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Looking Back: Temporal and Spatial Connections of Post-War Migration and Displacement Through the Eyes of the Toronto Telegram

Refugees from Poland

"Jewish refugees from Poland wait at the railway station at Nachod, Czechoslovakia, on the frontier between that country and Poland. From Nachod they will be taken to Bratislava and from there proceed to Unrra camps in the United States zone of Austria. At a reception centre at Nachod, Polish jews crossing the frontier receive supplementary food and medical attention from the American Joint Distribution Committee." (Caption on back)

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The Representation of War Guests, (Im)migrants, and Refugees Through Wartime Propaganda and Iconography Photographers and photojournalists have a particular window in which they frame history for their audiences. The photographs taken depict a truth that is biased, edited, and presented to the world, regardless if the photographs depict an authentic truth for the subjects of the photos. The photos published by the Toronto Telegram are no different.

Each photographic category conveys a different narrative of both the subject and the more general story that extends beyond the frame of the lens, and during wartime, the narrative that is developed by the media determines who are the heroes, the antiheroes, the villains, and the victims. All compelling stories follow a character's storyline of overcoming a personal struggle or battle with an antagonist or villain, and the majority of these photos were taken during a period of conflict or when the people within the photographs were experiencing their own struggles and inner turmoil. (However, the collection of photographs are not party to the same narrative, but many of the people in the photographs taken are their own characters with separate storylines).

War Guests and Children as Unlikely Heroes and Discrete Canadian Propaganda

As stated by a former War Guest, many of the children arriving in Canada thought they were going on a vacation when they were evacuated from the war zone. But, the children in the photographs help propagate a completely different narrative beyond the obvious story of excitement they’re telling themselves. Carl von Clausewitz is famously quoted for saying “War is the continuation of politics by other means”, implying that war is conducted by state politics. However, during war and conflict, states engage in another form of politics by employing the media and pictures of children to promote “institutional values and practices.”

Germany’s merciless invasion of Poland, which triggered World War II (WWII), left Britain worried about their own fate as a nation, and as a result, established a series of private and government-sponsored evacuation plans, where thousands of children were sent abroad to several Commonwealth nations, including Canada. As soon as the British children arrived in Canada in 1939, the Toronto Telegram was captivated with the War Guests up until they returned home once the War concluded in 1945. The photographs of the children were an exhibition of heroism and hope during the War. The waves of children arriving to Union Station and the Eastern ports of Canada are portrayed as survivors as if they had been in the centre of the conflict zone themselves. Yet, the images of the children created an additional narrative, that offered a distraction from the narratives focused on Canadian and Allied Soldiers and the increasing German advances. These photographs provided a new face of heroism and a sense of hope that if these children could survive the journey across U-Boat infested waters, and even survive torpedo attacks, then the Allied forces could survive the war against Nazi Germany.

However, the British War Guests also created a new sense of national identity in Canada, especially once the war concluded. Up until 1947, "there was no legal status of Canadian citizens, only British subjects." Prior to Canada establishing the Canadian Citizenship Act in 1947, Canada held a strong allegiance to the United Kingdom, but hosting British children allowed Canada to differentiate itself from the monarchy, and did so once the War Guests left.

The Discernible Victims and the Villains Beyond the Frame

Winston Churchill notably stated “[h]istory is written by the victors”; however, what Churchill did not mention was that the villains are also determined by the victors. The photographs from this collection all exclude the villain from the frame, but explicitly show the victims. In many of the picture’s captions, the German’s are explicitly mentioned as the terrorizing nation during the war, and in many of the World War II evacuee photographs, there is mention of German bombings and torpedoes, and the implicit detailing of the anti-Semitic ideology in the pictures of people of the Jewish faith fleeing Europe or returning to their homes after the conflict had concluded. Millions of people were targeted by Germany's indiscriminate bombing, but were also targeted for specific reasons.

