Moving West: German-Speaking Immigration to British Columbia, 1945–1961
Moving West: German-Speaking Immigration to British Columbia, 1945–1961 by Christian Lieb M.A., University of Maine, 1999 M.A., Gerhard-Mercator-Universität, 2001 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of History © Christian Lieb, 2008 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopying or other means, without the permission of the author. ISBN: 978-0-494-41195-7 ii Moving West: German-Speaking Immigration to British Columbia, 1945–1961 by Christian Lieb M.A., University of Maine, 1999 M.A., Gerhard-Mercator-Universität, 2001 Supervisory Committee Dr. Patricia E. Roy, Supervisor (Department of History) Dr. Peter Baskerville, Departmental Member (Department of History) Dr. Perry Biddiscombe, Departmental Member (Department of History) Dr. Peter Liddell, Outside Member (Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies) Dr. Franca Iacovetta, External Examiner (University of Toronto) iii Supervisory Committee Dr. Patricia E. Roy, Supervisor (Department of History) Dr. Peter Baskerville, Departmental Member (Department of History) Dr. Perry Biddiscombe, Departmental Member (Department of History) Dr. Peter Liddell, Outside Member (Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies) Dr. Franca Iacovetta, External Examiner (University of Toronto) ABSTRACT Germans are among the largest ethnic groups, both in Canada as a whole and in British Columbia. Nevertheless, neither nationally, nor provincially, has this group received much academic attention, especially for the years between the end of the Second World War and the building of the Berlin Wall when about 200,000 German-speaking persons arrived in Canada. Based on the life stories of fifty German immigrants interviewed in British Columbia, published biographies, and archival records from Germany and Canada, this study reconstructs the conditions in interwar and postwar Europe that led to the mass-emigration of Germans in the late 1940s and the 1950s.
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