In the Shadows of the Sea: the Destruction and Recovery of Zeeland, the Netherlands, 1940-1948

This study explores the wartime experiences of the rural Dutch province of Zeeland from the German invasion in May 1940 to 1948 by a close reading of Dutch newspapers as well as Dutch government and Allied sources. It seeks to contextualize the liberation of Zeeland in the autumn of 1944 by exploring both before and after the Second World War. It argues that the subdued reaction the Canadians received was a product of a very different understanding of the war for the citizens of Zeeland. Their experience was above all driven by geography, topography, confessionalism, as well as a very complex and unusual understanding of a war that dated back to 1914. Zeeland’s experience of neutrality during the First World War, as well as government responses to the post-war era and Depression of the 1930s created a precedent with which many would compare the experience of war a generation later. In many ways, the German occupation of Zeeland after May 1940 resembled the experience of neutrality after the outbreak of war in 1914. In both instances, the province was touched by war, but remained isolated by its economy, politics, and, culture. In that sense, the idea of liberation in the fall of 1944 had a very different meaning, especially with the Allies’ flooding and sinking of Walcheren Island in early October. That event brought an unprecedented level of destruction that framed the local response to liberation, which lasted well beyond the conventional end of the war in 1945

Number 22 Internment Camp : German Prisoners of War and Canadian Internment Operations in Mimico, Ontario, 1940-1944

This article investigates the development of internment operations at Camp M in Mimico, Ontario, from 1940 to 1944. Using a variety of archival sources, this study sheds light on one of the only camps built near a major Canadian city during the Second World War, and one that remains recondite to most Canadians. From its inception Camp M suffered from a series of administrative, organizational, and personnel issues, which exacerbated operations. This was compounded by severe infrastructure problems that led to its expeditious closing in July 1944. Today both provincial and federal governments are constructing a 1,650-person “superjail” on the very site that once housed over 500 German POWs. This article, therefore, serves to inform further discussion about the past and present utility of the site.Cet article examine les opérations d’internement au Camp M à Mimico, Ontario, de 1940 à 1944. Basé sur des documents d’archives, il éclaire l’histoire d’un des très rares camps construits près d’une grande ville canadienne pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, un camp qui, encore aujourd’hui, est inconnu de la majorité des Canadiens. Depuis son ouverture, une série de problèmes administratifs, structurels, et personnels ont gêné ses opérations, et ces problèmes, ainsi qu’une très sérieuse déficience d’infrastructure, ont mené à la fermeture anticipée du camp en juillet 1944. Aujourd’hui les gouvernements provincial et fédéral sont en train de construire une immense « superprison » pouvant abriter 1,650 personnes sur le lieu où plus de 500 prisonniers de guerre allemands ont été enfermés jadis. Cet article pourrait donc contribuer à la discussion sur l’utilité, passée et actuelle, du site