Fonds consists of textual material including correspondence, 1938-1941, which relates primarily to Koch's years of internment, as well as documents which he collected from former internees when he wrote Deemed Suspect. These include memoirs, correspondence, poetry, dramas and other material, n.d., 1937-1944, 1948-1959, 1972, 1974, 1978-1982, which relates largely to the internment experience. Also included is the script for a documentary film on the former internees, entitled The Spies Who Never Were (1981), by Harry Rasky, as well as typescripts of interviews by Rasky with the same group, n.d.
Fonds also consists of sound recordings including approximately one hundred interviews with anti-Nazi refugees who were interned in Canadain camps during World War II, conducted by Eric Koch as research material for his book entitled Deemed Suspect, 1978-1980; and oral history interviews done by Koch for Inside Seven Days: The Show that Shook the Nation, his book on the CBC Television series This Hour Has Seven Days.
Also included in fonds are photographs, 1940-1945, depicting buildings, living conditions, and activities of refugees from Germany and Austria, many of whom were Jewish, at internment camps in Canada at Quebec, Farnham, and Sherbrooke, Quebec.
In addition, fonds consists of artistic material. Included is a drawing in pen and ink with watercolour, 1940, by an unknown artist, depicting enemy alien internees from England leaving a ship that brought them to Quebec City in 1940; and eight watercolours and two drawings in crayon, pen and ink, 1940-1941, predominant 1940, by Robert Langstadt, depicting Canadian internment camps at Sherbrooke (Quebec), and Monteith (Ontario) during World War II.
Koch, Eric, 1919-2018 : Eric (Otto) Koch, broadcaster, author, born in 1919 at Frankfurt am Mein, was studying in England when he was interned as an enemy alien in May 1940. In July of the same year he was shipped to Canada. He remained in internment until November, 1941. Upon his release he entered post-graduate studies in Law at the University of Toronto and graduated in the spring of 1943. After a short career as school-teacher and journalist he started work with the C.B.C., in December of 1944. Here he worked with the International Service and in Public Affairs broadcasting. In addition, Koch wrote some twenty television dramas, a number of novels as well as books of a historical nature. His book Deemed Suspect examines the experiences of the mainly Jewish enemy alien internees that Britain sent to Canada at the beginning of the war. Eric Koch passed away in 2018.
