Why 6,000 German POWs Refused to Leave Canada After the War

Video Description

In 1945, six thousand German prisoners of war formally requested to remain in Canada rather than return to Germany - and the Canadian government wanted to keep them. From the largest POW camps in North America, where prisoners organized 55-piece orchestras and played in hockey tournaments, to the sugar beet fields of Alberta where farmers trusted German soldiers with loaded rifles, this is the documented story of why enemy combatants preferred Canadian captivity to freedom in their homeland. When Britain forced all prisoners to return under Geneva Convention rules, many spent years working to immigrate back to Canada with their families, bringing wives to show them the country that treated enemy soldiers better than its own civilians treated each other during wartime rationing.