On Sept. 14, 1939 the first German U-boat, the U-39, was sunk in WWII. Six days later on Sept. 20th the U-27 was also sunk. In total 82 German navy men were captured. They were probably very unsure of what the future held for them but 4 years later they found themselves Prisoners of War working at the Fawcett Lake logging camp.
In 1943 about 13,000 German Prisoners of War were being held in an Internment Camp in Lethbridge. Included in these were the prisoners mentioned above. They were given the opportunity to ‘volunteer’ to work in lumber camps. The first to leave Lethbridge were crew members of the U39 and the U27 German submarines.
They were greeted in Edmonton by Mr. McMillan, the President of Chisholm Sawmills. They took the train north and some of the U27 crew disembarked at Chisholm Mills. The remainder carried on to Smith and disembarked there. After walking across the frozen Athabasca River they were taken by truck to Fawcett Lake.
They arrived at 2:00 a.m. and were welcomed by Albert Casavant, the camp boss. He had a little snack waiting for them and apologized that it was not much. Breakfast would be at 6:15 and would be a real meal. Many had to get up just to see breakfast as the “little snack” was more than any breakfast they had ever seen.
The POW’s were at Fawcett Lake for 2 ½ years. They had simple rules; 10 hours of work per day, 6 days a week and 50c credit in the store for each day worked. Room, board and clothing were also included. It was a much better option than the Internment Camp in Lethbridge.
In the winter they lived in the sawmill camp on the West Shore. In the summer they had a camp built on rafts that was moved along the shore in an easterly direction as required by the logging operations. As time went on the German POW’s took on more of the responsibilities of running the camp including diesel mechanic, blacksmith, boat builder and cook.
One of the prisoners, Horst Seifert, was cut almost to the bone, when he fell into a running chainsaw. He had to journey across the lake, to the mill camp. From there he was placed on an open truck and driven towards Smith. The ferry was not operating because of the high water in the Athabasca River. They had to row across the Lesser Slave River to reach the railway tracks. Gunnar Wahlstrom, another POW, ran ahead into Smith and got a railway handcar to bring the injured man across.
The nurse stitched Horst up but he and Gunnar were unable to return to camp until the water went down in the Athabasca River. They spent a week in Smith waiting. For the Prisoners of War it was a memorable week. As Horst, in his German Navy uniform, sat on the step of Duncan’s Cabins, he watched a baseball game in progress. The players included the Veteran Guard, who was watching him, his German comrade, several Americans, some Métis, and a ‘black skinned’ truck driver.
In 1944 when the same kinds of people were killing each other by the thousands, the ones in Smith put their differences aside and played a game of baseball. We could all learn a lesson from this.