Unauthorized Entry: The Truth about Nazi War Criminals in Canada 1946-1956

By Howard Margolian

Book Overview

Is Canada a haven for Nazi war criminals? War crimes advocacy groups, the media, and even a royal commission have suggested it is. Margolian challenges that theory, disproving accusations of government indifference and complicity to lay the blame where it belongs-on the war criminals themselves. Impeccably researched and engagingly written, this book is sure to make waves, both within the public at large and among advocacy groups on both sides of the war crimes issue.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802042775
• ISBN13: 9780802042774
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.2" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

The Best Of The Lot

Several books have been written about the movement of Nazi war criminals to Canada following WW II, and in particular about the events leading up to, and surrounding, the 1985 Deschenes Commission of Inquiry. Whereas some of the other references have specific axes to grind, charging that Canada - either deliberately or unwittingly - became a safe haven for some of the worst criminals to emerge from the war - Mr. Margolian deals with the subject in a straightforward, unambiguous manner. So much so that it leaves no doubt that the war criminal "movement" was in no way a conspiracy but simply a manifestation of the times. There was mass confusion in Europe at the time, with millions of displaced people in camps with either very little or no identification papers. With unrelenting political pressure from every special interest group in creation back home in Canada, the officers abroad were constantly being "encouraged" to speed up processing. Consequently, some bad actors were able to slip through. As a primary Immigration Department witness before the Deschenes Commission, and after reading all of the other accounts published since then, I can say unequivocally that this is the most comprehensive and fairest of them all.