Open Wednesday to Saturday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Toronto’s Christie Pits Riot
Image: Christie Pits (1933), City of Toronto Archives
In 1933, an anti-semitic race riot during a baseball game left many injured—and foreshadowed a decade of persecution and violence.
It’s easy to imagine Toronto as removed from the violence of anti-semitism and the rise of Adolf Hitler, but on an August evening in 1933, the animosity that troubled the streets of Berlin emerged in Toronto during a baseball game at Christie Pits. Earlier in 1933, Adolf Hitler emerged as the winner of the German election with a populist platform that promised the return of good fortune and pride to Germany after a decade and a half of economic misery. The riot that ensued in Toronto was a reflection of the global spread of Hitler’s white supremacist views.
During a neighbourhood baseball game between the Harbord Playground team and another represented by St.Peter’s church a couple of days before the brawl, someone pulled out a white flag containing a swastika. The action mobilized supporters and opponents of the Nazi Party. Up to 10,000 people converged upon the park as the game suddenly became a platform for racial politics, and soon enough, young men brawled for over five hours in what the Toronto Daily Star called “one of the worst free-for-alls ever seen in the city.”
Stabbings and beatings forced several young men on both sides to go to Toronto Western Hospital, many of whom were simply bystanders drawn by the crowd. The Daily Star claimed that the violence was due in part to many in the crowd chanting “Heil, Hitler”, the common Nazi German salute, towards those the Germans had already begun victimizing.
That very year, Adolf Hitler kickstarted twelve years of persecution, violence and genocide against Jews, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and political dissidents, though even his supporters could not have predicted the horrific extent of the Third Reich.
Even after using horses, billie clubs, and even exhaust smoke from motorcycles, the crowds at Christie Pits failed to disperse in an orderly manner. Only at 2am did the fighting begin to dissipate.
According to the Toronto Daily Star, “[h]eads were opened, eyes blacked and bodies thumped and battered as literally dozens of persons, young and old, many of them non-combatant spectators, were injured more or less seriously by a variety of ugly weapons in the hands of wild-eyed and irresponsible young hoodlums, both Jewish and Gentile.”
Recently, author Jamie Michael and illustrator Doug Fedrau published a graphic novel called Christie Pits, about the riots. The book examines both the events as well as the social climate of Toronto and Nazi Germany at the time.
Learn more about the Christie Pits riot through The Canadian Encyclopedia.
More From Myseum
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Press Releases and Media
Press Releases and Media Museum of Toronto Recent Press Releases
Share this Article
Explore More
Content
Protected: TGW Preview
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Press Releases and Media
Press Releases and Media Museum of Toronto Recent Press Releases Find Usin the News
PAT Market: A Torontonian Grocer and Koreatown Staple
As a landmark independent grocery store, PAT continues to bring Torontonians together over a love for food and a commitment to serve their local community.
Toronto Gone Wild with Curators Jennifer Bonnell and Amy Lavender Harris
Venture through Toronto Gone Wild with curators Jennifer Bonnell and Amy Lavender Harris.
Toronto Gone Wild
It's about nature.
Streetwear, Sneakers & Style: Conversations on Sports and Fashion
From court-side to the runway, this panel explores how the fashion and sports industries comes together as all-star duo.
Toronto’s 2003 Blackout: Remembering 48 Hours of Darkness and Unity
On August 14th, 2003, the lights went out across Toronto and didn't come back on for 48 hours. Though the city plunged into darkness, many have stories of unity and
Toronto’s Factory Towns: The Industrial Roots of Our Neighbourhoods
Some of Toronto’s iconic neighbourhoods began as hyper-local towns in which factories built communities for workers and their families.
Thanks for coming!
Myseum runs on donations. Your support brings Toronto’s arts and culture to life. Acknowledgements Winners & Losers is co-curated by author and historian Adam Bunch, and veteran sports writer and
Myseum Workshop | Sports Memorabilia and Collecting
From ticket stubs and newspaper clippings, to savoured foul balls and team merchandise, your stuff might be worth more than the good memories.