Prisoners of the Home Front: German POWs and "Enemy Aliens" in Southern Quebec, 1940–46

Andrew C. Young is an assistant historian at the Canadian War Museum in
Ottawa.

Prisoners of the Home Front covers a relatively little-known chapter in
Canada’s World War II history. The author’s geographical focus is on
the camps located in southern Quebec: Farnham, Оle-aux-Noix,
Sherbrooke, Grande Ligne, and Sorel. From 1940 to 1942, the populations
of these camps were predominantly civilian enemy aliens; from 1943 to
1946 they contained German POWs, who came to Canada under the authority
of Great Britain.

Auger analyses how the internment program developed, what psychological
pressures the POWs were under, and how camp authorities provided work
and educational opportunities to the prisoners, all while carefully
abiding by the terms of the Geneva Convention (as monitored by Swiss
visits to the camps) to avoid any retaliation against Canadian POWs held
by the Germans.

Despite the excellent treatment accorded the German POWs, there were
attempted escapes. A hardcore group of Nazis also maintained a reign of
terror over the other prisoners until the group was segregated in its
own camp. Some prisoners with good behaviour could earn the right to
live and or work away from the camps, either as boarded farmhands or in
factories. Workshops were established inside the camps themselves and a
variety of products were produced, earning the prisoners pocket money
that could be spent in camp canteens. At war’s end, many German POWs
applied to remain in Canada but all were repatriated because of a
requirement of the Geneva Convention.

Auger’s fine book, which offers a detailed study of all aspects of
the camp life, is an important contribution to World War II literature.