“Enemy Aliens”: The Internment of Jewish Refugees in Canada, 1940–1943

The “Enemy Aliens” online exhibition explores a little-known chapter of Canadian history through artefacts and eyewitness testimony.

This online exhibition features a comprehensive teaching resource, the Learning Object Collection, which was developed in partnership with Dr. Peter Seixas, Director of UBC’s Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness. The Learning Object Collection includes exhibit-based lesson plans and educational tools, which facilitate student engagement with historical context and primary source materials. This teaching resource was developed as part of the Virtual Museum of Canada’s Teacher’s Centre, an online space in which educators can access engaging historical content for classroom use. The website is also an interactive space in which former internees, their families and their friends can contribute stories and source materials related to internment, making the website a living historical document.

The VHEC gratefully acknowledges the financial investment by the Department of Canadian Heritage in the creation of this online presentation for the Virtual Museum of CanadaFunded by the Canadian Heritage Information Network and produced in partnership with 7th Floor Media at Simon Fraser University.

View Online Exhibit