Martin Auger. Prisoners on the Home Front: German POWs and "Enemy Aliens" in Southern , 1940-1946. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005. 240 pp. $35.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-7748-1224-5.

Reviewed by Angelika E. Sauer

Published on H-Canada (January, 2007)

Concentration camps had come a long way excellent bibliography of published and unpub‐ since the turn of the century, when Western colo‐ lished secondary sources, integrating them into nial powers (notably Spain, the United States, and his narrative without, however, fully positioning Britain) frst started herding civilians into con‐ himself in the historiography of internment. His fned spaces in an attempt to subjugate hostile main point is that "the internment operation in populations in their overseas colonies. By the time Canada, although occasionally lacking proper or‐ Canada received its frst batch of mostly German ganization, was a positive experience overall"--a Jewish civilian internees from Britain in 1940, es‐ home front victory (pp .4, 152). Other writers have tablishing internment operations "had become questioned the legality of interning civilians and standard procedure in times of war," as Martin the positive experience that internment allegedly Auger assures us (p. 18). All belligerents used provided.[1] But Auger's point is well taken: one camps to intern not only prisoners of war but also should not, even in a casual way, equate Canada's to neutralize potential internal enemies. Designed internment camps with Nazi 's concen‐ by the modern state and managed by a special‐ tration camps. Growing out of the same seed of ized bureaucracy, these modernized internment extending colonial warfare to perceived civilian operations could range from the horrors of the enemies, these two types of camps had historical‐ Nazi concentration camps, Stalinist gulags, and Ja‐ ly become very diferent and nearly unrelated panese torture camps to the fair and humane phenomena. Nothing could illustrate this better treatment meted out by the Western Allies, Cana‐ than the story of how newly interned German da included. POWs in late 1942 complained that their lodging, The history of Canadian internment opera‐ courtesy of the Canadian government, was "primi‐ tions in World War II, both afecting civilians and tive" and "unworthy of an ofcer." This promptly captured members of the enemy armed forces, is led to the construction of a new and more com‐ fairly well known, and Martin Auger provides an fortable ofcer camp (pp. 36-37). Throughout the book, Auger shows numerous examples of Canada H-Net Reviews scrupulously following the Geneva Convention Yet he does prove throughout the book that pat‐ that regulated conditions for interned enemy terns of internment operations were established armed forces, and extending the same protections during the civilian phase, and that the experi‐ to civilian internees and merchant seamen, al‐ ences of the captives were in many cases remark‐ though their position was not defned or protect‐ ably similar. ed under international law. In the following chapters, which form the Auger's focus is on fve internment camps lo‐ core of the book, Auger attempts to reconstruct cated in southern Quebec: Île-aux-Noix, Farnham, the social history of the camps. Again, the war di‐ , Grande Ligne, and Sorel. All were aries, with their wealth of daily trivia, help, and small with less than one thousand internees; all Auger supplements them with memoirs and oral were specialized, either by type of internee (for histories of the civilian internees (in particular) example, Sherbrooke was for seamen only) or by that are found at the Library and Archives Cana‐ function (Sorel was especially constructed for re- da in MG30, in the Eric Koch collection (Eric Koch education purposes); and all housed only Ger‐ was one of the internees). Life in captivity, even man-speaking internees. Auger therefore does not under the best of conditions, was marked by phys‐ ofer many reference points for comparison with ical and psychological strains that afected all camps that housed Italians (such as Île Ste. Hélène civilian and military internees to various degrees. in ), camps in other parts of Quebec, or The Canadian authorities were well aware that indeed any of the other twenty permanent camps boredom, privation of material comfort, resent‐ throughout the country. ment, "barbed wire psychosis" and "internitis" After a useful, concise overview of the histori‐ (pp. 52-53) could lead to various morale and disci‐ cal and legal developments that framed the way plinary problems. They opened the camp to the Canada and other Western Allies approached in‐ eforts of international relief organizations who terning POWs and civilians, Martin Auger traces introduced musical instruments and sports equip‐ the development of the southern Quebec camps ment. (Here, Auger might have consulted the and examines their administration mainly on the Boeschenstein fonds, MG30 C193, to fnd out more basis of war diaries, those indispensable logs of about the work of the YMCA in the camps.) With military units' daily activities. Three of the fve the help of relief organizations, Canadian authori‐ camps he examines were initially and hastily con‐ ties provided camp libraries (from which both structed to house civilian internees that were Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf [1925] and Karl transferred from Britain in the summer of 1940. Marx's Das Kapital [1867] were banished) and Conditions were primitive, guards inexperienced hosted movie nights, exposing German POWs to and not always scrupulously honest, and the un‐ English-speaking movie stars like Douglas Fair‐ lucky captives had a hard time convincing the au‐ banks Jr., Errol Flynn, and Ronald Reagan. They thorities that they were, in fact, not enemies of even ofered English-language classes, noticing the Allies, but refugees from Nazi Germany: Ger‐ only belatedly that in order to introduce Germans man Jewish teenagers, scholars, intellectuals, and to the Canadian way of life in a Quebec environ‐ a sprinkling of Communists and other political op‐ ment, some French-language classes might be use‐ ponents of the Nazis. The remarkable story of the ful, too (p.135). "camp boys" has been told by Paula Draper and in Two of the most efective methods to prevent numerous memoirs, and Auger might have decid‐ discontent and unrest were educational programs ed to exclude it, concentrating instead on the and paid employment, both of which also served POW phase of the camps which began in 1942.[2] the purpose of preparing POWs for postwar life in

