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Daily life in WW I internment camps

Overview of the set

This set of History Docs invites students to assess the daily living conditions of internees held in Canadian World War I internment camps after examining a variety of primary and secondary sources including government documents, photographs, personal letters, journal articles, books, and historical fiction.

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Primary sources
	1. Report on internment operations \| Excerpt from “Internment Operations 1914–1920,” the final report about internment operations written by Major-General Sir William Otter, the director of Canada’s internment operations during World War I. “Report on Internment Operations” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 134. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	2. Camp Otter, Yoho National Park, 1916 \| Photograph of Camp Otter National Park (also known located as “Field,” “Otter Tail” or “Otter” Camp) located eight miles southwest of Field, British Columbia, from September 6, 1915 to October 23, 1916. “Camp Otter Yoho National Park” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 60. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	3. Report on internment activities \| Section of a report written by A. E. Hopkins, the commanding officer at the Jasper, Alberta internment camp. “A Report by Major A.E. Hopkins” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 159. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	4. Internees working on a road \| Photograph of internees from the Castle Mountain internment camp working on a road-building project in 1915. Glenbow Archives NA-1870-7
	5. Prisoner on a stretcher \| Photograph taken by Sergeant William Buck shows a prisoner on a stretcher, who was shot by a guard while trying to escape from an internment camp. “Prisoner on stretcher, shot by guard when trying to escape” in In My Charge: The Canadian Internment Camp Photographs of Sergeant William Buck. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk & Borys Sydoruk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 1997. Pp. XL. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	6. Inside the campground at Kapuskasing \| Photograph shows camp internees behind the fences of the Kapuskasing internment camp in Ontario. “Inside the campground at Kapuskasing” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 37. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	7. A report of complaints \| Report submitted on September 7, 1917 by S. Gintzburger, the Consul of Switzerland, who as an impartial observer acting on behalf of the German government to inspect internment camp conditions in the Morrissey Camp located near Fernie, B.C. “Report on Prisoners at Morrissey” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. E. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 27. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	8. Report of Captain O. L. Spencer’s \| Excerpts from the daily reports of the commanding officer at Castle Mountain Internment Camp from January 31 and February 1, 1916. Journal entries of a commanding officer at Castle Mountain Internment Camp from January 31st and February 1st, 1916 in In the Shadow of the Rockies. Ed. Bohdan S. Kordan and Peter Melnycky. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press (University of Alberta), 1991. Pp. 52-55.
	9. Work camp on Rundle Mountain \| Photograph taken between 1915-1918 shows internees doing their daily work near Rundle Mountain in Banff, Alberta. “25 degrees below under Rundle Mountain, Banff” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 71. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	10. Censored letter from an internee \| Letter sent by internee Nick Olynik to his wife on October 28, 1915 from the Castle Mountain Internment Camp. Copy of letter translated from prisoner of war No. 98 N. Olynik to his wife, dated October 28, 1915. © Government of Canada. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada (2011). Library and Archives Canada/National Defence fonds/RG24, vol. 4729, file 448-14-223, vol. 3.
Secondary sources
	1. Diary of a young Ukrainian girl \| Excerpt from the fictional diary of Anya Soloniuk that was written by Ukrainian-Canadian writer Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch about the life of a young girl interned with her family at the Spirit Lake internment camp in Northern Québec in 1915. From Dear Canada: Prisoners in the Promised Land © 2007 by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. Reproduced by permission of Scholastic Canada Ltd.
	2. Internment camp living conditions \| Excerpt from a book written by historian Orest T. Martynowych entitled Ukrainians in Canada: The formative period, 1891–1924, published in 1991. Martynowych, Orest. T. Ukrainians in Canada: The Formative Period, 1891-1924. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1991. Pp. 328-329.
	3. Inspection of Spirit Lake Camp \| Historian Peter Melnycky discusses the November 1916 visit of United States Consul G. Willrich to the Spirit Lake Internment camp in Québec. As a neutral country, American diplomats were expected to inspect Canadian prisoner of war camps on behalf of the German and Austro-Hungarian governments to ensure that conditions met the standards guaranteed by the Hague Convention. Melnycky, Peter. “Badly Treated in Every Way: The Internment of Ukrainians in Quebec During the First World War” in The Ukrainian Experience In Quebec. Ed. Alexander Biega and Myroslaw Diakiwsky. Toronto: Basilian Press, 1994.

