Newspaper article, Windsor Star, December 12, 1990
Newspaper article "Police apologize to Italian fired in 1940 war hysteria", Windsor Star, December 12, 1990.
Doug Brombal is pictured holding a framed photograph of his father in police uniform along with his colleagues.
Nereo Brombal immigrated to Canada from Italy ca. 1914. He had met his German-born wife Johanna in northern Ontario. The family would settle in Windsor and the Brombals had 2 children.
In 1940, Brombal was fired from the Windsor Police Department due to his Italian birth. His son Douglas remembers a few tense years during the war, given his mixed German/Italian family.
Brombal would never return to his position as a police officer. However, in December 1990, the Windsor Police Commission apologized to Brombal’s family. They also created Camp Brombal, for underpriviliged kids, and run by volunteers from the police department, in Nereo Brombal’s honour.