HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: INTERNMENT WORLD WAR I
Analyze a Historical Event: Rating an event’s Significance
Event:
Ukrainian Internment World War I
Criteria / Not at all significant1 2 3 4 5Very Significant
Prominence at the time
Was the event, person, or development
recognized as important at the time?
How long did it exist? / Significance 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4☐ 5 ☒
Evidence:
  • people interned had ruined lives
  • over 8,000 interned
  • people supported it
  • national event
  • 88,000 identified as enemy aliens
  • some lost right to vote
  • lasted 6 years
  • forced labour
  • 107 deaths

Consequences
  • Depth of impact
How deeply felt or profound was the impact?
  • Scope of Impact
How many people were affected?
  • Lasting Nature of Impact
How long lasting were its effects / Significance 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☒ 4☐ 5 ☐
Evidence:
  • it impacted the whole country for many years
  • the camps and internees were from all across Canada (24 camps)
  • families are still affected by what happened; the breakups of families and the deaths of over 100 internees
  • labelling them as enemy aliens and treating them as second class citizens scarred them for the rest of their lives
  • money and property and other valuables confiscated posed financial hardships many families could not recover

Revealing
Does the event, person, or development provide a window on or represent a larger issue?
Has it been memorialized?
Does it represent a historical issue or trend? / Significance 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4☐ 5 ☒
Evidence:
  • it is remembered > 2008 government created fund to commemorate the event and individuals wrongly treated
  • Canada treating minorities badly in the past is something we are talking about today
  • this was the first time this happened to Canadians
  • to descendants of internees it represents the governments indifference towards minorities
  • first time in Canadian history fundamental rights of massive numbers of individuals were ignored because of war time fear

Ukrainian Internment World War I
Scale of Significance
☐ Not at all significant: No one need remember the event
☐ Individually significant: Onlydescendents and family of the people involved should know about the event
☐ Regionally significant: Most everyone in the region or who belongs to the specific group(s) affected should
know about the event
☒ Nationally significant: Everyone in the country where it occurred should know about the event
☐ Gobally significant: Most everyone in the world should know about the event
Reasons
  • the internment of Ukrainians in WW I is the first time that lots of Canadians were interne
  • it affected many people all across the country
  • also, it can represent Canada’s poor treatment of minorities which is a small part of our history that people are still thinking about

Source: Teaching Historical Thinking