Recent Blog Posts
From Bismarck Survivor to Canadian Citizen: Helmut Keune
Today is the 81st anniversary of the sinking of the #Bismarck. From a crew of over 2,000, only 114 survived. The survivors were subsequently interned in Canada until 1946, but one POW, Helmut Keune, would remain in Canada for the rest of his life. Here is his story.
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An Update to “Seeing Double: POW Artists at Camp 133 (Ozada)
Last week, I published a post about two paintings that depicted the same scene at Camp 133 at Ozada, Alberta. As the existence of two paintings showing the same scene prompted many questions, I asked if anyone had other copies. And, within twenty-four hours of my original post, a reader had forwarded a third painting…
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Seeing Double: POW Artists at Camp 133 (Ozada)
Updated March 7, 2022 Scenes from Camp 133 at Ozada remain among the most popular depicted by POW artists (for more on POW art, click here to read some of my earlier posts). The camp was one of Canada’s largest, holding over 12,500 POWs by November 1942, and among those interned were a number of…
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27 Company, Veterans Guard of Canada
Likely taken in the Summer of 1943, this photograph shows No. 27 Company of the Veterans Guard of Canada. The photo was taken in front of Hillcrest Hall, Ross Barracks, while the company was training in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Ross Barracks, formerly Ross School, was converted into a barracks during the Second World War and…
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From Norway to Northern Ontario: One POW’s Journey to Canada
Most of the roughly 40,000 German prisoners of war (POWs) sent to Canada during the Second World War were captured in now well-known campaigns like that in North Africa and Normandy or they were shot down during the Battle of Britain or plucked from the cold Atlantic waters. But some came from lesser-known battles and…
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Christmas in Canada, 1941
As part of their efforts to help POWs interned in Canada, the War Prisoners’ Aid of the YMCA printed and distributed thousands of Christmas cards each year for POWs and internees in the country. Calls for art submissions were issued to internment camps and POW artists submitted sketches, paintings, and linocuts in the chance of…
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About Me
Hi, I’m Michael O’Hagan, a historian studying German Prisoners of War in Canada during the Second World War.
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1st CMRs 3D Modelling Alberta Art Artefact Camp 21 – Espanola Camp 23 – Monteith Camp 30 – Bowmanville Camp 44 – Grande Ligne Camp 100 – Neys Camp 132 – Medicine Hat Camp 133 – Lethbridge Camp 133 – Ozada Canadian Forestry Corps canoe Christmas D-Day Digital History Escape GIS International Red Cross Kitchener Labour Project Library and Archives Canada Manitoba Maps Ontario PoW Mail Prisoner of War Real Photo Recreation Remembrance Research Riding Mountain Park Labour Project Ship in a Bottle Sports U-Boat Veterans' Guard of Canada Vimy War and Memory War Prisoners' Aid Woodland Cemetery World War I World War II YMCA
POWs in Canada 