In 2007, Storyline Entertainment released a documentary called Hitler's Canadian's. From the press release
This one-hour documentary tells the little known story of German POWs in Canada during WW2. It features dramatic re-enactments of brilliant and hilarious escapes, the biggest prison rebellion in Canadian history and surprising interviews with former prisoners.
They explain why POWs were sent to Canada:
In 1940, before the U.S. entered WW II in 1941, the growing ranks of German prisoners in Britain presented an urgent problem. Straining to meet the Geneva Convention standards for POW treatment and with Nazi armies nearing their shores, Britain saw the POWs as a potential threat on their own soil and opted to send them to Canada.
Here's a theme that will be encountered often:
Without exception, the former POWs seen in “Hitler’s Canadians” were grateful for Canada’s hospitality and treatment. All of them realize that if it weren’t for their time behind Canadian barbed wire, they might not have survived the war.
And some hard data:
Between 1947 and 1960, 265,000 Germans immigrated to Canada. 6,000 of them were former POWs.
Klaus Conrad was one of the POWs interviewed in the documentary.
I enjoyed the video and will have more in a future post.
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