By Charlotte Morritt-Jacobs - (@morrittjacobs on Twitter)

11 Days of Remembrance: Enemy Aliens – WW1 Internment Camp in Lethbridge

Nov 3, 2016 | 5:54 AM

LETHBRIDGE – The culture of fear during times of war tends to bring out a dark side in human nature.

This was no exception for the internment camp used in Lethbridge during the First World War.

Due to Canada’s declaration of war in August 1914 Canadian citizens and immigrants with German, Austrian, Hungarian and Turkish decent who had freely settled in Canada became the black sheep in southern Alberta. The World War One camp located at Lethbridge’s Exhibition Park Fair Grounds, operated between Sept. 30, 1914 and Nov. 11, 1916. A poultry barn was used to hold prisoners and featured barbed wire to keep the ‘enemy’ and enemy sympathizers contained.

At its peak in mid-1915, the Lethbridge Detention Camp held 300 prisoners and employed 60 guards.

Initially, the enemy was divided into two main groups in internment camps: individuals of Austrian, Hungarian or Turkish descent who belonged to reserve units in their homelands and citizens of Germany. In some cases this was expanded to encompass anyone with a foreign sounding name that was ‘acting suspiciously.’

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Local historian Glenn Miller said Lethbridge’s act of arbitrarily branding its own citizens as enemies divided neighbours in a figurative and literal sense.

“Since the government was at war with a specific country, unfortunately the attitudes of the day were that if you were part of that country or a descendent you were automatically not a good Canadian overnight and were therefore interned in some way same or form,” Miller explained.

According to data from the Canadian government harassment of enemy aliens not only continued but intensified as WW1 dragged on. Furthermore, citizens were encouraged to report so-called ‘suspicious behaviour’ to the police for investigation.

Accusations and prejudice led to many of the potential ‘enemy aliens’ tried to make their way to the neutral territory of the United States. Those caught in such attempts were promptly arrested and directed to Lethbridge for detention. Lethbridge’s proximity to the states and thus incentive for ‘enemy aliens’ to escape, played heavily into the closure of the Lethbridge camp in the fall of 1916.

In 2013 Lethbridge’s relationship to this detestable chapter of Canada’s wartime history was ceremoniously acknowledged with a memorial plaque on the exhibition grounds. The monument was funded by the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund under the Harper government to honour the thousands of European’s interned during the First World War.

On the days leading up to Remembrance Day on Nov. 11, Lethbridge News Now will deliver an “11 Days of Remembrance – Did You Know” feature segment discussing topics of interest which illustrates Lethbridge’s direct and indirect involvement in military pursuits.