight for Canada. Indeed, amongst the tiny population that made up Canadian Jewry at the time, 17,000 young Canadian Jews of fighting age — fully 20 per cent of the Canadian Jewish male population — enlisted in the Armed Forces. That was by far the highest percentage per capita of any minority ethnic/faith group in the country. Close to 700 lost their lives in battle and almost 200 were decorated for their courage. Amongst them was Lt. Mitchell Sterlin.
Mitchell Sterlin was born in Montreal in 1922. He was the son of Eastern European Jews who came to Canada in order to begin a new life. He was smart and outgoing, one of the few Canadian Jews of his time to secure a spot at the McGill medical school during a time of strict quotas against Jews. Sterlin could have avoided the war altogether as a result of his medical school position but chose to fight for his country and with the full knowledge of what was happening to his fellow Jews in Europe.
Following two years of part-time military training with the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps while at McGill, he enlisted for service in the spring of 1942. Receiving his commission in February 1943, now Lt. Mitch Sterlin was attached to the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) and set out to battle in June of that same year. Author and journalist Ellin Bessner noted in her remarkable biography of Sterlin ( Why a Canadian Army building is named after Lt. Mitchell Sterlin ) how he faced antisemitism even from within his own ranks.
Mitchell Sterlin could have avoided the war due to his medical school position but chose to fight for his country and with the full knowledge of what was happening to his fellow Jews in Europe.© McGill University Archives
“While en route to Sicily some of the other RCR lieutenants urged Capt. Ian Hodson of “D” Company to get rid of Sterlin because he was a Jew. Hodson reprimanded them in graphic terms about what would happen to them and how they would be returned to England if they said another negative word about Sterlin.”
Sterlin would live up to his captain’s faith in him. In December 1943 the RCR found themselves on Italy’s Adriatic coast where their eventual mission was to capture Ortona, a small seaport town. It was a brutal battle between German paratroopers and Canadian troops that became known as “Bloody December” for the violent hand-to-hand combat, mines and chaos of the surrounding area. It was here that Sterlin’s courage and tenacity became legendary.
Drenched by driving sleet and cold rain, and having to traverse landscape in which the Nazi forces had destroyed bridges, Sterlin’s “D” Company 16th Platoon were being bombarded. Sterlin and 10 of his men did not get the message that they were to retreat. Instead, they took refuge in a farmhouse where, with much smaller numbers than the German combatants, they engaged in fierce fighting. Two Canadians were killed during the battle. Nonetheless, with grit and valour, the Canadians won the day and the Germans surrendered. Following the battle, the area was nicknamed “Slaughterhouse Hill.”
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Sterlin was mentioned for his bravery in military dispatches and his commanding officers nominated him for the Military Cross, the Canadian medal awarded for “gallant and distinguished services in action.” However the papers were delayed as a result of the fighting. Sadly, only a few days after the battle of Slaughterhouse Hill, a German sniper shot Sterlin and he died on Dec. 19, 1943.
Regrettably, Lt. Sterlin never received his Military Cross, which to this day many feel he more than rightly deserved. As an ongoing tribute, the old farmhouse that was the centre of the battle became known as “Sterlin Castle.” And in the early 1990s the RCR marked the 50th anniversary of the Italian Campaign by donating an oil painting to regimental headquarters in Petawawa known as “The Defence of Sterlin Castle.” They also named the regimental HQ Victoria Barracks after Sterlin.
May the memory of Lt. Mitch Sterlin and all those who fought for freedom be a blessing this day.
Special to National Post
Bernie M. Farber is a human rights advocate, writer and speaker, and the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
