Very few Canadians could say that they served in the army for almost the entire Second World War, and even fewer could say they did so for two completely different armies! Yet this was the case for Miriam “Mimi” Freedman, possibly the longest-serving Canadian woman in the army during the Second World War.

Very few Canadians could say that they served in the army for almost the entire Second World War, and even fewer could say they did so for two completely different armies! Yet this was the case for Miriam “Mimi” Freedman, possibly the longest-serving Canadian woman in the army during the Second World War.

Her military service with Great Britain

Born in Montreal on March 2, 1911, Miriam hailed from one of North America’s oldest Jewish families—the Harts—on her mother’s side. In 1920, her family moved to Belgium. But when Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, her father decided to relocate the whole family to Great Britain for their safety. The rest is well-known history, as the Nazis ramped up their horrific crimes against Europe’s Jewish population from 1933 to 1939. Tensions mounted throughout that period and came to a head on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. Two days later, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany.

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Article written by Julien Lehoux for Je Me Souviens.