2 H-Net Reviews a democratic and capitalist society. Internees mass escape with civilian casualties and sabotage were provided with opportunities to practice or of important facilities brought the Minister of Jus‐ learn agricultural and trade skills in camp farm‐ tice and the Chiefs of the General Staf into the ing operations and industrial workshops. The picture (p. 88). While the camp authorities had wages they earned could be exchanged for con‐ found the Communists among the civilian in‐ sumer goods in the camp canteen; in one case, a ternees annoying, the threat posed by unrehabili‐ proft sharing arrangement netted Farnham in‐ tated Nazis seemed far more imminent. With the ternee farmers $10,000.00 (p. 99). Internees were approval of the Canadian war cabinet, intelli‐ also encouraged to practice democracy on a small gence ofcers were stationed in the camps and an scale by electing a camp spokesman or in the case efort was made to segregate all German prison‐ of Camp Farnham in 1945-46, electing a camp ers into political and ideological categories of council, and drafting and ratifying a constitution. "white," "gray," and black." The plan was to house After the war in Europe had formally ended, the them in separate camps, respectively. Reluctantly, Canadian authorities also embarked on a re-edu‐ the Canadian government also joined the Allied cation program that was to show the prisoners al‐ efort to prepare "white" (i.e. reliable and docu‐ ternatives to totalitarianism and prepare them for mented anti-Nazi) prisoners for work in post-hos‐ civilian postwar professions while they awaited tilities Germany (p. 125). repatriation. Auger's section on the re-education program Despite all these eforts to make life in captiv‐ struck this reviewer as the most interesting part ity bearable, there were mental breakdowns and of the book. Based on sources by military intelli‐ attempted break-outs, as well as riots, hunger gence, Auger shows how the camps in southern strikes, and any number of illicit activities, such Quebec were turned into laboratories for postwar as the making and consuming of alcohol, attempt‐ Germany and, in turn, taught much that was later ing to communicate with female civilians, and applied in Europe. When interviewing volunteers building radio receivers. Attempting to escape for relocation to the new re-education camp at seemed to be a sport for some internees who cut Sorel, Intelligence Ofcers had to develop ways to barbed wire with stolen kitchen knives and built probe a person's ideological commitment and de‐ tunnels with concealed entrances. Guards and sign methods to detect opportunists and liars; prisoners were watching each other closely in what they learnt was later applied in the security what appeared to be an elaborate game of cat- screening of immigrants. Watching their captives and-mouse. Prisoners who did escape were al‐ throughout the war years, the Canadian authori‐ ways captured within hours and returned to the ties noticed how the homogeneous body of "Ger‐ camp. man" POWs split into groupings by social class While parts of Auger's book reads as if the and military rank, by educational level and by re‐ documents were a script for a sitcom, there are gion of origin, German particularist tendencies far more serious elements of the story of intern‐ becoming oblivious in friendly football rivalries ment that eventually shine through. Canadian (p. 51) and in radio recordings in distinct regional POW camps contained an unusually high percent‐ dialects (p. 140). Military authorities also realized age of committed Nazis whose ideological makeup that most German POWs shared a dislike of the seemed to make them immune to humane treat‐ Soviet Union and hoped to win over the Western ment and who spread terror in some of the camps Allies for postwar cooperation. Finally, when forc‐ in the West. A plot by the so-called HARIKARI club ing the "gray" inmate population of Camp Farn‐ in Camp Grande Ligne to implement a suicidal ham to watch the documentaries of the liberation of the concentration camps, Canadian military au‐