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Daily life in camps

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Student tasks

Question: What were daily conditions like for internees in internment camps across Canada during World War I?

When determining what conditions were like for internees, you may want to consider the following aspects:

living conditions (sleeping quarters, cooking and eating facilities).
quality of life (access to water and medical treatment, safety).
treatment by guards and other officials.
working conditions.
leisure time.

Teacher notes

The following notes are intended to:

help teachers guide student interpretation of the sources included in the set of History Docs
provide teachers with historical background information on the topic.

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Historical context for teachers

Internment of Ukrainians

In total, 8579 “enemy aliens” (including 81 women and 156 children) were interned in the 24 internment camps across Canada. Only 3138 of the 8579 internees could be properly classified as prisoners of war (POWs), (individuals captured under arms or reservists required to serve in the Austrian or German armed forces), and only 817 of these POWs were active servicemen captured in Caribbean ports at the onset of the war and transferred to Canada.
The internment camps housed 7762 Canadian residents, 5954 non-Germans from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1192 Germans, 205 Turks and 99 Bulgarians.
Internees from the Austro-Hungarian Empire were officially designated as Austrians, although the vast majority were different minorities including Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Poles, Slovenes and Ukrainians.
Although no formal tally of ethnic origin exists, the majority of surnames in the camps were Ukrainian which reflects the ethnic make-up of immigrants from Austria-Hungary in Canada at the time. No Ukrainians originally from the Russian Empire were interned because Russia was an ally of Great Britain.

Organization of the camps

Upon being interned, internees’ possessions and monetary funds were seized by the Canadian government. The prisoners in the camps were segregated into two classes according to their nationality, occupation and previous military service.
Generally speaking, internees of German ethnicity were treated as first-class internees while Ukrainians and other ethnic groups from the Austro-Hungarian Empire were designated second-class internees.
First-class internees received preferred accommodation and rations, usually staying near an urban centre. Second-class internees were forced to work for the Canadian government, usually far away from major urban centres.
The Hague Convention outlined rules for the employment of POWs. Internees were required to provide work for their own comfort, cleanliness and health. However, any work completed for the advantage of the government, or for the service of private individuals or corporations, was voluntary and required payment.
Internees received the same pay as a Canadian soldier for noncombat work (25 cents per day). Internees were primarily put to work building roads, clearing land (including for experimental farms in northern Ontario and Québec), cutting wood, building railways and building Canada’s national parks, including Banff National Park in Alberta.
Due to severe labour shortages across Canada during the last two years of the war, many internment camps closed between 1916 and 1918. Many internees were paroled to private companies to work as full-time employees, or shipped to larger camps. Those who were paroled and allowed to leave the camps went to work for private businesses; for municipal, provincial and federal levels of government; or for railway companies.
Many paroled Ukrainians were forced to move to different spots across Canada without their families, and many were employed in industries in which they had no previous experience.
Although most camps closed from 1916 to 1918, several camps (in Vernon, British Columbia; Kapuskasing, Ontario; and Amherst, Nova Scotia) were not closed until 1919 or 1920, a full year and a half after the end of the war.

Canada’s first national internment operations, 1914-1920

from A time for atonement: by Lubomyr Luciuk (Kingston: Limestone Press, 1988)

Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.

