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Why was Czechoslovakia invaded by Adolf Hitler and his army? What do people mean when they talk about anti-semitism? And where exactly is Kensington Market? Scroll down to learn more about the world Margit lived in.
Czechoslovakia and the World War II
Czechoslovakia, a country in central Europe that was bordered by Germany, Poland, Austria and Hungary, was created at the end of the World War I out of territories that had once been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (Czechoslovakia no longer exists; in 1993 it was divided into two separate countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.) Most of the people who lived in Czechoslovakia were Czechs or Slovaks, but about 3 million German-speaking people lived in Czechoslovakia as well.
Adolf Hitler, who became leader of Germany in 1933, wanted to control areas of Europe that he considered part of Germany. In 1938, Germany took control of Austria. Hitler then decided he wanted Czechoslovakia as well. The leaders of Britain, France and Italy, who hoped to avoid another war, decided to sign the Munich Agreement with Hitler, which would allow him to take over a German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. The British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced that he and Europe's other leaders had managed to guarantee "peace for our time." He was wrong. In March 1939 Hitler broke his promise and took over the rest of Czechoslovakia. War was declared on September 1, 1939.
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What Is Anti-semitism?
 You may have seen this phrase used in the newspaper, or heard people talking about it on the news on television. Anti-semitism is when one person hates another person simply because they are Jewish. In Home Free, the character Ellen is anti-semitic: she hates Margit for being a Jew. She doesn't hate Margit because Margit is a bad person, or has done something terrible to her. Ellen has been taught, possibly by her parents, that Jewish people are bad and that Margit must be bad as a result.
Anti-semitism, just like any form of prejudice, has caused terrible suffering over the centuries. The Holocaust is perhaps the best-known example of the evils of anti-semitism. Hitler's government decided to round up and kill every Jewish person in the parts of
Europe it controlled. In the end, over six million Jews were killed, many
of them in large death camps.
Prejudice against Jewish people existed long before the Holocaust, however. In the Middle Ages, Jews living in Europe were forced to live separately from everyone else, in unhealthy, cramped neighbourhoods called ghettoes, and were prevented from working at many kinds of jobs. Some countries refused to let Jews live in them at all; for example, all the Jews living in England were forced to leave in 1290. Often, Jews were pressured to set aside their religious beliefs, and those who resisted were tortured and murdered.
Even after the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, some people still continue to hold anti-semitic views. Remember this when you read about Margit and her family, and stand up to people who say or do things that are anti-semitic or racist.
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Kensington Market
Kensington Market is one of Toronto's most interesting neighbourhoods. It doesn't take up a lot of space -- it stretches from Dundas Street north to College Street, and from Bathurst Street east to Spadina Avenue. Originally a middle-class residential neighbourhood, by the beginning of the twentieth century it had become a popular destination for immigrants to Toronto, especially Jews who had escaped persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe. By the late 1950s, most of the Jewish residents had moved to other areas of Toronto; in their place came new waves of immigrants: people from Italy, the Ukraine, Hungary and the Caribbean. Today it is one of the few remaining open-air markets in North America, its narrow streets still filled -- as they were when Margit lived there -- with shops and stalls selling food, clothing and every kind of household item under the sun.
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