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Stories from the Homefront: Oshawa During the Second World War
Oshawa Community Museum and Archives
Oshawa , Ontario

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   Between 1939 and 1945,
nearly 600,000 Canadian men
and women left their homes,
families and communities to
serve their country overseas
in World War II. But what
happened to the wives and
husbands, children and
siblings, parents and
grandparents who stayed

behind? In this Community
Memories exhibit, the Oshawa
Community Museum and Archives
(OCMA) explores the impact of
the war on Canadians at home,
especially in Oshawa.
   Oshawa was typical of
many Canadian towns during
the war years. Everyone
pitched in to help with the

war effort. People donated
blood, suffered rationing and
planted victory gardens. They
saved scrap metal to recycle
into ships and guns and
collected waste fat for
explosives. After seeing
their men off to train and
fight, Oshawa's women rolled
up their sleeves and went to

work, many of them joining
the assembly line at the
General Motors of Canada
plant while raising their
families alone.
   In 2004, the OCMA
compiled Stories from the
Homefront: Oshawa During the
Second World War, a Memory
Book to preserve the wartime

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