Did Canada have POW camps in ww2?
Did Canada have POW camps in ww2?
Canada operated prison camps for interned civilians during the First and Second World Wars, and for 34,000 combatant German prisoners of war (POWs) during the Second World War. The POW camps at Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, Alberta, were the largest in North America.
How were Canadian POWs treated in ww2?
Canadian Prisoners of War The conditions in these camps were difficult but, for the most part, many prisoners of the German camps had adequate food and were treated relatively humanely. However, as the war continued and Nazi Germany began to collapse under the Allied onslaught, conditions worsened.
How did Red Cross parcels get to POWs?
When the Central Powers refused to allow food to be sent to prisoners of war by the British government, the British Red Cross had stepped forward. French POWs were required to pay for parcels sent to them through a French commission; these packages included potted chicken, various pâtés, and even bottled wine.
Where were the POWs kept during ww2?
Most were captured in a string of defeats in France, North Africa and the Balkans between 1940 and 1942. They were held in a network of POW camps stretching from Nazi-occupied Poland to Italy.
What were the conditions of PoW camps?
Forced to carry out slave labour on a starvation diet and in a hostile environment, many died of malnutrition or disease. Sadistic punishments were handed out for the most minor breach of camp rules. Most prisoners of war (POWs) existed on a very poor diet of rice and vegetables, which led to severe malnutrition.
What did German POW eat?
potatoes
The single key factor in POW survival was neither the guards nor the climate: The German POW diet was based on potatoes, while the Japanese was based on rice. Rice is great stuff – if you know how to use it.
What did POWs eat in ww2?
The inventive POW cooks made meals of fried spam on bread, toast with prune spread and hot chocolate made from chocolate that arrived in the parcels for Sunday breakfast. Sunday lunch would be toast smeared with pate, goon soup and coffee.
How many prisoner-of-war camps were there in ww2?
In the United States at the end of World War II, there were prisoner-of-war camps, including 175 Branch Camps serving 511 Area Camps containing over 425,000 prisoners of war (mostly German).
