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 Entries tagged as 'documentary'

Documentary (2001): Prisoners in Paradise (Italian POWs)

Posted by Kim on May 07, 2010 at 8 a.m.
Link to Documentary (2001): Prisoners in Paradise (Italian POWs)
http://www.prisonersinparadise.com/

In addition to German POWs, the U.S. held about 51,000 Italian POWs during WW2.

Some are covered in an award winning documentary film. According to the film's website:

Featuring rare period footage of POW camps, "Prisoners in Paradise" follows six Italian POWs (and the women they met in America) on their extraordinary journey—full of challenges, love, perseverance, and good luck. Captured primarily in Northern Africa—where they had been surviving on hard biscuits and water—the Italian POW’s were uniformly amazed at the abundance of food in the USA and the generosity of their captors.

Interesting to note:

Shortly after the bulk of the Italian POW’s arrived, Italy officially switched sides in the war, and over ninety percent of the POWs agreed to collaborate with the Allied war effort.

The site includes a clip (4:54) from the film.

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Documentary (2004): The Enemy in Our Midst: ... Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Posted by Kim on April 30, 2010 at 8 a.m.
Link to Documentary (2004): The Enemy in Our Midst: ... Michigan's Upper Peninsula
nmu.edu

WMNU-TV in Michigan has posted a viewer's guide (PDF) for the 2004 award winning documentary called "The Enemy in Our Midst: Nazi Prisoner of War Camps in Michigan's Upper Peninsula."

They also offer a booklet called POW Camps in the U.P. (PDF), which contains original articles cited in the documentary.

According to their site:

From 1944 to 1946, the German prisoners called five POW camps in the Upper Peninsula home: Camps AuTrain and Evelyn in Alger County, Camp Raco in Chippewa County and Camps Sidnaw and Pori in Houghton County. Brought in under a cloak of secrecy by the U.S. Army, the prisoners eventually encountered local residents, who were reluctant to accept the POWs.

and

The project, which took two years to complete, contains many scenes shot throughout the Upper Peninsula. Also included in the 161-minute documentary are hundreds of historic photos, vintage film and interviews with local residents who had encounters with the POWs.

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Documentary (2003): The Enemy Within

Posted by Kim on April 23, 2010 at 8 a.m.
Link to Documentary (2003): The Enemy Within
National Film Board of Canada

Here's another good documentary: The Enemy Within (52:04).

Filmmaker Eva Colmers follows her father's story - Theo Melzer - who spent three and a half years in a POW camp in Lethbridge, Alberta. Growing up in Germany, she had always been puzzled by her father's fond memories of his POW life, so when she moved to Canada, she set out to rediscover this story. What she found surprised her. Watch as Theo Melzer, along with other POWs, recount how their lives were changed by the unexpected respect and dignity they received at the hands of their Canadian captors.

Lethbridge, AB is about 500 km (310 miles) south of Wainwright, AB.

Watch online for free, courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada. It's well worth your time.

title: The Enemy Within
filmmaker: Eva Colmers
release date: 2003
list price: free!
run time: 52:04 minutes

Related Posts:
   1. Wainwright Internment Camp No. 135 - more details (Sep 27, 2010)
   2. "Epilogue" (Sep 13, 2010)
   3. "A Brilliant Escape" (Jul 12, 2010)
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Documentary: Hitler's Canadians (with video excerpt)

Posted by Scott on April 08, 2010 at 8 a.m.
Link to Documentary: Hitler's Canadians (with video excerpt)
Hitler's Canadians

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.

Meanwhile, here's an intro (1:03).

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