Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

History World War Ii

"Dangerous Enemy Sympathizers"

Canadian Internment Camp B, 1940-1945

by (author) Andrew Theobald

Publisher
Goose Lane Editions
Initial publish date
May 2019
Category
World War II, Jewish, Canada, Post-Confederation (1867-)
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781773101248
    Publish Date
    May 2019
    List Price
    $18.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Winner, Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing
What happened in Canadian Internment Camp B?

From 1940 to 1945, Internment Camp B at Ripples, some 35 kilometres east of Fredericton, played a considerable role in the Second World War. Chosen for its remote rural New Brunswick location, Camp B interned hundreds who were deemed by the Canadian government to be enemy sympathizers.

In the first year of its operation, the camp incarcerated German and Austrian Jewish refugees dispatched from Britain. In May 1940, fearful that the refugees were agents of the Nazis they'd fled, the British government sent thousands of men to Canada to be interned as "dangerous enemy sympathizers." After the refugees were finally released in 1941, Camp B held Canadian citizens who were suspected of opposing the war effort — including the prominent opponent of conscription and Mayor of Montreal Camillien Houde, Canadians of German and Italian descent, and homegrown fascists such as Adrien Arcand — as well as captured German and Italian merchant mariners.

In this comprehensive illustrated account of Camp B, Andrew Theobald examines the daily lives and tribulations of those imprisoned behind the barbed wire. "Dangerous Enemy Sympathizers" also scrutinizes the troubling context that led to the internment of both refugees and Canadian citizens, the debates over the ethics of internment inside and outside the camp, and the role of the camps in shaping government policy towards immigration and the post-war powers of the Canadian state.

"Dangerous Enemy Sympathizers" is volume 26 of the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series.

About the author

Andrew Theobald hails from Saint John, New Brunswick. He holds a BA from Mount Allison University and an MA from the University of New Brunswick, and has served in the Canadian Forces Reserve. He is presently completing a PhD at Queen's University. His work has appeared in Acadiensis, the University of Toronto Quarterly, and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

Andrew Theobald's profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing

Related lists