The discovery that Montreal has a street named Swastika led to numerous complaints at the name of the Nazi emblem serving as a street designation in a ward with a representative Jewish population.
Alderman Bernard Schwartz, who sits in the city hall as representative of St. Lawrence ward (where Swastika Ave. is located) stated that the name will not be changed and for a good reason.
“The name is carried by a lane which is quite appropriate to the name,” he said. “It is infested with rats.”
Although the lane is now called an avenue, it contains only six houses and is located in the lower part of the city. It must have derived its name from the little place in Ontario called Swastika, which contains less than 350 inhabitants. There is also a railway station of the same name near Calgary, Alberta.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
