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Three Times Betrayed: the Sudeten Germans of Tomslake, BC

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Three Times Betrayed: the Sudeten Germans of Tomslake, BC Three Times Betrayed: The Sudeten Germans of Tomslake, BC Margaret Melanie Drysdale B.A., Malaspina University-College, 2002 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Department of History 0Margaret Melanie Drysdale University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ABSTRACT Members of the German Social Democratic Party escaped prewar Czechoslovakia, ultimately finding themselves confined to a frozen farmstead in northeastern British Columbia. Wherever and to whomever the Social Democrats had turned they were betrayed, first by the international community, then by their own countrymen and finally by the Canadian government which abdicated its responsibility for the refugees to the Canadian Colonization Association (CCA), the colonization branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Rigidly adhering to legislation introduced during the Depression, the Canadian government refused to amend its immigration law to allow the predominantly urban, industrial Sudeten Germans to settle in areas where factory work was readily available. Instead, politicians allowed the CCA to dictate the terms of the Sudetens' enforced stay as 'enemy aliens' in a co-operative farming operation at Tomslake, BC. This small group of dissidents, however, overcame all obstacles to build a viable community. This papa details this small group of immigrants' transformation from European dissidents in 1938 to farmers in northeastern British Columbia, using interviews, primary documents and secondary sources. Supervisor: Dr. Ian MacPherson (Department of ~istory) Acknowledgement In writing and researching this thesis, I have been fortunate in acquiring the assistance of many of those who still live in the Tornslake community. I wish to acknowledge and extend a sincere thank you to those who kindly assisted me in my research particularly Linda Bartusek, and Laurel and Horst David. Without the support of those who so graciously agreed to be interviewed: John Neubauer, Walter Schoen, Hedwig Baudisch, Anne Marie Pohl, Werner Tschiedel and Max Lorenz, this would have been a much different piece of work. Their contribution gave this work its heart. To those kind souls in archives and museums from Victoria to Ottawa, who answered my questions patiently and offered helphi suggestions, I appreciate the kindness. To Dr. Patricia Roy to whom I owe the biggest debt of gratitude for her brutal editing and thoughtfbl advice, she is what all graduate advisors should be - there. Her support and enthusiasm made working with her a pleasure. Finally, to Dr. Ian MacPherson and Dr. Perry Biddiscombe who offered their expertise to this, the final product, many thanks. To My Patron af the Arts, Greg Table of Contents APPENDICES Appendix A Cist of all settlers arriving in Tupper, BC) - - - 120 Appendix B (Comparison of Prices from Original Invoices) - - 139 Appendix C (Frank Reilich to his brother Gustav and family January 26, 1941) - - - 140 FIGURES PHOTOS 1 and 2 Refugee Camp outside Prague - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 41 3 Refugees aboard the S-S.B~ltrover- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 5 3 4 Planning sessions at Tr~~tbeck- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 66 5 Refugees at Troutbeck in Britain - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 66 6 TUPP~~Siding, 17 June 1939 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 72 7 Tupper Settlement, 1939..................................... 72 8 L0gging camp, 1942-1943 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 91 9 Max Lore% June 1944 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 103 10 sldeten Memorial - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A - 113 Introduction Stepping off the train in Tupper, British Columbia, between April and August 1939, was a contingent of Czechoslovakian German Social Democrats. Few people equate the hamlet of Tupper (now Tomslake), a small community in the Peace River district of northeastern British Columbia, with international events that plunged the twentieth century headlong into a second devastating war.' Betrayed by the international community, abandoned by the Czechoslovakian government, a small group of German Social Democrats escaped pre-war Europe only to be confined to a northern wilderness. Despite their ignoble beginnings and limited assistance from the Canadian government and being trapped by petty bureaucrats in miserable conditions, the new inhabitants of Tupper worked hard to build a viable community. While the emergence of Tomslake was the direct result of events that transpired on the world stage, the community survived due solely to the hard work and persistence of its residents. Originally, the goal of this paper was simply to record the story of Sudeten immigrants' survival on the frozen prairie. How did a group of urban Europeans find their way to the rural, isolated reaches of northern British Columbia? It soon became apparent, however, that the experience of these refugees was more complicated than it first appeared. This was not simply a group of European peasants taking advantage of the opportunity to come to Canada to farm, as had so many immigrants before them. Nor were they innocent bystanders unwittingly caught in the line of fire but rather they were a highly political and organized group of dissenters who knowingly placed themselves in danger; they were ethnic Germans, who as members of the German Social Democratic Party @SAP), vehemently opposed Nazism and were specifically targeted for arrest andlor extermination by the Gestapo. 1 The original rail siding was named Tupper after Tupper Creek, but when the post office moved, residents elected to change the name of the community to Tomslake in reference to Tom's Lake situated on settlement property. The signing of the Munich Pact on 29 September 1938 by Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler has at various times and by various authors, been referred to as a 'water~hed,'~a or simply as 'tragi~.'~In an attempt to comprehend the circumstances that resulted in the Munich Crisis of 1938, historians have researched and written at length on the complexity of foreign relations, the ambitions of Hitler and his Nazi Party, the demand for autonomy by ethnic minorities, and the ill-conceived doctrine of appeasement touted by Neville Chamberlain to maintain the balance of power in Western Europe. The Munich Pact, a peace that never was, is a historical anomaly that holds great significance in the history of the twentieth century, and yet the pact's overriding import is its failure. Historians have produced a surfeit of material on the involvement of the Four Powers in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, but have paid scant attention to the people who the pact immediately and irrevocably affected.' This paper argues that the Social Democrats who arrived in British Columbia between April and August of 1939 were not once, not twice, but three times betrayed. The fwst betrayal was by the international community. For the citizens of Czechoslovakia, the Munich Pact signaled not only the dissolution of their nation, but a betrayal by the international community of all democratic principles. For members of the DSAP, trade unionists, those of Jewish descent and other Czechoslovakian anti-fascists, the signing of the Pact was a death knell; a betrayal immediately endangering a small minority of Sudeten-Germans. Labeled 'enemies of the Reich' for their opposition to Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland, members of the German Social Democratic Party were forced to flee the Nazi occupation of their homeland. Under pressure from the Four Powers, the small nation of Czechoslovakia was forced to cede to Germany a portion of the country in an attempt to appease the aggressors and forestall yet * Alan L. Paley, Munich and the Sudeten Crisis, (Charlottesville: Samhar Press, 1973), 3. Telford Taylor, Munich: the Price of Peace, (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1979), xv. 4~enzelJaksch, Europe's Road to Potsdam, (London: Frederick A. Praega, Inc., 1963), 299. Four Powers refers to England, France, Italy and Germany, the major power brokers in Western Europe at the time of the signing of the Munich Pact. another world war. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain ostensibly orchestrated the transfer. While some may argue that Hitler created the political situation and therefore must bear sole responsibility for its outcome, I would argue that Social Democrats, anticipating Hitler's plans to dominate continental Europe, saw his conduct as logical behavior for an autocratic dictator. Chamberlain's active participation in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, however, was not expected, and therefore, constitutes the ultimate betra~al.~ The Czechoslovakian government perpetrated the second betrayal when Social Democrats, forced to converge on hastily constructed refugee camps in Czech-held territory, were turned ova to the Gestapo en masse. Restrained by the terms of the Munich Agreement and threatened with military action, the Czechoslovak government crumbled, throwing the country into disarray. Defenseless and surrounded, those left to oversee the final surrender of Czechoslovakia and its conversion into a German protectorate were powerless to
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