Innocence Lost

I don't think we, as citizens of Canada, realized as youngsters, realized what was happening in the world. And, a lot of reports were in the paper about Germany, conquering various countries, and what's happening there in genocide. After that, I was in highschool at the time, and it didn't have much effect, I think, that it didn't make me think enough to realize what was really happening. A German diplomat in Paris was assassinated, and he gave orders to his troops to burn and desecrate the synagogues, burned stores, got people, gathered people from various faiths or who objected to his ideas and put them into camps. I was devastated that people could do those things. It made a big impression upon me, that we are not isolated. We had to try and do something about it. And when that happened, as a student, I could visualize what was going to happen. A world war. I was going with a girl then, and I was in the country, in the Laurentians, and we heard it on the radio. My first reaction was I have to enlist.