German Workers and Farmers Association : The German Workers and Farmers Association was organized in 1929 to help German immigrant workers deal with the problems they encountered after the outbreak of the Depression. Insofar as possible, it sought to help its members find jobs. It served as a mutual aid society in case of sickness or death. At the same time, it offered a gathering place for people with common problems. Through theatrical presentations, as well as through its weekly, the "Deutsche Arbeiter Zeitung," it sought to make its members and the broader German Canadian community aware of the world-wide economic conditions that had brought on the Depression. At the same time, it sought to integrate the German Canadian labour movement into the larger international communist labour movement under the direction of the Soviet Union.
With the rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933, the Association began to focus on the threat Hitler posed, not only to the labour movement in Germany, but also to world peace. It sought to explain to workers the role Nazism played as a tool of the capitalists to crush, not only international labour, but also to destroy the spiritual home of all "progressive" labour, the Soviet Union. In particular, in the German Canadian community, it sought to counter the influence of the Deutscher Bund Canada, which the Nazis sought to use to influence and win support in the German Canadian community.
The intensity of the Nazi threat, as well as the loss in membership the Association suffered because of its strong pro-Soviet orientation, caused it to change its name, in 1937, to German Canadian League. It continued its agitation against the Bund, arguing that support of the Bund would draw the ire of the larger Canadian community against the German Canadian minority. To make Canadians aware of the Nazi threat, it also invited German refugees to Canada and arranged public meetings for them to address both members of the German Canadian community and the larger Canadian society.
The outbreak of war in 1939 put members of the League in a difficult situation. Although they had no difficulty supporting the war effort against Nazi Germany, after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Stalin discouraged communist party members and supporters from picking up arms against the Nazis. At the same time, the Canadian government was interning both rightist and leftist elements in the German Canadian community. So as not to incriminate any of its members, the organization buried its records, which eventually rotted underground. For the League itself, the situation changed when Nazi Germany declared war on the Soviet Union, in 1941. League members reaorganized themselves into the German Canadian Federation. Using circulars as well as their publication, the "Volksstimme," the organization sought to win German Canadian support for the war effort and the peace that followed. It continued to exist until 1949, when its avid support of the Soviet Union, which at the time took a leading role in the cleansing of Germans east of the Oder-Neisse, totally lost it its support in the German Canadian community.