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Primary sources
	1. Report on internment operations \| Excerpt from “Internment Operations 1914–1920,” the final report about internment operations written by Major-General Sir William Otter, the director of Canada’s internment operations during World War I. “Report on Internment Operations” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 134. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	2. Camp Otter, Yoho National Park, 1916 \| Photograph of Camp Otter National Park (also known located as “Field,” “Otter Tail” or “Otter” Camp) located eight miles southwest of Field, British Columbia, from September 6, 1915 to October 23, 1916. “Camp Otter Yoho National Park” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 60. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	3. Report on internment activities \| Section of a report written by A. E. Hopkins, the commanding officer at the Jasper, Alberta internment camp. “A Report by Major A.E. Hopkins” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 159. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	4. Internees working on a road \| Photograph of internees from the Castle Mountain internment camp working on a road-building project in 1915. Glenbow Archives NA-1870-7
	5. Prisoner on a stretcher \| Photograph taken by Sergeant William Buck shows a prisoner on a stretcher, who was shot by a guard while trying to escape from an internment camp. “Prisoner on stretcher, shot by guard when trying to escape” in In My Charge: The Canadian Internment Camp Photographs of Sergeant William Buck. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk & Borys Sydoruk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 1997. Pp. XL. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	6. Inside the campground at Kapuskasing \| Photograph shows camp internees behind the fences of the Kapuskasing internment camp in Ontario. “Inside the campground at Kapuskasing” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 37. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	7. A report of complaints \| Report submitted on September 7, 1917 by S. Gintzburger, the Consul of Switzerland, who as an impartial observer acting on behalf of the German government to inspect internment camp conditions in the Morrissey Camp located near Fernie, B.C. “Report on Prisoners at Morrissey” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. E. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 27. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	8. Report of Captain O. L. Spencer’s \| Excerpts from the daily reports of the commanding officer at Castle Mountain Internment Camp from January 31 and February 1, 1916. Journal entries of a commanding officer at Castle Mountain Internment Camp from January 31st and February 1st, 1916 in In the Shadow of the Rockies. Ed. Bohdan S. Kordan and Peter Melnycky. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press (University of Alberta), 1991. Pp. 52-55.
	9. Work camp on Rundle Mountain \| Photograph taken between 1915-1918 shows internees doing their daily work near Rundle Mountain in Banff, Alberta. “25 degrees below under Rundle Mountain, Banff” in In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920. Ed. Lubomyr Luciuk. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Pp. 71. Published with the permission of Lubomyr Luciuk.
	10. Censored letter from an internee \| Letter sent by internee Nick Olynik to his wife on October 28, 1915 from the Castle Mountain Internment Camp. Copy of letter translated from prisoner of war No. 98 N. Olynik to his wife, dated October 28, 1915. © Government of Canada. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada (2011). Library and Archives Canada/National Defence fonds/RG24, vol. 4729, file 448-14-223, vol. 3.
Secondary sources
	1. Diary of a young Ukrainian girl \| Excerpt from the fictional diary of Anya Soloniuk that was written by Ukrainian-Canadian writer Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch about the life of a young girl interned with her family at the Spirit Lake internment camp in Northern Québec in 1915. From Dear Canada: Prisoners in the Promised Land © 2007 by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. Reproduced by permission of Scholastic Canada Ltd.
	2. Internment camp living conditions \| Excerpt from a book written by historian Orest T. Martynowych entitled Ukrainians in Canada: The formative period, 1891–1924, published in 1991. Martynowych, Orest. T. Ukrainians in Canada: The Formative Period, 1891-1924. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1991. Pp. 328-329.
	3. Inspection of Spirit Lake Camp \| Historian Peter Melnycky discusses the November 1916 visit of United States Consul G. Willrich to the Spirit Lake Internment camp in Québec. As a neutral country, American diplomats were expected to inspect Canadian prisoner of war camps on behalf of the German and Austro-Hungarian governments to ensure that conditions met the standards guaranteed by the Hague Convention. Melnycky, Peter. “Badly Treated in Every Way: The Internment of Ukrainians in Quebec During the First World War” in The Ukrainian Experience In Quebec. Ed. Alexander Biega and Myroslaw Diakiwsky. Toronto: Basilian Press, 1994.

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Daily life in WW I internment camps

Overview of the set

Primary sources

Secondary sources