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Description
Mr. Danson explains that, as a Jewish man, he knew there was trouble brewing in Germany. He and a friend joined the army during peacetime so they would be trained and ready for action if war came.
Barnet J (Barney) Danson
M. Danson est né en Ontario, en 1921. Avant la guerre, il travaillait pour Columbia Pictures. En tant que Juif, M. Danson était bien conscient du climat politique en Europe. Quelque chose lui disait que la guerre était imminente, et l'envie d'aller se battre l'a pris. Il s'est donc enrôlé, en temps de paix, dans l'espoir de suivre un entraînement et d'être fin prêt advenant le déclenchement de la guerre. M. Danson était officier d'infanterie dans le Queen's Own Rifles of Canada. À l'automne 1944, il fut blessé et dut mettre fin à sa participation à la guerre. Il devint par la suite un homme d'affaires prospère. Plus tard, il fit son entrée sur la scène politique et servit à titre de ministre de la Défense au sein du gouvernement Trudeau.
Transcription
It was at this time, the war was probably come upon us. And I knew we had to go, and I had a very close friend, Freddy Harris whose father was our family doctor. And we felt that it was best to get in the army at this time, before the war broke out - start getting training, and be ready. And as we were both Jewish, we had the special motivation in the face of Hitler. We had no idea how bad it was going to be, but we knew it was going to be very unpleasant and it was an evil that we had to deal with. Oh, it was known to us, I guess this would be after Chrystalnacht which was sort of a wrath around the time, and there were German families, Jewish families coming to Canada who we knew. They were just getting out on time. They knew something terrible was going to happen, or that they had no future at the very least, they had no future. They couldn't get the proper jobs, they couldn't get in to proper schools, if they were teachers they were eliminated. And so we didn't know what the ultimate consequence of all that would be, but we knew it was something that we had to be concerned about. So, when war broke out actually, our regiment wasn't mobilized immediately which was a great disappointment to us. We were kids, we were 18 and wanting to get into the fighting before it was all over. Queens Own Rifles of Canada, at the University Avenue Armouries in Toronto here. And we went over to camp and hike on the lake. It was terrible, the equipment and uniforms or lack of uniforms at the time.