Built in the early 1900s, the Camp 30 Nazi Internment Camp in Bowmanville, Ontario, was originally designed and operated as a boys reform school. It is best known however, for its most infamous inhabitants: Nazi Prisoners Of War. Over 880 German prisoners called Camp 30 home during World War II. It was the only overseas Camp to house the highest ranking Third Reich officers and top U-boat commanders, some of whom tried to tunnel their way out of the camp in an elaborate escape attempt. Today, the abandoned buildings are mere skeletal remains of their former selves and salvaging them for their historical value has been the subject of controversy as they continue to deteriorate. As the only remaining Nazi P.O.W. Camp left standing in Canada, Camp 30 is an important cultural and historical site...

Over the course of the past 5 years I have visited the infamous Camp 30 Nazi Internment Camp dozens of times. Countless hours of researching and writing and driving and exploring and photographing have finally culminated in this thorough and extensive blog post. Please check it out...

http://jermalism.b...nazi-pow-camp.html


And here's a sample of some differences between 2011 to 2016...


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr


Camp 30 (Nazi P.O.W. Camp) by Randy Gosling, on Flickr

Cheers one and all. Nothin' but positive vibes to you.

Yeah this place is in a sad state nowadays....Like most things historical and worthy of keeping, it too, will likely meet with a dozer because it has just been damaged and continues to be damaged by asshats beyond any point of return. Now it would cost too much to try and repair and return to the state it should of stayed as.

Peeves me off, because it should of been saved years ago ...possibly as a museum showing all the different ways these buildings were re-purposed but mainly as the most important historical usage with Camp X artifacts too. It would of been perfect to hear of the history and actually be where the stories actually happened !!

Oh man, thats really cool. I'll have to add that place to my list to look into!

Posted this in the other thread, but...

12 years ago



More photos from 12 years ago in the UEDB.

holy crap! And I thought it had gone downhill in the last 5 years...

It's unfair and incorrect to call this a Nazis Interment camp.
It was a German POW camp.
Some of Germany's finest U-boat commanders and crew were imprisoned here for the duration of the war and longer. Few were Nazis and almost none committed war atrocities.

An interesting piece of WW2 history has been lost
http://uboat.net/a...ex.html?article=47
https://en.m.wikip.../Operation_Kiebitz
http://uboat.net/men/pow/

I'm no historian, nor am I super interested in arguing semantics or proper use of the word "Nazi", but wouldn't any member of the WWII-era German armed forces be considered a Nazi? Of course I'm not saying that all (or even many) of them shared the same radical beliefs as those at the top, but it was the ruling government of the time, and as agents of the state, they were acting on behalf of the Nazi party. They wore a Nazi swastika on their uniform and swore allegiance to the party. By extension I wouldn't think it unfair or unreasonable to say they were, at least by association, "Nazis".

Then again, as you alluded to, it was a POW camp, not strictly for Nazis. I'm sure there were a lot of different people in there, not all of them members of the military.

(I just can't help but play the devils advocate on any topic lol)

Posted by terapr0 I'm no historian, nor am I super interested in arguing semantics or proper use of the word "Nazi", but wouldn't any member of the WWII-era German armed forces be considered a Nazi? Of course I'm not saying that all (or even many) of them shared the same radical beliefs as those at the top, but it was the ruling government of the time, and as agents of the state, they were acting on behalf of the Nazi party. They wore a Nazi swastika on their uniform and swore allegiance to the party. By extension I wouldn't think it unfair or unreasonable to say they were, at least by association, "Nazis". Then again, as you alluded to, it was a POW camp, not strictly for Nazis. I'm sure there were a lot of different people in there, not all of them members of the military. (I just can't help but play the devils advocate on any topic lol)

Many times these U-boat commanders went out of their way to save the lives of their sinkings until the Allies forced them to stop that practice.
They were loyal to Germany, but not necessarily supporters of the Nazi political movement within Germany. More men died in the U-boat service percentage wise than any other branch of the German armed services. They paid a very steep price.