Interesting doc pow ww1

[paulbear]

Here is a very interesting and rare survivor of CANADIAN WW1 internment history. This turned up out of a small estate group and was saved only due to his promotion to corporal. As many will know Canada has gone to great effort in order to hide the fact we had gulags for foreigners during WW1 and very little has ever survived to show they existed . enjoy

PAUL

[peter monahan]

Very1984-ish! "You don't have a name here, you have a number." **

Yes, we locked up among, others, citizens of the Austro-Hungarian empire during WWI. Many were Ukrainian immigrants to the West having, ironically, left AH because of how they were treated there and because we had free land. The National Film Board actually made a film about it a few years ago now. I also believe that Germans were arrested and questioned but, as I recall, few if any actually stayed locked up. But then, they weren't Slavs!

The camp in Kapuskasing (northern Ontario) was used again in WWII, for German POWs, guarded by the Veterans Guard. A fascinating tidbit concerns one of the POWs, who walked away in 1944-45 and was supposed to have died in the forest. (I'm not even sure if the place had fences in WWII.) In the 1970's, when the Cdn government issued an amnesty for illegal immigrants, this fellow turned himself in! He was a mechanic by trade and had gotten a job in a local service station, where presumably his job skills were deemed more important than his nationality! And, although lots and lots of people must have come to know his identity, he was never reported and never 'came out' all that time.


**OT warning: apparently there was a 1960s or 70s television show about a British chap who was locked up somewhere nasty and who spent the show resisting, among other things, his being assigned a number. I only know this because the actor died recently. Does anybody else recall the show?)

[Adam H]

** The Prisoner?

[paulbear]

THE CAMP was fenced during WW11 but the prisoner population was deemed low risk for that camp and many POWs where out on work parols or in bush gangs cutting timber. We had two borders at my house during the 50s who had repatriated then returned to CANADA on work visas. They told us their time at this camp was the best thing that ever happened to them as they where schooled to a high level taught perfect english and paid for the work they did. They went on to be great citizens in our community. Photos of these camps are extremely rare as security was so tight. I have original pics of the WAINWRIGHT CAMP and they where taken the day after the camp was deserted 1946 . The base archive never had any real time photos .

PAUL

[peter monahan]

Adam - Yes, 'The Prisoner' Necver saw it but sounds like a cool premise for a show.

Paul - I've never seen any photos, that I can recall, of any of the camps, except for shots of the foundations ofr one, sans buildings. I think it was in northern Ontario too.

Met an old sailor at the Royal Canadian Legion last week, a Dane, served in their navy then several decades in various merchant marine fleets before coming to Canada. He lived for a while near Wainwright (or maybe Lethbridge?) and told me that there is a whole village out there created by German ex-POWs who choose to come back after the war and settle here.

In my neck of the woods it's mostly Dutch, who met our soldiers in 44-45 and liked them so well they emigrated here, and also a few Germans who came here as teenagers in the late 40s, early 50s. I think we forget that, for all the stupid (racist) things we did back then, people still saw, and see today, Canada as one of the best places in the world to live!

[paulbear]

Peter, There where 3 POWs who returned to and settled in Wainwright all farmers. Lethbridge was larger by far and would think more returned to that area.
I published the Wainwright POW camp war diary several years ago and still have copies available.