Friday, February 24, 2012

What If...

GERMANY ARMY INVADES WINNIPEG!


While "If Day" was a propaganda event designed to increase the sale of war bonds, it gives a look into how life could have been if the Germany war machine had not been halted. Had this happen, I somehow doubt that there would have been any Canadians cutting down trees in the middle of Riding Mountain or working on the fields with little supervision!

For more information about If Day, check out this article or Wikipedia's entry.

Monday, February 13, 2012

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Not related to PoWs in Manitoba, or Canada for that matter, but still a good video with an interesting twist!

The German from Nick Ryan on Vimeo.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Some Updates on PoW Research

Today, I thought I would update everyone about some more research being done regarding PoWs in the province. A few weeks ago, I was made aware of another blogger, Linda, writing about one of the farming projects in Manitoba in 1945 and 1946. Having some records of these projects and eager to learn more, I got in contact with her. Linda has been very helpful in sharing what she knows about the project and has found some very interesting contacts. Her posts on the subject can be found on here blog, http://hutt-writevoice.blogspot.com. Her newest post also has some pictures of Robert Henderson's collection, which I can definitely say is the best collection of artifacts relating to PoWs and the Veterans Guard in the world!

It was also with Linda's help that I have become involved with another small project. She had been forwarded an email by an individual in Germany looking for information about his father. His father, a PoW captured in Normandy shortly after D-Day, was captured by the British and sent to Canada in the summer of 1944. Little was known about what happened next other than he spent some time in a labour camp in Manitoba near Lake Winnipeg or Manitoba. Looking through my collection of records, I was able to tell his son that his father was one of 130 PoWs that were employed by the Manitoba Paper Company outside of Mafeking, Manitoba. As I'm still working with him to identify more records and hopefully provide more information, I will keep you all updated!