- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Community Relations Committee series
- Research records sub-series
- Israel sub-sub-series
- Level
- Sub-sub-series
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 5-4-3
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1940-1978
- Physical Description
- 45 cm of textual records
- Scope and Content
- Series consists of documentation regarding issues and activities within or about the State of Israel. Topics will include Zionism, anti-Zionism, relations between Canada and Israel, and relationships and communications between the Canadian-Jewish community and Israel.
- Notes
- Previously processed and cited as part of MG8 S.
- Related Material
- For more detailed information documenting incidents of hate crimes and literature see also: Fonds 17, Sub-sub-series 5-4-6, Hate Crimes and Hate Literature.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Henry Cassel fonds
- Level
- Fonds
- Fonds
- 93
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- [ca. 1900]-2000, predominant 1929-1947
- Physical Description
- 8 cm of textual records
- 3 albums (ca. 210 photographs)
- 2 photographs
- Admin History/Bio
- Heinz Kassel (1912-2009) (later changed to Henry Cassel) was a German refugee during the Second World War who was classified as an enemy alien by the British government. He spent two years in an internment camp for prisoners of war (POWs) in Quebec. He later became a naturalized Canadian citizen and enlisted in the Canadian military.
- Heinz was born on October 25, 1912 in Aschaffenburg, Germany to Adolf and Olga Kassel. Adolf owned a successful banking business which he had inherited from his father. The family resided above the bank and lived a comfortable life during these early years. They moved to Frankfurt around 1920 after Adolf sold his business to buy a partnership in a bank there.
- Heinz’s parents had hoped that he would one day become a corporate lawyer. In 1931, in preparation for his future career, he began studying law and economics at Frankfurt University. He enjoyed his initial university years. However, after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, he became alarmed when his non-Jewish university friends began ignoring him and when the German government passed laws forbidding Jews from practicing law in court. Determined to leave Germany and seek out a better life elsewhere, he begged his parents to immigrate with him to the United States. They refused to go, unwilling to leave behind the life they had worked so hard to build. In accordance with his parents’ wishes, Heinz relocated to nearby Italy instead of the US in 1934. He learned Italian and eventually secured a job with an engineering firm.
- Sensing that the political climate in Italy was becoming dangerous for Jewish people, Heinz applied for immigration to the US in early 1939. Eager to leave Italy, he relocated to London to await the approval of his US visa. He left just in time: Britain declared war on Germany less than a week after his arrival. His parents, in turn, managed to escape to Holland. Soon after Britain’s declaration, all immigrants from enemy countries were considered enemy aliens and suspected of being spies.
- On May 12, 1940, the British military arrested Heinz and interned him with other German immigrants and POWs. He believed his detainment was only a precautionary measure and that he would be cleared within a few days. However, the British shipped him to the Isle of Man where he remained for several months. Fearing an invasion, the British shipped 3,000 of the POWs, including Kassel, to Quebec, where he was briefly interned at a POW camp set up at the Plains of Abraham. In October 1940, he was moved with 736 other refugees to an abandoned railway yard (later known as “Camp N”) in Newington, near Sherbrooke, Quebec. While there, he confronted a great deal of antisemitism from the guards.
- While he was interned in Quebec, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) interviewed him and other Jewish prisoners in order to lobby for their release. Realizing that the internees were not POWs, the Canadian government declared the camp a refugee camp in 1941. By October 1942, the CJC was successful in helping Heinz secure employment with Benjamin Pape & Company in Toronto.
- Heinz met Reta Freeman in Toronto and they were married in November 1944. Reta was born and raised in Toronto. After their nuptials, they were both briefly classified as enemy aliens and had to report to the RCMP on a regular basis. Shortly thereafter, Heinz enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army and was sent to basic training in Manitoba. On January 21, 1946 he was granted landed immigrant status, and in April of that year, he became a citizen.
- After the war, Heinz learned that his parents as well as other relatives had been transported to concentration camps and had not survived. He was certainly one of the few fortunate ones to leave the country, despite the circumstances of his removal. He resented being interned for so long, but did not blame the British for rounding him up with other Germans based on their initial fears regarding enemy aliens. His feelings about Canada's treatment of him during that time, however, were not as sympathetic.
