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11 2 The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanville, November 9, 1988 Section Two Lioness Donation Starts Library Collection The Bowmanville Lioness Club has made its second donation to the library, helping to establish a talking book collection for use by handicapped readers. With the $200 gift, the library staff was able to buy four excellent works to begin their collection. Above from the left are Lioness members, Billie Kemp (treasurer), (treasurer), Norma Lewis (president), and Marie Moses. On the right is Emma Dykstra who runs the talking book program at the library. • Nothing in the Free Trade Agreement adversely affects any social program. ROSS STEVENSON Don't let the opposition scare tactics determine your vote. Get The Fact Not The Fiction About Free Trade Contact your P.C. Campaign offices. Campaign Offices: Bowmanville -- 85 King St. W. 623-8935/623-8706 Darlington -- 1429 King St. E., Oshawa 433-0104 Authorized by D. Berry, Official Agent for Ross Stevenson Get the Fact NOT The Fiction about FREE TRADE • Free and Secure access to the U.S. market provided by the Auto Pact remains intact. I ROYAL BAN l<lS : I Royal Bank of Canada ! I REGISTERED RETIREMENT I SAVINGS PLAN I INFORMATION I NIGHT I will be scheduled for early January I 1989 for the Bowmanville, Courtice j I and Newcastle area. [ I Please call or attend our II Branches at: : I 55 King Street East, Bowmanville i I 623-4471 [ I 1405 King Street East, Oshawa ; I 576-5521 (King and Townline) : I Wheel House Drive, Wilmot Creek ; I Branch, 623-1187 : I to priority register for a I personal invitation Museum Curator Relives History with German POWs by Chris Clark Armed with a lengthy slide show and numerous S uestions, Bowmanville's lan Hoffman set off for Freiburg. West Germany last month to meet with for-. mer German Prisoners-of- War who were held in Canada. Canada. The 300 or so ex-soldiers were holding a reunion and welcomed Dan, curator of the Bowmanville Museum, as a source of information about their years spent in captivity in Canada. Many of the Germans were held at Camp 30, minutes north of Bowmanville. Despite the fear and hatred of Germans which gripped Canadians during the war and fuelled rumours of U-Boats in the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Germans Germans at Camp 30 received unprecedented treatment for a POW camp. It was almost like a minimum security health club. The slide show Dan showed his hosts was compiled compiled from numerous pictures pictures the Canadian Department Department of Defense took at Camp 30 throughout the five years it was open, from 1941 to 1945. At the time, the photographs photographs were used to satisfy satisfy officials in Geneva that prisoner conditions were suitable. Once in Dan's hands, however, they became became a powerful tool of nostalgia nostalgia and posterity. Says Dan: "One hundred and twenty-five people saw my slide show. When they saw themselves in uniforms one guy got up and named them all." Dan's central reason for travelling to Germany was to secure primary material about the camp. Once there, he said, "you become a part of the past you've spent so much time reading about." None of that past made as great an impact on Dan as aid the concentration camp, Dachau. And it was this camp which demonstrated to tne German soldiers returning returning home from Camp 30 after the war, just how fortunate fortunate they had been to be detained detained in Canada. "The main gate is heavy and iron, and cast into the doorway is the motto 'work makes one free'. There is tremendous tremendous irony," he says, "because the prisoners there (who survived) were there for slave labour. These fellows fellows would be rented out to do labour and the Germans made money on their labour." labour." "There were 1200 people in one enemy barracks," Dan reported, adding that he couldn't even imagine where they slept and lived. The contrast with Camp 30 was even more evident to returning returning German soldiers, forced to check through Dachau, than it is today to Dan. All the soldiers, "appreciated "appreciated the treatment they received received in Canada and didn't harbour any animosity," Dan said. Whereas death was omnipresent omnipresent in German POW .camps, not one German died at Camp 30 and the soldiers were virtually free within the confines of the camp. There was a pool, a gymnasium, gymnasium, playing fields, a hospital, hospital, a hockey rink, and a theatre, theatre, all for use by the prisoners. The German soldiers soldiers organized an orchestra, held a mini-university, and put on plays in the theatre. It is a measure of just how well-treated the soldiers were that when an attempt was made to shackle them following similar treatment of Canadian soldiers after the Dieppe raid, the Germans Germans revolted and barricaded barricaded themselves into a building. building. The result was "a three- day brawl," reports Dan, in which Canadian guards used rifles which were not loaded to avoid accidentally shooting prisoners. Despite the precaution, one prisoner received a bullet which ricocheted ricocheted and hit him in the leg. After three days, the Germans Germans succumbed and were shackled. The treatment last ed three months, but, as Karl Heinz Bottger told Dan, "the Canadian guard dropped the key to the shackles each day on his way out of the barracks." barracks." Dan reports that the German German soldiers at the reunion were very sensitive to the "Nazi" label. They claim that they were German soldiers doing their job, and not members of the Nazi party. To many throughout the world this is a distinction without a difference, but to these soldiers it is "very important." important." While in Germany, Dan collected material about the camp and about life in it which he plans to shape into a book or lengthy article. He is very appreciative of the useum Board for the ift 8 gitl of his airfare and of his Ger man host, Hatto Kuhn, a former former German pilot. Before you send it, seal it with a Christmas Seall Vistors to the Bowmanville Bowmanville Museum should question question Dan about his experience. experience. He has lots to tell, and it truly is a piece of world his-, tory right here in Bowman-; ville. Join the fight against lung disease THE + LUNG ASSOCIATION Lungs arc for life -rHÊ 1712 BASELINE RD. 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