Ernest Robert Zimmermann - The Little Third Reich on Lake Superior: A History of Canadian Internment Camp R

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Copyright 2015 The University of Alberta Press

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Zimmermann, Ernest Robert, 1931-2008, author

The little Third Reich on Lake Superior : a history of Canadian internment Camp R / Ernest Robert Zimmermann ; Michel S. Beaulieu and David K. Ratz, editors.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-88864-673-6 (paperback).ISBN 978-1-77212-029-5 (epub).ISBN 978-1-77212-030-1 (kindle).ISBN 978-1-77212-031-8 (pdf)

1. Camp R (Prisoner of war camp). 2. World War, 1939-1945Prisoners and prisons, Canadian. 3. Prisoner-of-war campsOntarioRed Rock. 4. Prisoners of warGermanyHistory20th century. 5. Prisoners of warCanadaHistory20th century. 6. World War, 1939-1945OntarioRed Rock. 7. Red Rock (Ont.)History20th century. I. Beaulieu, Michel S., editor II. Ratz, David K. (David Karl), 1965-, editor III. Title.

Index available in print and PDF editions.

First edition, rst printing, 2015.

First electronic edition, 2015.

Digital conversion by Transforma Pvt. Ltd.

Copyediting and proofreading by Lesley Peterson.

Map by Wendy Johnson.

Indexing by Judy Dunlop.

Cover design by Virginia Penny.

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Contents

Preface
Ernest Robert Zimmermann

Introduction: Situating the Red Rock POW Experience
Michel S. Beaulieu, David K. Ratz, and Ernest Robert Zimmermann

Preface

Ernest Robert Zimmermann

THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK is to tell the intriguing story of Canadas largest civilian internment camp, at Red Rock in Northwestern Ontario. From its opening on 2 July 1940 to its closing on 26 October 1941, Camp R, as it was called, housed interned civilian enemy aliens imported from Britain. Telling the story of Camp R involves not only exploring the original circumstances, which brought together the aggregate of 1,150 inmates in the camp, but also examining the multiple facets of incarceration and the conditions of camp life. Telling this story must also necessarily include a discussion of the military operations relating to Camp R: the issues and problems of administration and of guarding this large number of prisoners, as well as these issues various resolutions. Moreover, the volatile domestic Canadian atmosphere into which this lot of imported foreign internees were injected requires examination.

I first heard about the existence of the Red Rock camp from students, during discussions of the history of the Second World War. The The result of my research is the present book. With Professor Kochs generous permission I adopted his pithy phrase as the title of this book.

The history of Camp R and its inmates is reconstructed on the basis of unpublished and published documentary sources found in Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, the National Archives of the United Kingdom in Kew, the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern, the Archives of Manitoba in Winnipeg, the Canadian Jewish Congress Archives in Montreal, and the Homefront Archives and Museum in Regina. In addition, I received information from various British and German institutes, which are listed in this volumes bibliography. Memoirs and autobiographies were consulted, and numerous personal interviews with contemporary participants and observers were also conducted. Reports and articles in newspapers, magazines, journals and other secondary sources provided useful information as well.

This subject of this study might not be considered a big theme in the history of Canadas impressive war effort. On the contrary, this book deals only with the incarceration of a small group of civilian interneesand enemy aliens at thatin one single camp. The subject of Canadas treatment of these imported so-called dangerous enemy aliens from Britain is discussed extensively in the works of Koch and of Paula J. Draper, to which I refer any reader who may be interested in this studys broader context. Generally speaking, the internment in Canada of these civilian enemies, most of whom were refugees from Nazi Germany, does not represent a praiseworthy achievement but rather a very shameful act. This book deals with human folly, suffering, anguish and cruelty in adversity. And who is to say, after all, that fear and anxiety, despair and humiliation, emotions and hopes, misfortune and ill-treatment, as experienced by individuals and groups, are not in their own way a big theme?

Acknowledgements

MANY PERSONS ASSISTED in the preparation of this study, and I promised acknowledgement to all of them, whether their contribution was minor or major; now I wish to keep that commitment.

I thank Ms. S. Spolyarich-Ozbolt, my former student, for bringing the Camps existence to my attention. Next, I must thank my friend of many years, Guenter Siebel of Hamburg, for his support; he acted with dedication, efficiency and generosity as my unpaid local secretary in Germany for many months, receiving letters and questionnaires on my behalf from dozens of interviewees (former POWs and internees in Canada) and answering inquiries and scheduling follow-up interviews for me during visits to Germany. Also G. Rudi John, Thunder Bay, and Heinz Blobelt, Hamburg, both former German merchant seamen and internees, from 19391947 and 19401947 respectively, allowed me to share their past internment experiencesthough neither was an inmate of Camp R.

I thank my colleague, Abdul Mamoojee, for valuable corrections of the manuscript.

To Nancy Pazianos, Tracy Muldoon, Joan Seeley and Garth Gavin of the Interlibrary Services Department of the Chancellor Paterson Library, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, I am deeply indebted, for without their continuous, excellent and dedicated support and experienced advice many books, articles and materials from elsewhere in Canada, the United States, and Germany might never have reached me. I would also like to thank the anonymous members of the Chancellor Paterson Librarys Circulation Desk and Technical Services. I owe thanks for their repeatedly and patiently banning the demons from momentarily dysfunctional high-tech microfilm readers and printers. I thank Northern Studies Resource Centre Librarian Trudy Mauracher, who located local records, and Cathy A. Chapin, Department of Geography, Lakehead University, for her valuable advice on local and regional maps.