This POW camp was at Seebe, Alberta.  It housed 650 German POW's, chiefly in tents.  I think in this camp you either learned to love or hate camping.  In the winter this camp would have experienced temperatures anywhere from -20 degrees to -50 degrees below zero.

German POW camp, Alberta, Canada

A Canadian prison guard examines a tunnel dug by prisoners at the Espanola, Ontario, Camp.  Regardless of varying points of view these German POW's were intent on trying to escape and return to their comrades still fighting.  This was easier to accomplish before the Americans joined the war.  Up to that point, if the escapee could make it across the US/Canadian border they were relativley home free.

Tunnel dug by German POW's

Thousands of prisoners spent their captivity in smaller transient bush camps, where they worked at outdoor tasks like logging and road-building.  Pictured here is the mess at a northern Ontario camp.  Ironically many of the skills these men learned in these camps were put to good use when they immigrated back to Canada after the war.  I remember as a small boy in Prince George, B.C. that a good number of our neighbors were German ex-POWs.  They flooded north to work in the many sawmills and construction projects in the booming north of the 1950's.