Prisoner of War Camp, Toronto Camp 30, located east of Toronto, was one of Canada’s main World War II POW camps and although named a National Historic Site, continues to be neglected. The community of Bowmanville, Ontario, is home to just over 40,000 people, many of whom work in Toronto and commute daily via Highway 401. Only a tenth as many made Bowmanville their home in 1941, however, when the Canadian government ordered the Bowmanville Boys Training School (a “school for unadjusted boys who were not inherently delinquent”) to vacate the site. By the end of the year, the former school and its environs had been converted into Camp 30 and the first German prisoners of war arrived. Many of these prisoners were considered “high profile” – the reason being, the farther they were from Nazi Germany, the less chance of them returning there after a successful escape. Among the more notable Camp 30 prisoners were U-boat commanders Wolfgang Heyda and Otto Kretschmer, the latter credited with sinking 47 ships (totaling 274,333 tons) between the start of the war and his capture in March of 1941. In stark contrast to the treatment doled out to Allied POWs in German prison camps, those prisoners sent to Camp 30 enjoyed a wealth of freedoms and amenities. As Camp 30 was a former boy’s school, prisoners were allowed to use the indoor pool as well as the soccer and football fields. If that wasn’t enough, authorities approved requests to build a tennis court and a mini zoo! These perks and much more didn’t stop the prisoners from carrying out their duty to escape, and at least a half dozen attempts – some quite elaborate and well-planned – were foiled by guards. The most notorious escape attempt (Operation Kiebitz) was hatched at Kriegsmarine headquarters in Berlin with the aim of rescuing the four top U-boat commanders held at Camp 30. In the event, only one POW managed to make it over the wire before being caught 870 miles to the east; while waiting on the shore of the St. Lawrence River for a U-boat to pick him up. The most significant event to occur at Camp 30 was the so-called Battle of Bowmanville, a widespread prisoner revolt which took place over several days in October of 1942. The revolt was sparked by the Allied tit-for-tat response to Hitler’s infamous Commando Order which specified POWs who had participated in commando-style raids should be shackled. Between 1,500 and 4,000 German prisoners who refused an order that 100 of them be shackled commenced to riot and barricade themselves in Camp 30’s mess hall. In breaking up the protest, one prisoner was wounded by gunfire, another was non-fatally bayoneted, and one Canadian soldier suffered a skull fracture after being struck by a thrown jar of jam. After the war ended in May of 1945, the several hundred prisoners held at Camp 30 were shipped back across the Atlantic to their homeland in Germany. Otto Kretschmer, for example, was none the worse for wear having been imprisoned at Camp 30 for almost four years: upon his repatriation, he joined the German Federal Navy reaching the rank of flotilla admiral (commodore) before retiring in 1970. Many former prisoners returned to Camp 30 over the years to attend reunions. (credit zOth with the above images) Camp 30 itself hasn’t done nearly as well – anything but, actually. Once empty of POWs, the camp returned to being a boys training school until 1979. The property was then utilized for a number of academic-related ventures including a school for overseas Malaysian students, St. Stephen’s Catholic School, and finally a private Islamic university before being abandoned entirely in 2008. (credit Suzanne Schroeter with the above images) Unguarded and unoccupied, the former Camp 30 quickly began to suffer from vandalism that saw all of its buildings’ windows smashed. Subsequent ease of access to both vandals and the elements resulted in extensive damage, a proliferation of graffiti, and a number of fires set by arsonists. It wasn’t long before citizens and authorities in Bowmanville, now a thriving bedroom community for Oshawa and the Greater Toronto Area, to petition the site be preserved in some way, shape or form. By 2013, Heritage Canada added Camp 30 to its annual listing of “The Top 10 Endangered Places”. This led to the site’s being named a National Historic Site, which helped discourage attempts at wholesale demolition and redevelopment. “All we want to see is reuse of the buildings… some people want a big, beautiful museum, we understand the finances aren’t there. We just want to see adaptive reuse” pleaded Tracey Ali, president of ACO Clarington and one of those involved in the effort to resolve the issues presented by Camp 30’s increasingly sorry state. As of September 9th, 2013, a committee had been created to examine possible ways in which Camp 30’s remaining buildings could be saved and preserved. All that’s been decided, unfortunately, is the erection of a heritage plaque at the site reflecting its landmark designation. Yet Toronto Sun columnist Mike Stroebel saw no such plaque on his visit to the former Camp 30 on November 9th, 2014. What Stroebel (accompanied by author and historian Lynn Philip Hodgson and Marlene Hodgson) did find was “…a site fit for zombies. Rarely has our history been so insulted by arsonists, vandals, graffiti scribblers and official inaction… No wonder there’s no plaque. They’re too embarrassed.”
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 18:00:02 +0000