I had friends in various other disciplines, but no close ones in the German department, except Marie Dunnington, an older student whom I saw more frequently. I helped her with her studies and she gave me some of her used clothes, something I really appreciated. When her husband, who was serving in the navy, came on furlough, he visited me, was very friendly and wanted to hand me his car keys, saying that I should use them to visit him and Marie on the weekend in their cottage. I declined because I did not have a license, but then asked him if he could recommend a hotel for a Canadian friend who was going to visit me. He mentioned a certain hotel and stressed that he could recommend it because it did not accept any Jews. As always in such situations I could not think of anything to say. Later I wrote a letter to Marie. She knew that I was Jewish, but evidently had not thought of telling her husband. I never heard from her again.
After I had completed all the courses required for my Ph.D., I returned to Ottawa to the censorship office and remained there for a year, until VJ day, August 14, 1945, the day of the victory over Japan. I roomed with a family named Porter. Mrs. Porter, with whom I got along very well, soon told me that her husband would not have rented the room to me if he had known that I was Jewish. I stayed, convinced that I would be able to change Mr. Porter’s attitude. On VJ day we went to some neighbors to celebrate, and there my landlord, who had been drinking, said that it was too bad that Hitler had not killed all Jews.
Source: Wilma and Georg Iggers, Two Lives in Uncertain Times, New York: Berghahn Books, 2006, p. 46