This document summarizes Canada's involvement in World War 2 on the home front. It discusses how Canada mobilized its military and economy for the war effort. Key points include: - Canada's military was small at the start of the war but expanded greatly through programs like the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. - The Canadian economy was transformed to support the war, with industries producing weapons, ships, and planes. Price controls and rationing were introduced to manage shortages. - Over a million women entered the paid workforce during the war, taking jobs in factories and other industries. Propaganda encouraged civilians to contribute through activities like salvage drives and victory bond purchases. - The issue of conscription divided French and English

1. Canada on The Home
Front
• Because of how severe the Great Depression was, Canada was very
unconcerned with other countries during the 1930s
• Mackenzie-King went to visit Hitler in Germany in 1937. King could see signs
of Jewish persecution but felt it would be ill advised to get involved.
“We must seek to keep this part of the Continent free from unrest. Nothing can
be gained by creating an internal problem in an effort to meet an international
one” - King

2. Canada Declares War
• 1938 British PM at the start of WWII Neville
Chamberlain announced that he secured
“peace for our time” with Munich Agreement
– Munich Agreement (Policy of Appeasement)
allowed Hitler to take over Czechoslovakia, but
stop seizing any more land
• Hitler ignored agreement and continued on
his quest to conquer land.
• Canada was reluctant to join the war because
of WWI
Neville Chamberlain in Munich to
sign the “Munich Agreement”

3. Mobilizing Canada’s Resources
• At the beginning of WWII
Canada’s Army was very small
and not well equipped
– 4500 troops
– few dozen anti-tank
guns
– 16 tanks
– no modern artillery
• Canada’s Air force and navy were
outdated
• By September there were over 58
330 volunteers for the armed
forces
"Wait for me daddy“ :British Columbia Regiment,
DCO, marching in New Westminster, 1940

4. Civilians and the War Effort
• -Wartime shortages led to Canada’s first organized
recycling programs.
• Community groups collected aluminum, steel, and
copper items to be turned into aircrafts, tanks, and
guns.
• -Families dug up their lawns and planted victory
gardens to grow food for their tables.
• -Canadians lent the government money through
Victory Bonds, just like WWI. The war helped
Canada’s economy
• Unemployment vanished
• -people joined the armed forces and worked in
weapon and munitions factories.
Two boys gather
rubber for wartime
salvage. Montreal

5. Problems with Civilians on the Home
Front
• -Canadians remembered the WWI shortages and therefore
rushed to the stores to stock up on items they feared might
soon vanish from the shelves
• -The result of this panic was inflation
• -Faced with shortages and rising prices, the Canadian
government began to take control of the country’s economy.
• The Wartime Prices and Trade Board under the authority of
the War Measures Act, becomes responsible for price
controls and inflation control.
• laws regulated wages and limited price increases on goods
and services. Things like rent, iron and steel, lumber, sugar,
and milk were all rationed.
• 1941 – laws froze most prices and wages, and rationing was
introduced.

6. The War at Home:
The Conscription Crisis
• Prime Minister Mackenzie King had promised that there
would be no conscription, However, as the fighting grew
heavier, there were demands to send more soldiers overseas
• King’s government developed the National Resources
Mobilization Act (NRMA)
• This act gave the government special emergency powers to
mobilize all the resources in the nation to defeat the enemy.
• The hiring of men in many positions in civilian employment
was effectively banned through measures taken under the
National Resources Mobilization Act.
• The first Unemployment Insurance program
was introduced in Canada in 1940
William Mackenzie King voting in the plebiscite on
the introduction of conscription for overseas
military service

7. Conscription Crisis
• Prime Minister King had promised that there would be no conscription, But as the
fighting grew heavier, there were demands to send more soldiers overseas.
• In 1942 a national system of employment control under the National Selective
Service Act, passed regulations stating no-one could seek a new job without
possessing a permit to do so
• No employer could advertise for workers without permission
• No-one was allowed to be out of work for more than seven days, and anyone
could be required to apply for any available full-time suitable work of high or very
high labour priority and to accept any such work offered to him.
• This did not lead to sufficient volunteers for the military so in addition to the
Selective Services Act
• In 1942, King held a referendum on the issue of conscription.
Referendum or plebiscite - submitting an issue to the direct vote of the
people.
• 80% of Québec said no, 80% of the rest of Canada voted yes.
• King then decided not to send conscripts unless he was forced to.
• The issue of conscription divided the country as it did in WWI, however, the
situation was not as severe as it had been in 1917.
• Think/ Pair/Share: How might the introduction of conscription affect
French/English relations?

