Ted Jones (1)

Like volume one, this is a dense, detailed description of the internment camp outside Fredericton at Ripples, New Brunswick which became a prisoner of war camp in July 1941. Captured submariners, Luftwaffe crew and some political internees such as Mayor of Montreal, Camillien Houde were housed there.
This volume has more intriguing and exciting stories to tell since the POW's had reason to try and escape where as the previous internees describe in Volume One were men who had fled Nazi terror only to be interned because they came from Germany or Austria. There were two escapes and a notorious riot but because the camp was in the middle of forest in an area the prisoners would have no knowledge of, there success rate was zero. Jones collected hundred's of interviews, letters and Government documents and it appears it all went into the book. A better editor would have made a more readable book, but at least all his work is available to any else who wishes to pursue this topic.
Based on the letters he received after Volume One was published, his efforts were a great success. He includes some of these letters and interviews in the second volume.
To give the reader a clearer picture of the POW situation in Canada during the War, Jones includes information and stories about other POW camps in Canada. He presents information on escapes and deaths in these camps. For more information about POW camps in Canada, you should consult John Melady's Escape From Canada.… (más)

I can't remember reading a more detail volume on anything I have ever encountered on any subject. Jones lists the names of the Volunteer Guards who are at the camp at any moment in the year and a half covered in the book. Exactly what the internees prepared in their kitchen even to the ingredients they used to make their pastries is recorded.
The book could have been somewhat shorter if the duplication of the information as reported from the interviews and diaries of the internees and the guards would have been avoided.
This having been said, it is an interesting volume that records for the future, and just in time too, as many of the participants were dying as the book was being written in the 1980's, this little known part Canada played in WW II.
While the internment camp no longer exists, there is a museum that tells the story of the camp. It is in Minto, NB and contains many artifacts including items dug up at the camp site, art work created by the internees, and a complete mock up of the camp built by students at Minto High School. I have visited the Museum and found the displays interesting and well presented considering the limited budget with which the curators have at their disposal.
This is volume one of a two volume set. Volume 1 covers the time when the camp held internees from Britain who in the main were Jews but who were interned because they had German names and/or came from countries allied with Germany. Volume 2 covers the period when the camp held German Prisoners of War.… (más)