The March 6th Toronto Star had an article by Carola Vyhnak about a World War II German prisoner of war camp about 45 minutes east of Toronto in Bowmanville, which is slated to be destroyed in the next several months after sitting empty for the past year after an Islamic school closed.
The camp consists of 18 buildings on 40 hectares and held top-ranking German prisoners. They were shipped to Canada to get them out of Britain. It is rumored that Adolf Hitler had plans to send a U-Boat down the St. Lawrence River to rescue one high ranking submarine commander.
Even to this day, there is a pile of dirt in the attic of one of the buildings, a remnant of an escape attempt. A 90-metre passage was dug 4.5 metres underground. Excavated dirt was placed in the ceiling until a collapse from the weight alerted guards to the plot.
LUXURY
At its high point, the camp held 880 pows in what can be described as luxury, even five-star. They even had an indoor swimming pool and a theater. Only barbed wire and towers would indicate the true function.
One Luftwaffe pilot wrote, "I am convinced that nowhere in the world did prisoners of war have better housing, better food, better recreation facilities, better educational opportunities, and above all, fairer treatment, than in Canada."
Too bad at least one of the buildings, preferably the one with the dirt in the attic, can't be preserved and turned into a war museum.. Most young people today do not know that enemy soldiers were held prisoner in the US and Canada during the war.
If You Gotta Be a POW, I Vote for These Accommodations. --Cooter
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