3 H-Net Reviews thorities would have become painfully aware of detested homosexuality and that German POWs the tendency of most ordinary German POWs to did not tolerate it in their midst. These fndings deny, disbelieve, and generally disassociate them‐ contradict much that is known about homosocial selves from the atrocities committed by Nazi Ger‐ environments, especially when they are the result many (pp. 138-139). The realities of postwar Ger‐ of forced confnement (such as prisons). Patrick many could not have come as a surprise to any of Farges has tackled this question as an issue of the Canadian authorities involved in internment power hierarchies and concluded that "l'existence operations. d'une économie homosexuelle au sein du camp" is This meticulously researched book ofers a well documented.[3] Further, what is known from wealth of material, though no startling new in‐ research about the homoerotic culture of the Nazi sights. One wonders why, other than for reasons movement and the German military also suggests of convenient sources, Auger chose the fve in‐ that any neat conclusions about the lack of tolera‐ ternment camps of southern Quebec? What made tion of homosexuality may not capture a more southern Quebec an internment "region"? Was it complex and contradictory reality in the camps. because the guards were unemployed French- In all fairness, homosexuality is not the focus Canadian veterans of World War I, who likely saw of this book. However, the same problem with a their roles as paid employment rather than patri‐ too-literal reading of the documents extends to otic duty? Was it because the internees, ever the war diaries. They are marvelous treasure hatching escape plans and dreaming of freedom, troves of detailed information, but they also could could hope for a quick dash across the U.S. border be interrogated for what they say about the Cana‐ and onwards to Mexico and Latin America--a dian military authorities' values and priorities. route that was not open to internees in northern What, for example, does it mean that authorities, ? How much was diferent in the overall working on preventing escapes, barely concealed internment operations, of which these camps their respect for the German POWs, who were "in‐ were an integral part? genious, imaginative, intelligent and courageous" A second criticism concerns Auger's use of his (p.68)? Was the enemy seen as a fellow soldier sources. Though painstaking in his documenta‐ rather than an ideological opponent, and how did tion, he is perhaps too literal and too traditional this perceived commonality infuence the guards' in his reading of the primary sources. This be‐ actions? How did the discovery of the death comes especially obvious in his social history of camps in Europe change this picture? How did the camps. Using so-called "ego documents" to an‐ half-hearted attempts at social engineering alyze camp life, Auger is reluctant to practice change the microcosm that each camp represent‐ "reading against the grain" or questioning silences ed? Martin Auger has supplied us with a useful in the personal narratives. While this may work book to better understand Canada's war in all its when reconstructing banal and pleasant activi‐ dimensions, but he may not have given us the de‐ ties, such as playing music or learning to skate, it fnitive account of life in an internment camp in fails to deal convincingly with controversial topics southern Quebec. such as homosexual activities in the camps. Auger Notes devotes a mere half page to this question, repeat‐ [1]. John Stanton, "Government Internment ing the observations of one former internee that Policy, 1939-1945," Labour/ Le Travail 31 (Spring support the existence of homosexual practices in 1993): 203-241; and Bill Waiser, _Park Prisoners: the camp. Yet he concurs with fellow historian The Untold Story of Western Canada's National Chris Madsen that Nazi German military culture Parks 1915-1946 (Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1995).

4 H-Net Reviews

[2]. Paula J. Draper, "The Accidental Immi‐ grants: Canada and the Interned Refugees," (Ph.D. diss., University of , 1983). [3]. Patrick Farges, "Nous les Camp Boys: Con‐ structions de la masculinité dans les récits des 'réfugiés-internés au Canada' (1933-2003)," paper presented at the conference Histoire, Genre, Mi‐ gration (Paris) March 27-29, 2006, http:// barthes.ens.fr/clio/dos/genre/com/farges.pdf

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-canada

Citation: Angelika E. Sauer. Review of Auger, Martin. Prisoners on the Home Front: German POWs and "Enemy Aliens" in Southern Quebec, 1940-1946. H-Canada, H-Net Reviews. January, 2007.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12796

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

5