- The couple lived their lives in Toronto. They first resided at 2346 Yonge Street. Heinz legally changed his name to Henry Cassel. He worked as an accountant and later was a controller for the United Jewish Welfare Fund. The couple had two children: Andrew (b. 1947) and Richard (b. 1951). Reta passed away in August 1962 and Henry later remarried Esther Cassel. He passed away at the age of 96 on February 15, 2009.
- Custodial History
- Records were created and accumulated by Henry Cassel. His sons donated them to the OJA after his death.
- Scope and Content
- Fonds consists of records documenting the life of Henry Cassel, particularly his attempt to emigrate from Europe prior to the Second World War and his internment in Canada as a German prisoner of war (POW). Included is personal correspondence between Cassel and his parents; correspondence written by Cassel to potential employers and Canadian Jewish agencies; legal documents and certificates, such as Cassel's birth certificate and passport; family photo albums documenting the family and lives of Henry Cassel and his wife Reta; Cassel's autobiography; a journal and notebook written by Cassel during his internment; and, other internment records, such as government forms and poems and songs written by internees. Also included are newspaper clippings, articles, financial statements, genealogical research, and antisemitic ephemera collected by Cassel. Of particular note are newsletters that were produced during the 1990s by ex-internees who had kept in touch over the years. Records are arranged into 16 files.
- Notes
- Textual records in the fonds were reduced from ca. 20 cm to 8 cm. Please see accession record for further details about the culled material.
- Associated material notes: for related records at other archives, please see: the UJRA case files at the National CJC Archive in Montreal and the holdings at Library and Archives Canada (such as, the Directorate of Internment Operations series in the Department of National Defense fonds R112-0-2-E)
- Name Access
- Cassel, Henry, 1912-2009
- Subjects
- Europe--Emigration and immigration
- Prisoners of war
- Access Restriction
- Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.
- Related Material
- See: Canadian Jewish Congress case files in RG 282 and accession #2005-10-1.
- Creator
- Cassel, Henry, 1912-2009
- Accession Number
- 2010-4-5
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Henry Cassel fonds
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 93
- File
- 1
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1993
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File consists of two copies of Henry Cassel's unpublished autobiography, which traces his life story up until 1946. It also briefly touches on the early lives of his parents prior to his birth.
- Accession Number
- 2010-4-5
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Henry Cassel fonds
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 93
- File
- 2
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Date
- 1929-[1938?], [ca. 1975]
- Physical Description
- 1 album (ca. 80 photographs) : b&w and col. ; 24 x 31 cm
- Scope and Content
- File consists of a photograph album documenting the family and early life of Henry Cassel. Included are images of Frankfurt and the Kassel's home, Henry with friends at Berlin University, Henry and his father swimming in a lake, and images of Henry in Italy. Although the majority of the images were taken prior to 1938, a few colour photographs of Italian landscapes are scattered throughout the last half of the album and were likely taken at a later date. Identified in the photographs are: Henry Cassel (Heinz Kassel), Adolf and Olga Kassel, Lotte Midas, Horst Wolfe and Franz Oppenheimer.
- Accession Number
- 2010-4-5
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Henry Cassel fonds
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 93
- File
- 3
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Date
- [ca. 1910]-[1944?]
- Physical Description
- 1 album (ca. 80 photographs) : 25 x 33 cm
- Admin History/Bio
- Reta Freeman was born in Toronto on December 6, 1920 to Bessie (née Sugarman) and Israel Freeman.
- Scope and Content
- File consists of a photograph album documenting the family and early life of Henry Cassel's wife, Reta (née Freeman). Included are images of the Sugarman and Freeman family at family homes and other places around Toronto, such as, the University of Toronto and Fisherman's Island (later Cherry Beach). Also included are Wellesley Street School class photographs, family portraits and images of family members ice skating, at camps, and in Montreal and Niagara Falls. Near the end of the album are a few images of Reta with Henry Cassel. Also identified in the photographs are Bessie Sugarman, Israel Freeman, Harry Sugarman, and Arthur (Art) Sugarman.
- Accession Number
- 2010-4-5
- Source
- Archival Descriptions