storyline entertainment

For immediate release: Thursday, February 15, 2007

HITLER’S CANADIANS
Has the war come home to Canada?
A forgotten piece of Canadian History revealed
On History Television - World Premiere
- Sunday, March 11 at 8pm et/pt

In the spring of 1940 small towns across Canada awakened to the sound of Nazi jackboots. German soldiers, sailors and pilots marched down main streets to hastily constructed camps for some 40,000 German fighters imprisoned as POWs on Canadian soil.

Storyline Entertainment and History Television are proud to announce the World Premier broadcast of Hitler’s Canadians on Sunday, March 11 at 8:00pm et/pt. This one-hour documentary tells the little known story of German POWs in Canada during WW2. It features dramatic re-enactments of brilliant and hilarious escapes, the biggest prison rebellion in Canadian history and surprising interviews with former prisoners.

“In a time when prisoner of war camps like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo tout new rules for POWs that ignore the Geneva Convention, we can look in our own backyard for some lessons and guidance. Although there were exceptions, Canada’s treatment of the German POWs is an example we should strive to uphold today,” says producer Ed Barreveld.

Hitler’s Canadians was inspired by a real life chance encounter of co-producer Ted Biggs’ father. In 1957 Bill Biggs found himself stranded overnight in the Braunschweig train station. An angry policeman shook him awake and demanded to see his “papers.” Upon inspecting the passport the policeman broke into a huge grin; “I spent the war near your home as a POW!” The Gestapo-like rousting Biggs expected turned into a two-hour conversation with a new friend about the beauty of the Canadian Shield, lumber camp work and the policeman’s dream of returning to Canada – and prompted Ted Biggs to begin researching the topic.

Biggs explains: “It struck me that the pleasant exile of Canada’s POW camps would have shattered the world view touted by the Nazis. The stories we discovered while making this show proved this to be true...we also found familiar expressions of shame and denial common to many who fought for the Nazis. In this moment in wartime, Canada’s fundamental decency shone through.”

In 1940, before the U.S. entered WW II in 1941, the growing ranks of German prisoners in Britain presented an urgent problem. Straining to meet the Geneva Convention standards for POW treatment and with Nazi armies nearing their shores, Britain saw the POWs as a potential threat on their own soil and opted to send them to Canada. Some POWs were in prison here so long they called themselves “Hitler’s Canadians”.

Hitler’s Canadians reveals this little-known side of Canada’s role in WW II. Director and writer Douglas Williams says: “There were 26 POW camps in Canada during the war years. One surprise was the distinction between concentration camps and POW camps. In Canada, German POWs lived in luxury!” But it wasn’t a vacation for everyone. “Day-to-day POW camp life was run by the inmates – and organized along military lines. This meant that committed Nazis were frequently in command positions. They made life miserable for anyone deemed less committed to the Nazi cause. Two suspect prisoners were lynched in the Medicine Hat camp.”

Dramatic recreations for Hitler’s Canadians were shot on location at one of only two surviving camp structures. Built in the 1920s, the Pine Ridge Boys Training School in Bowmanville (now the Darul Uloom Islamic School) was converted in late 1941 to Camp 30 which became a showcase for Allied treatment of POWs. All of the former POWs interviewed in “Hitler’s Canadians” spent time in Camp 30; Bowmanville’s reputation as the jewel of POW camps and its infamy as the site of the legendary Battle of Bowmanville made it the natural shooting location for director Douglas Williams’ vision of the film.

The production employed over 40 military re-enactors from the Perth Regiment and other groups and Williams’ experience directing a DND film a few years ago positioned him well for the task.

Producer Ed Barreveld knew “Hitler’s Canadians” was an important film to make now, especially considering the interview subjects are elderly and some might need convincing to relive their pasts. Last summer the production moved to Germany for interviews with nine former German POWs. Their words reflect the contradictory and complicated nature of the time.

Among the former POWs the production tracked down and interviewed in Germany was Ulrich Steinhilper, a First Lieutenant in the Luftwaffe, whose Messerschmitt 109 was shot down while escorting German bombers during the Battle of Britain. “Being made a prisoner was just contrary to everything I had as an idea for my life,” says Steinhilper. “So it was absolutely natural for me to try to be a free man again. I knew I was a good officer, and I wanted to help Germany win a war again.” Steinhilper made several attempts at escape, finally succeeding by faking his way into a mental hospital so he could take advantage of a Red Cross special needs prisoner exchange programme. Uli returned to Germany where he authored three books on his experiences on “the other side,” and IBM has credited him with inventing the concept of “word processing.”

Without exception, the former POWs seen in “Hitler’s Canadians” were grateful for Canada’s hospitality and treatment. All of them realize that if it weren’t for their time behind Canadian barbed wire, they might not have survived the war. Between 1947 and 1960, 265,000 Germans immigrated to Canada. 6,000 of them were former POWs.

Hitlers Canadians was produced by Ed Barreveld, co-produced by Ted Biggs and written and directed by Douglas Williams from a story inspired by Bill Biggs. “Hitlers Canadians” is produced for Storyline Entertainment Production Inc. by 1672392 Ontario Ltd. in association with History Television, Historia and with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund, and the Rogers Documentary Fund.