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Ali, Sadaf Rashid, Debbie James, and Fred Vultee. "Strike a Pose: Comparing Associated Press and UNICEF Visual Representation of the Children of Darfur." African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 3, no. 1 (2013): 1-26.
Tassara, Ruth Barton. "Britain at War: 'War Guests' in Canada." The Telegraph. February 18, 2009.
von Clausewitz, Carl. On War. Jazzybee Verlag: Altenmünster, 1940.
von Moos, Kirsty. "Digital Archives: Canada's Guest Children during the Second World War." Ingenium Channel Canada. April 5, 2018.
Wayland, Sarah V. "Immigration, Multiculturalism and National Identity in Canada." International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 5, no. 1 (1997): 33-58.
War Guests, (Im)migrants, and Refugees
Introduction
During the selection phase of this archive, I noted the varying language used by Telegram staff in describing the people in their photographs. The terms that repeatedly appeared were "War Guest", "immigrant" or "migrant", and "refugee". What was interesting about the use of these specific terms was the patterns I found in the photo's subjects faces.
War Guests
In additional research, I was not able to come across a formal definition for "war guest", but in using the word, "guest," it can be inferred that those who were called War Guests were only staying in whatever location, temporarily. In recalling her memories of the Second World War, Ruth Barton Tassara explained that it was disrespectful to call the war guests "evacuees", despite that being what they were. She said in coming to Canada, it felt as though her and her sister, Anne, were going on a holiday, and the Canadian children she attended school with affectionately called Britain, "Mother Country."
(Im)migrants
Immigrant, noun, a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.
Migrant, noun, a person who moves from one place to another, especially in order to find work or better living conditions.

Refugees
Refugee, noun, a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

Oxford English Dictionary, s.v., "immigrant (n.)," accessed April 29, 2018.
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v., "migrant (n.)," accessed April 29, 2018.
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v., "refugee (n.)," accessed April 29, 2018.
Tassara, Ruth Barton. "Britain at War: 'War Guests' in Canada." The Telegraph. February 18, 2009.
Image Representation of Refugees: An Analysis of Terence Wright's Article, "Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees" 7 plain 2018-05-04T14:37:22-04:00
The selection of material for this digital archive, much like any archive, is subjective to what the presenter would like to show. The collection in which I was given to select photographs was already heavily influenced and biased by those working at the Toronto Telegram. In 2002, Terence Wright wrote the article, “Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees,” which discussed the stereotype and iconography of ‘the refugee’ through image representation and its perpetuation in the media (i.e., photographs, news reports, and to an extent, documentary films). Wright contends that refugee images are embedded in Christian iconography (p. 54); meant to elicit an emotional and moral response from the public. Images of ‘the refugee’ hold a social purpose and “act as a way of coping with a social ‘problem’” (p. 56). Wright asserts that the roots in Christian iconography establish the “iconography of predicament” (p. 64), and outlines four distinct categories of typical refugee photographs rooted in Christian iconography (p. 57):
- (1) “The Fall of the Man” – based on the story of Adam and Eve, the refugee is seen as degraded, isolated, the picture of poverty, and expelled from their homeland.
- (2) “Flight into Egypt” – the story of Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay, the refugee is “displaced but necessarily destitute”, has possessions and a means of transportation.
- (3) “Exodus” – Exodus is typically referred to the story of Moses traveling across the Red Sea with the Israelites to be free from Egyptian-forced slavery, the refugees are part of a mass expulsion of people, and it is inferred through the image that this group is being pursued.
- (4) “Madonna and Child” – the picture of Mary and Baby Jesus, which has also “attained a broad secular appeal” (p. 59), this image is a woman photographed with children, and can be combined with any of the above categories.
Perhaps it was the time this article was published, where the images of refugees that saturated the media were of starving African villages, the Rwandan Genocide, the Yugoslav Wars, and the Chechen Wars, because only a few of the images from this digital collection reflect any of the criteria Wright puts forward. “Flight of Man” is a category that can somewhat characterize photographs in this collection, however, this category does not describe the plight of the refugee, but the modern-day (im)migrants looking to improve their living conditions. The Exodus is the only category I can accurately place a few of these photos, however, the Exodus category is hardly acknowledged, and Wright does not offer further elaboration, which is the category that compares most to the 2015 Syrian Refugee Crisis. And, any similarities I could find to “Madonna and Child” do not look as though they portray the stereotypical refugee or individuals that have had their lives uprooted.

Although an interesting read that holds valid criticisms of Western media in its attempt to dilute reality into a specific depiction of suffering, Wright’s argument of refugee images and media portrayal as represented through Christian iconography is narrow and temporally inapplicable. Images of children smiling upon their arrivals and departures in Toronto does not indicate the same, if any, form of suffering expected to be seen from the typical refugee. Furthermore, the categories in which he typecasts refugee images are not strictly limited to Christian iconography, but in studying global religions, it can be seen that poverty and expulsion lie within, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

Wright, Terence. "Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees." Visual Studies 17, no. 1 (2002): 53-66.