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Change Name of Montreal’s Swastika Avenue? Never! It is Infested with Rats

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 […]

November 26, 1933
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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.

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