Outside the Barbed Wire Fence: Oral History and German POWs in Wainfleet Township

Brian de Ruiter and Michel S. Beaulieu with a special thanks to Erno Rossi write: “Few people outside of Port Colborne and Wainfleet township are aware that German Prisoners of War (POW) during the Second World War worked at the Erie Peat Marsh. The experience of POWs in Canada has largely been focussed on the 28 main camps located predominately in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. However, the Department of Labour employed over 14,000 POWs in low-security labour projects. The peat-cutting operation at the Erie Peat Marsh was such a project, using internees from Internment Camp “M” (later Camp 22 – New Toronto) located on the grounds of the Ontario Reformatory in Mimico.”

For more information on the project, visit The Champlain Society’s website here.