Christie Pits riot witness Joe Black remembers seeing the swastika rise — and then all hell broke loose
Posted on 10 August 2013
What followed on Aug. 16, 1933 was one of the worst instances of ethnic violence Toronto has ever seen as Jewish baseball players battled Nazi sympathizers
Sarah-Joyce Battersby
August 10, 2013
From his spot on the hill overlooking the baseball diamonds at Christie Pits Park, Joe Black could easily make out the swastika.
It was just after the final out in the quarter-final game between the Harbord Playground and St. Peter’s teams. Someone stood high, near the south side of the park, and unfurled a flag, or maybe it was a blanket, bearing that symbol of anti-Semitism.
It was Aug. 16, 1933, Hitler had been elected German chancellor just months before. And even at seven-years-old, Joe Black knew exactly what that flag meant.
“Somebody didn’t like me, and I didn’t know who it was.”
What followed was one of the worst instances of ethnic violence Toronto has ever seen, as the players and supporters of the predominantly Jewish Harbord Playground team clashed with the Nazi sympathizers in a race riot that lasted six hours and spilled out of the park onto surrounding streets.
“Scores were injured, many requiring medical and hospital attention… Heads were opened, eyes blackened and bodies thumped and battered,” reported a newspaper the next day.
This Sunday the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto and its advocacy arm, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, will host a softball game marking the 80th anniversary Christie Pits Riot. The game starts at 9:30 a.m. Players include Gord Stellick (former Leafs GM and current Fan590 host), Mike Wilner of Fan 590 and Shi Davidi, a columnist for Sportsnet. The game aims to “show just how far this city has come since the dark days of 1933; not only for the Jewish community but as a leading multicultural city in the world,” the federation said in a news release.
Read in full: Christie Pits riot witness Joe Black remembers seeing the swastika rise — and then all hell broke loose