8. The War at Home:
The Conscription Crisis (cont.)
• King made the government stance “Not
necessarily conscription but conscription if
necessary”
• By 1944, losses were so high, King reluctantly
passed conscription and sent 12,000 soldiers
overseas.

9. Japanese Canadians
• When Canada and Japan went to war (Dec/1941);
British Columbians feared a Japanese invasion.
They felt that Japanese Canadians (considered enemy
aliens) might assist in such an invasion.
• Results: 1) 38 Japanese Canadians were arrested
2) 1200 fishing boats were seized by the
government
3) All Canadians of Japanese origin were
required to register with the government
4) All Japanese Canadians were refused when
they tried to join the Canadian army
5) All persons of Japanese ancestry were
moved to camps in the interior of B.C.
6) The government confiscated their property
and sold it
7) After the war, approx. 4000 Japanese
Canadians were deported to Japan.
A Royal Canadian
Navy officer
questions Japanese-
Canadian fishermen
while confiscating
their boat

10. Total War
• Canadian government became more
involved in planning and economy control
• April 1940: established Department of
Munitions and Supplies
– C.D. Howe was minister
• Told industries what to produce and how
to produce it
• Vancouver built ships for the navy
• Montreal constructed planes and bombers
C.D. Howe

11. Total War • C.D. Howe created crown corporations: State-owned
corporations established by law, owned by the sovereign and
overseen by parliament and cabinet.
• Examples of federal Crown corporations include the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, Canada Post, Canadian National,
and Via Rail.
• Ministers of the Crown often control the shares in such public
corporations, while parliament both sets out the laws that
create and bind Crown corporations.
• Farmers were told to produce more wheat, beef, dairy, and
other foods
• The Government ran telephone companies, refined fuel, stockpiled
silk for parachutes, mined uranium and controlled food production.
• Policy of total war – Anything to destroy the enemy and achieve
victory.

12. Royal Canadian Air Force
• At the end of the1930s the RCAF was not considered a major military
force.
• Like all of Canada’s military at the onset of WWII, it was small and not
very well equipped.
• With the implementation of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
during the Second World War, the RCAF was significantly expanded to
become the fourth largest allied air force.
• During the war the RCAF was involved in operations in Great Britain,
northwest Europe, the north Atlantic, Egypt, Italy, Sicily, Malta, Ceylon,
India, Burma, and with home defence.

13. British Commonwealth Air
Training Plan (BCATP)
• PM King hoped contribution would remain at
home
• December 1939: Canada agreed to host and
administer a training plan where British
instructors would train pilots and other flight
personnel from all over the Commonwealth in
Canada this was the British Commonwealth Air
Training Plan known as the BCATP.

14. BCATP (cont.)
• Air fields were built on the
Prairies and in other locations
near small towns and villages
• Old aircraft were refitted and
returned to service.
• The BCATP trained over 130
000 pilots, navigators, flight
engineers, and ground staff
• The total cost was over $2.2
billion

15. Women in the War
• -Before WWII started, few women in Canada worked outside
the home.
• -In 1940, 876 000 women over 18 years of age were
employed outside the home.
• -By 1943, 1 000 000 women were in the paid workforce and
another 800,000 doing farm work.
• -Women built ships, airplanes, and weapons, knitted socks
and sweaters.
• -The government provided incentives for women such as tax
exemptions and childcare facilities.
• These incentives would end after the war.
• -Women were accepted into the armed services for the first
time.
• Eg. Radio operators, nurses, and ambulance drivers.
• -At the end of the war, many women gave up their jobs to
returning soldiers.
Private Lowry,
CWAC, tightening up
the springs on the
front of her vehicle

16. Propaganda and other Government programs at Home
• -Government sponsored radio announcements, magazine, newspaper
adds, and wall posters urged Canadians to spend wisely, participate in
salvage drives, grow victory gardens, or buy victory Bonds.
• -The National Film Board (NFB) created documentaries and short
informational films showing the importance of Canadian civilians as part
of the war effort.
• Introduced William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Liberals in 1944, family
allowances were to be paid by monthly cheque directly to mothers of
children under 16 beginning in 1945.
• Unlike other national social security measures such as health and
unemployment insurance, they did not fall under provincial jurisdiction.
• During the Second World War, many families suffered because their
wages had not matched wartime inflation.
• By introducing family allowances, the government improved both the
purchasing power of families with children and their standard of living.
• The family allowance program gave many Canadian families their first
experience of the benefits of government policies designed to generate
social progress.

