Internment Camp B70

[RichardProtium]

Very little remains of this Canadian POW camp from the Second World War.

 

[charlie76]

I think I the first picture is very interesting.

 

[Space Face]

It looks grim, which I assume it was. I like the b+w conversion it works well for the subject matter.

 

[Tropicalmemories]

Very evocative images.

 

[Gardyloo72 25]

Off-topic:

My father-in-law spent two years in this camp. It wasn't technically a POW camp; it was for those declared by the British government to be "enemy aliens." In my father-in-law's case, he was a German Jew living in Holland when the Nazis invaded. He and his wife along with around 40-50 others (mainly German and Dutch Jews) escaped to England on a stolen lifeboat. As a German he was declared an "enemy alien" under a controversial law adopted by the Churchill government. On landing he was sent initially to Pentonville Prison in London, then to the Isle of Man, and ultimately to Canada. The ship he sailed on had two groups of prisoners - interned Jews and Nazi SS POWs. The Jews staged a hunger strike to force the ship's crew to segregate the "passengers."

On arrival in Montreal the Jews were sent in one direction and the Nazis in another. After spending time in a fairgrounds in Trois-Rivieres QC, my father-in-law was put on a train and sent to New Brunswick, to this camp, where he spent the next 18 or 20 months. It was a "forest camp," guarded by (mainly retired) Canadian Home Guard members. The internees (of course they were prisoners but the term was unflattering) would chop down trees and send off the logs for timber or pulp production. My father-in-law was a slight man, and managed to get himself assigned to the camp kitchen for the duration of his stay. He was reticent to talk about his time at the camp, as were many prisoners.

In 1942 the British government revised its policy and allowed "enemy aliens" to be returned to the UK if they so desired. (Many stayed in Canada.) My father-in-law did so, as his wife (who was Jewish and Dutch) had not been sent to Canada. He lived under de facto house arrest for the duration of the war. His marriage was shattered and his health compromised by his term in the camp, but those things were beyond the concern of the British.

The story of their escape from Holland has been documented in an excellent article, here: The escape of the Dutch lifeboat Zeemanshoop from Scheveningen on the 14 May 1940, the day the Netherland surrendered

 

[RichardProtium]

Thank you for sharing this and the article. I had never heard of this place until the other day. The little bit of information I have on it comes from a short article published by the New Brunswick provincial government.
Internment Camp B70

It does say that the camp changed roles during the war. It also suggests the prisoners were from various groups, including Canadians who disagreed with the war. I hiked the trail where the bulk of the camp stood. The trees the prisoners milled have now completely reclaimed the area.
Some of the information at the site mentioned the prisoners cutting the trees. It suggested the wood was used for heat at the camp. This didn't ring true to me. The fact that they mentioned the prisoners working the trees sugged to me it was on a scale larger than would be needed to meet the needs of the camp.

Another example of the distortion of history so it is more palatable.