Abstract: Karl Stern (1906-1975), a German-Jewish psychiatrist, fled Nazi Germany for London in 1935. He moved to Montréal in 1939, where he converted to Catholicism in 1943. This paper explores salient passages from his memoir, The Pillar of Fire (1951), his novel, Through Dooms of Love (1960) and In and Out (1989), a "confessional poem" by Daryl Hine, to illustrate and contextualize the feelings of powerlessness, isolation and anonymity Stern experienced after his forced migration from Germany; feelings that were complicated (on arrival in Canada) by severe ethnic antagonisms between Jews and Catholics that existed at that time. It also explores Stern's attitude toward various strategies of adaptation adopted by fellow emigres, and Daryl Hine's disparaging attitude towards Stern's identification with his European heritage and his Catholic faith.