A Rare Glimpse Inside: Camp P (Petawawa) on Film

Photographing and filming of prisoners of war in Canada during the Second World War remained subject to strict censorship policies. Authorized civilian and military photographs took countless photographs of prisoners, primarily so they could be used as postcards, yet films relating to internment operations in Canada remained extremely rare. Only a few such films appear to have ever been authorized and not all have survived. Fortunately, one – or at least parts of one – film taken at Camp P near Petawawa can be found in the collections of Library and Archives Canada.

Camp P, later Camp 33, near Petawawa, was Canada’s second internment camp of the Second World War. The camp opened on the site of a government forest research station in late September 1939 in order to hold German enemy aliens detained in Eastern Canada. These internees included known or suspected members of the German Nazi Party or pro-German organizations as well as individuals whose loyalties remained unknown. Early internees spent much of their time working around the camp, building additional barracks and structures, cutting firewood to heat the camp during the winter months, or repairing nearby roads.

In December 1939, a film crew arrived at Camp P to film a section for an episode of March of Time entitled “Canada at War.” While the episode is presently unavailable for streaming, these outtakes provide a glimpse into what life at Camp P was like for both guards and internees. The scenes are in no particular order and, as there is no audio or information, I have added a breakdown with timestamps below the video. Enjoy!

Video Breakdown

• 0:00 – An armed guard from the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment patrols the enclosure. The Regiment was posted to the camp before the Veterans’ Guard of Canada assumed responsibility for guarding internment camps in 1940.

• 0:33 – View of the enclosure from the top of a guard tower.

• 0:41 – View of guard tower. Note the pile of firewood for the tower’s wood stove.

• 0:47 – Internees cut firewood and haul it throughout the camp with homemade sleighs. 
• 1:07 – A member of the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment keeps watch on the enclosure from within one of the camp’s towers. Note the rifle leaning against the window on the left and the telephone to communicate with the other towers and guard buildings.
• 1:28 – Alternate views of one of the towers.

• 1:51 – Prisoners saw firewood with a guard standing by.
• 2:12 – An unarmed guard patrols within the enclosure to keep watch on the internees.
• 2:22 – Two officers, believed to be Commandant H.E. Pense and the Officer Commanding the Guard, leave the enclosure through the main gate. The Administration Building is on the left and the Guardhouse on the right.

• 2:40 – View of Camp.
• 2:45 – View of barracks and an armed guard patrolling the fence line.
• 3:13 – Close up showing the outer layer of barbed wire fence.

• 3:26 – An internee pushing a sleigh for hauling firewood arrives at the main gate and is escorted out of the enclosure by armed guards. Internees cut the trees down and then had to haul the logs back to the camp.
• 3:44 – A working party leaves and then returns to the camp under armed escort. Note that some of the returning internees wave at the camera while others appear to raise the Nazi salute.
• 4:17 – Camp P Commandant Colonel H.E. Pense (left) reviews the camp with – I believe – Director of Internment Operations Brigadier Edouard de Bellefeuille Panet (right).

• 5:06 – View of internees working within the enclosure.
• 5:22 – Close ups of barbed wire fences and guards patrolling the fence
• 6:16 – Two guards from the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment admit a car through a checkpoint outside the camp, which is just visible in the background.

• 6:43 – A car drives down a forested road leading to or from camp.
• 6:56 – Petawawa sign post
• 7:03 – Two internees relax on their beds in their barracks. Both read newspapers while one smokes a pipe.

• 8:20 – Two internees relax in their barrack. One reads a book while another writes a letter to friends or family.