Camp that held Rommel’s men surrenders its secrets

A TROVE of Second World War memorabilia from soldiers of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps captured by the British at El Alamein has been discovered in an archaeological dig at the wilderness camp where they were held.

Red Cross tins, old letters, photographs of their time as prisoners of war (PoWs), uniform buttons and mess tins are being thrown up by excavators at the Whitewater Camp in Manitoba, Canada, where 500 Wehrmacht soldiers were held after their defeat by the British in the western desert in November 1942.

Rommel’s troops, deprived of resources because Adolf Hitler wanted it for his eastern front, were defeated by British forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

However there was no room for his captives in overflowing British Army administered prison camps in Africa or Europe so they volunteered to be shipped to Whitewater in the Riding Mountain National Park which was built the following year.

Now their life thousands of miles from the battlefront and Nazi Germany is being pieced together.

The evidence suggests the Germans were happy at the camp and glad to be out of the war. “The Whitewater Camp is unique in the history of the Second World War,” said Adrian Myers, one of the archaeologists involved in the dig. “They volunteered to come here on the understanding that they would agree to work hard once they arrived.”

Most were employed as lumberjacks felling pine and spruce trees for firewood and building materials in the forests surrounding the camp.

It was the only prison run by the Allies in the Second World War not to have any fences or barbed wire; so remote was the location that there was nowhere for the men to run except into the wilderness and almost certain death.

Former inmates have been traced back to Germany by the researchers. They speak of warm clothing, copious food and fair treatment – despite the propaganda of their Nazi masters who told them only hard labour and death awaited them.

They formed a choir, sports associations and reading clubs in their spare time and many wrote home to relatives of their “good treatment” at the hands of the Canadians.

Much of the digging has centred on the rubbish pits of the prisoners.

“What really surprised us is the number of personal grooming and hygiene articles we have found. These 500 guys lived deep in the forest, miles and miles from any women, and they were keen to look and smell their best at all times.”

Klaus Meyer, a pensioner living near Cologne, was held there and contacted by the archaeologists. He said: “There are only a few of us left. It was hard work but the fresh air and the vast open spaces, these impressions have been with me ever since.

“Escape was impossible. So we made the best of it. The treatment was very good on the whole. We weren’t die-hard Nazis; we were young soldiers who got caught and wanted to go home when the war was finished.”

Also found in shallow graves have been the carcasses of small dogs. The prisoners were allowed to keep them as pets. Digging continues this month under the direction of the Brandon University Archaeology Field School. A digital model of the camp is planned to go online next year.