There were 40 known prisoner-of-war camps across Canada during World War II. The camps were identified by letters at first, then by numbers. The prisoners were given various tasks; many worked in the forests as logging crews. In addition to the main camps there were branch camps and labour camps.
The largest number of prisoners of war was recorded as 33,798. (One source claims that at its peak, Canada interned 35,046 prisoners of war and Japanese-Canadians.) There were an additional 6,437 civil internees, members of the merchant marine and refugees.
There are claims that conditions in the Canadian camps tended to be better than average, and many times better than the conditions of the barracks that Canadian troops were kept in. It is believed by some that this treatment foiled many escape attempts before they even started. Notably, it is told that group of German prisoners returned to Ozada camp after escaping because of encountering a grizzly bear.
| Camp | Place | Province | Location | Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Chatham | Ontario | 260 km southwest of Toronto | 1944 1945-1946 |
| 10 | Fingal | Ontario | 40 km south of London | 1945-1946 |
| 20 (C) | Gravenhurst | Ontario | 170 km north of Toronto | 1940-1946 |
| 21 (F) | Espanola | Ontario | 330 km NNW of Toronto | 1940-1943 |
| 22 (M) | Mimico | Ontario | 15 km west of Toronto | 1940-1944 |
| 23 (Q) | Monteith (near Iroquois Falls) | Ontario | 700 km north of Toronto | 1940-1946 |
| 30 | Bowmanville | Ontario | 65 km ENE of Toronto | 1941-1945 |
| 31 (F) | Kingston | Ontario | 145 km SSW of Ottawa | 1940-1943 |
| 32 (H) | Hull | Quebec | 10 km north of Ottawa | 1941-(?) |
| 33 (F) | Petawawa | Ontario | 130 km WNW of Ottawa | 1942-1946 |
| 40 (A) | Farnham | Quebec | 50 km ESE of Montreal | 1940-1941 1942-1943 1944-1946 |
| 42 (N) | Newington (Sherbrooke) | Quebec | 130 km east of Montreal | 1942-1946 |
| 44 | Feller College / Grande Ligne | Quebec | 275 km northeast of Montreal | 1943-1946 |
| 45 | Sorel | Quebec | 65 km NNE of Montreal | 1945-1946 |
| 70 (B) | Fredericton (Ripples) | New Brunswick | 20 km east of Fredericton | 1941-1945 |
| 100 (W) | Neys | Ontario | 1100 km northwest of Toronto | 1944-1943 1944-1946 |
| 101 | Angler | Ontario | 800 km northwest of Toronto | 1941-1946 |
| 130 | Seebe | Alberta | 100 km west of Calgary | 1939-1946 |
| 132 | Medicine Hat | Alberta | 260 km ESE of Calgary | 1943-1945 |
| 133 | Ozada | Alberta | 130 km west of Calgary | 1942 |
| 133 | Lethbridge | Alberta | 160 km southeast of Calgary | 1942-1946 |
| 135 | Wainwright | Alberta | 190 km ESE of Edmonton | 1945-1946 |
| (R) | Red Rock | Ontario | Lake Superior | 1940-1941 |
| N/A | Wainfleet | Ontario | Close to Port Colborne | 1943-1945 |
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“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“My list of things I never pictured myself saying when I pictured myself as a parent has grown over the years.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)
“If a weakly mortal is to do anything in the world besides eat the bread thereof, there must be a determined subordination of the whole nature to the one aim—no trifling with time, which is passing, with strength which is only too limited.”
—Beatrice Potter Webb (1858–1943)
“This is not Johnson’s war. This is America’s war. If I drop dead tomorrow, this war will still be with you.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“In Canada an ordinary New England house would be mistaken for the château, and while every village here contains at least several gentlemen or “squires,” there is but one to a seigniory.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)