17. No Protection For Jews
 Despite our fond belief that we have always been
an accepting country this was simply not always true.
 After Kristallnacht, some politicians called for the
immigration of some Jewish people. The immigration
minister refused saying “none is too many”.
 When the ocean liner “St. Louis” arrived with 900
Jewish refugees on board we refused them access to
Canada.
Think/Pair/Share: Do you think that Canada is
morally obligated to take in refugees if they face
death otherwise? What are the possible
ramifications of this policy?
Jewish refugees
aboard the SS
St. Louis look out
through the
portholes of the
ship

18. Modern Companies Involved With The
Nazis
• IBM (International Business Machines)
• -helped facilitate Nazi genocide; through generation and
tabulation of punch cards based census data
• -punch cards specific traits: gender, nationality, and occupation
• -1933 census and concentrating carried out by Dehomag, owned
by Computing-Tabulating Recording Company, renamed to IBM
• -census important to Nazi party to identify Jews, gypsies, and
other undesirables
• -encouraged by Thomas Watson (Chief Executive Officer) of IBM
• -Willy Heidinger, controlled the Dehomag, the 90% owned
German subsidiary of IBM, enthusiastic supporter of Nazi regime

19. • -Nazi Germany second largest customer
• -without IBM's machinery, continuing upkeep and service, as
well as the supply of punch cards, whether located on-site or
off-site, Hitler's camps could have never managed the numbers
they did
• -IBM indicates it doesn’t have much info on this era, most
documents destroyed or lost

20. • Chase Bank
• -from the late 1930s until june 14, 1941, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt froze German assets
• -order blocked any access to French accounts in the U.S. by
anyone by Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr.
• -Chase Bank worked with the Nazi government
• -within hours, Chase unblocked accounts and the funds were
transferred to South America to Nazi Germany.
• -U.S. Treasury investigated French subsidiaries of American
banks
• -only Chase and Morgan remained open during Nazi
occupation
• -Chase branch chief in Paris, Carlos Niedermann(close with
high up German officials) enforced restrictions against Jewish
properties, and refused funds belonging to Jews

21. • -1998, Chase general counsel said Chase had no control on
Niedermann
• -(2012)he U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for
JP Morgan Chase had illegally aided dictatorships in Cuba,
Sudan, Liberia, Iran, and transferred 32,000 ounces of gold
bullion for Iranian bank.

22. • Ford & General Motors
• -both owned German subsidiaries that controlled 70% of the
car market, retooled themselves during war times to make
war materials
• -Managers of Ford and General Motors resisted calls from
Roosevelt to set up military production
• -German troops used Ford & GM trucks, and Opel-built
warplanes
• -Ford and James Mooney, a senior executive, received the
Grand Cross of the German Eagle
• -GM produced the “Blitz” truck used for blitzkrieg
• -American Ford bartered a deal to give Nazi Germany strategic
raw materials, notably rubber

23. • -“Nazi armaments chief Albert Speer said in 1977 that Hitler
would never have considered invading Poland" without
synthetic fuel technology provided by General Motors”
• -German Ford made a personal present to Hitler of 35,000
Reichsmarks in honor of his 50th birthday, according to a
captured Nazi document.
• -Mooney met with Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering, for
an inspection of a plant
• -in 1940, after fall of France, Henry Ford personally vetoed a U.S.
government-approved plan to produce under license Rolls-
Royce engines for British fighter planes
• -workers in German factories were prisoners
• - with declaration of war by the U.S., no contact with Germany
• -June 1943, the Nazi custodian of Cologne plant, Robert
Schmidt, traveled to Portugal to meet with Ford Managers
• -after the war, GM and Ford compensated for destruction of
plants in Germany due to bombing

