On first glance, it may seem a simple photo of a hockey game and soldiers looking on. But on a closer look, something stands out – the soldiers are not Canadian. They are German. This picture, which I was very pleased to add to my collection, is a relatively rare photo of German POWs atContinue reading “POWs and “the good ol’ hockey game””
Category Archives: Prisoner of War
“Manitoba Snow Too Severe – 19 Germans Return to Camp”
On November 1, 1943 – 75 years ago – newspapers across the country announced a mass escape from a POW camp in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park. On October 31, 1943 – only five days after their arrival – nineteen German Prisoners of War (POWs) were found missing from the newly completed camp in Manitoba’sContinue reading ““Manitoba Snow Too Severe – 19 Germans Return to Camp””
Easter, 1945
Happy Easter! Here is the menu card for Easter, 1945 at Camp 23 (Monteith, Ontario). “Aschinger” was the name of the dining hall, named after a famous Berlin restaurant.
Christmas at Camp 70 – Fredericton
The sketch above was submitted to War Prisoners’ Aid for consideration of being printed as one of the annual Christmas cards produced by the organization and distributed to PoWs in Canada. The artist, Rudi Boege, was a civilian internee at Camp 70 (Fredericton, NB) and, as the spokesman described, one of the most gifted artistsContinue reading “Christmas at Camp 70 – Fredericton”
Volkstrauertag 2017 (German Remembrance Day)
The annual German Remembrance Day service will be held Sunday, November 19, 2017. This service takes place at Woodland Cemetery in Kitchener, Ontario (119 Arlington Boulevard) at 2:30 p.m. For more information, please click here.
Snapshot from Neys
While picture postcards of German prisoners of war in Canada are not particularly uncommon, examples from certain camps can prove more difficult to find (for more on PoW picture postcards, see my earlier post here). In my experience, images from Camp 100 at Neys, Ontario are among those harder to find. I was therefore quiteContinue reading “Snapshot from Neys”
Prisoner of War Canoes
Today (June 26) marks National Canoe Day so what better way to celebrate than a post on PoW-made canoes! In May 1943, the Canadian government approved the use of prisoner of war labour to help boost the struggling lumber and agricultural industries. From 1943 to 1946, thousands of German PoWs, Enemy Merchant Seamen (EMS), andContinue reading “Prisoner of War Canoes”
“K.G. Lager 133 – Ozada, Kanada 1942”
Camp 133 near Ozada, Alberta seems to have been among the most popular locations for Prisoners of War in Canada to paint during the Second World War. Situated on the Mortley Flats, the camp offered stunning views of the nearby Rocky Mountains and, despite living in tents during a wet summer and cold fall, wasContinue reading ““K.G. Lager 133 – Ozada, Kanada 1942””
Happy New Year 1946
Wishing a Happy New Year to all my readers! In 1945, PoW Willi Nötel gave this Happy New Year card to his fellow PoW and friend Erich Neumann in Camp 132 at Medicine Hat, Alberta. Both the double-sided card and envelope are hand-made, presumably by Nötel, and note he even replicated the postal cancellation onContinue reading “Happy New Year 1946”
Camp 40 (Camp A) – Farnham, Quebec
I whipped this map up for a reader researching his father earlier today and thought I would share. The image shows the layout of the internment Camp at Farnham, Quebec overlaid on some modern satellite imagery from Google. Camp A, as it was initially known, opened in October 1940 and initially held civilian internees andContinue reading “Camp 40 (Camp A) – Farnham, Quebec”