25. • Kodak
• -company revenues and employees in Germany increased due to
the manufactured triggers, detonators, and other military goods
• -used slave labor in two factories
• -French branches made lots of money as well
• -Eastman Kodak traded with Nazi Germany
• -(1942-43)Swiss branch bought photographic supplies from
Germany
• -(1942) Spanish branch imported items from Germany
• -(1942)Portuguese branch sent profits to the Nazi-occupied
branch in Hague
• -no penalties for all three
• -Kodak dealt with Hitler’s personal economic advisor, Wilhelm
Keppler, Keppler was dubbed “a Kodak man”
• -Keppler advised a number of US firms on letting their Jewish
employees go

26. • Fanta
• -resulted from the trade embargoes on Germany
• -1941, head of Coca-Cola Deutschland created drink with
ingredients in Germany
• -during war factory cut off from Coca Cola
• -drink discontinued after the war, launched in 1955
• Coca Cola
• -before and during war company adopted apparent policy of
ignoring the practice of eugenics and anti-Semitism
• -several top Coke executive members of NSDAP
• -Coke patriotic drink during war
• -sent to front lines to refresh soldiers; used to establish new
franchises in newly liberated countries
• -prior war Coca-Cola hosted various Nazi party sporting events
•

28. • Bayer
• -used forcé labour(POWs, slaves)
• -made Zyklon B gas, dyes, and pharmaceuticals
• -executive Fritz ter Meer sentenced 7 years in prison at
Nuremberg; made head of supervisory board after release
• -funded Nazis party
• -IG Farben was an econcomic corporate emporium, consisting of
BASF, BAYER, Hoechst
• -IG Farben single largest funder of Nazi party
• -100% explosives and synthetic gasoline came from IGF
• -after war, US government investigated IGF; “without IG Farben
the Second World War would simply not have been possible”
• -created the Aushwitz project
• -tested new and unknown vaccines on victims of the
concentration camps

29. • -Nuremberg trials: 24 IG Farben board memebrs and
executives were convicted; by 1951 all released.
• -IG Farben split into Bayer, BASF, and Hoechst; now 20 times
larger than IG Farben
• -for almost 3 decades after WWII the 3 companies filled
highest positions with members of NSDAP

30. • Nestle
• -used forced labour
• -just before arrival of allied forces to headquarters in Germany,
replaced swastika with Swiss flag
• -financed the Nazi party in Switzerland; won contract,
supplying chocolate needs of German army
• -their chocolate used to coax young Jews into captivity before
being sent to concentration camp.
• BMW
• -used up to 50,000 forced labourers; POWs, slaves, inamtes
• -workers: produced engines for the Luftwaffe and aid regime
in defending
• -produced mainly aircraft engines, cars, and motorcycle
manufacture
•

31. • -at time owned by Gunther Quandt, son, Herbert, friends with
Hitler
• -Quandts benefited from eradication of Jews and
livelihoods
• -owned companies seized from Jews
• -after war were not allowed to produce planes, then
produced cars, with symbol resembling propellers
• General Electrics
• -used slaves
• -built gas chambers through their shares in the company
Siemens
• -deliberately and artificially raised the prices of tungsten
carbide in the US
• -funded Hitler

32. • Hugo Boss
• -founder, Hugo Boss, part of Nazis Party, and sponsoring member
of the SS
• -started supplying uniforms in 1928
• -1934 became official supplier of uniforms Sturmabteilung,
Schutzstaffel, Hitler Youth, National Socialist Motor Corps
• -due to demand, used 30-40 prisoners & 150 forced labourers.
• -Hugo Boss admirer of Hitler
• VW
• -brainchild of Adolf Hitler
• -“people’s car”
• -“Kdf Wagen”
• -one of the first rear-engined cars
• -Ferdinand Porsche built and designed prototype,
Volksauto
•

33. • -factory built in 1938
• -to help people save, government-sponsored savings
program
• -stop being made during war
• -Porsche had troubles car violated a lot of patents from
Czechoslovakian car company Tatra who built similar car;
Porsche agreed to pay a settlement, but Hitler stopped him
and told him he would take care of it. 1961, Volkswagen
settled out of court with Tatra