OLD BARBED WIRE FROM CALYDOR - MANY PASSERSBY TORE OFF A HUNK
FROM THE FALL OF 1989, SHORTLY AFTER WE ARRIVED IN GRAVENHURST, AND SETTLING INTO OUR NEW HOME, WE WERE HEAVILY INTO THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY. WE KNEW A LOT ABOUT THE TOWN BEFORE WE MOVED, AND ONE OF THE PLACES OF FASCINATION, WAS THE CALYDOR PROPERTY. SO SMITTEN BY ITS HISTORY, THAT WE MADE SURE OUR HOUSE WAS LOCATED IN THE ZONE, PROBABLY THE MOST HISTORIC IN TOWN.......OVER AND ABOVE BETHUNE HOUSE. SORRY TO SAY THIS, BUT WHEN YOU WEIGH THE REALITY, WE WERE ACCOMMODATING HOSTS TO GERMAN PRISONERS, AND HIGH RANKING NAZIS, THROUGHOUT THE SECOND WORLD WAR, IT DOES TRUMP THE HOUSE WHERE NORMAN BETHUNE SPENT HIS FIRST FEW MOMENTS OF LIFE. AND REALLY, NOT MUCH MORE. IT IS WORTH NOTING, THAT BETHUNE, IN ADULTHOOD, DID SPEND TIME AT THE CALYDOR SANATORIUM, SUFFERING FROM TUBERCULOSIS. THE SANATORIUM WAS EVENTUALLY ACQUIRED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN THE LATE 1930'S, AS A FUTURE INTERMENT CAMP, WHEN GERMANY BEGAN ITS MARCH ON EUROPE.
THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT VERY FEW HISTORIANS AND CITIZENS HAVE DEMANDED HISTORIC SITE RECOGNITION, BECAUSE IT IS STILL DEEMED, BY TOWN HALL, AS TOO CONTROVERSIAL, AND POLITICALLY INCORRECT.....WHICH COULD ONLY BE THOUGHT OF, IN THIS WAY, BY FOLKS WHO ARE UNAWARE OF MORE NEGATIVELY STORIED PLACES THAN THIS.....ACKNOWLEDGED AND RESPECTED, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. ALTHOUGH IT WAS COVERED BY A BOOK, ENTITLED "THE GILDED CAGE," SOME YEARS AGO, THERE HAS BEEN A PREFERENCE BY THE TOWN, OVER MANY DECADES, TO AVOID PLACING AN HISTORIC PLAQUE, OR PROMOTING IT ACTIVELY AS A PLACE, NOW A SUBDIVISION AND PUBLIC BEACH, WHERE WORLD HISTORY WAS MADE. WE HAVE HAD A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF GERMAN VISITORS ASK US ABOUT THE CAMP PROPERTY, WISHING TO VISIT. THEY SEEM PERPLEXED GENERALLY, THAT THERE ISN'T A PROPER HISTORIC PLAQUE, TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE HISTORY THAT OCCURRED ON THE PROPERTY.....WHICH IS THOROUGHLY AMAZING. ESCAPES, FUNERAL PROCESSIONS, IN FULL MILITARY DRESS, THROUGH OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, TO THE MICKLE CEMETERY, WHERE TWO BEAUTIFULLY CARVED OAK TABLETS, ONCE MARKED THE GRAVES OF THE SOLDIERS WHO DIED WHILE IN CUSTODY. THE BODIES WERE EXHUMED MANY YEARS AGO, AND THE GRAVES RELOCATED TO A GERMAN CEMETERY IN KITCHENER, ONTARIO.
IN ALL OF MUSKOKA, THIS IS CLEARLY THE MOST INTERNATIONALLY SIGNIFICANT HISTORIC SITE, EVEN BEYOND THE MUSEUM OF LITTLE NORWAY, AT THE MUSKOKA AIRPORT, BUT A FEW FOLKS, WITH NARROW FOCUS, HAVE BEEN BLOCKING FULL RECOGNITION OF THE PROPERTY'S TRUE DIMENSION IN LOCAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HISTORY. HAVING SPENT THOUSANDS OF HOURS WANDERING THROUGH THE PROPERTY, WE NOT ONLY HAVE A LOT OF ARTIFACTS, MOSTLY BROKEN GLASS AND POTTERY, AND THESE HUNKS OF RUSTED BARBED WIRE, BUT WE HAVE A BOOK LOAD OF MEMORIES OF THIS BEAUTIFUL PROPERTY ON THE SHORE OF MUSKOKA BAY. I WILL HAVE A SMALL COLLECTION OF THESE STORIES IN THE COMING DAYS......WHICH WILL HOPEFULLY CREATE SOME INTEREST, IN ONE DAY OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZING THE PROPERTY, AS AN INTERNATIONAL HERITAGE SITE. I THINK IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT TO OUR GERMAN-CANADIAN HERITAGE, AS MANY FORMER POWS DID RETURN TO CANADA TO LIVE, FOLLOWING THE WAR, AND SOME BACK TO GRAVENHURST AND MUSKOKA. IT IS NOT FAIR TO SAY, OR ALLUDE TODAY, TO CALYDOR AND THE GERMAN POW CAMP, AS BEING POLITICALLY INCORRECT.....AND NOT FOR PRIME TIME VIEWING. IT WAS A FACT OF LIFE.....AND AN AMAZING REALITY FOR ALL THE CITIZENS BACK THEN, WHO ALSO BECAME THE EYES AND EARS OF CAMP SECURITY. HERE IS A PIECE I WROTE AFTER A LENGTHY CHAT WITH SEVERAL GERMAN VISITORS, TO GRAVENHURST, LAST SUMMER, WHO ASKED US FOR DIRECTIONS TO TOUR THE PROPERTY. THERE WAS NO RESPONSE FROM THE TOWN, TO THE BLOG, AS PREDICTED, BUT THIS ISSUE WILL COME UP MANY TIMES IN THE FUTURE; AND I'M HOPEFUL THE SITE WILL BE PUBLICLY RECOGNIZED WITH SIGNAGE IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
POSSIBLY IT WILL COME AS A REQUEST FROM THE FAMILIES OF FORMER INMATES, WHO FEEL IT IS IMPORTANT, THAT THE SITE BE DOCUMENTED FOR ALL TO SEE.....AND BE UNDERSTOOD, AS IT WAS, IN THE DAYS OF WORLD WAR.
WHENEVER WE WENT OUT FOR A FAMILY WALK DOWN TO MUSKOKA BAY, THROUGH THE PROPERTY OF THE FORMER CALYDOR PRISONER OF WAR CAMP, WE'D STOP TO TEAR OFF A COUPLE OF LENGTHY CHUNKS OF BARBED WIRE, FORMERLY OF THE CAMP. THESE BALES WERE EVEN NOTED IN THE BOOK, "ESCAPE FROM CANADA," BY JOHN MELADY. FORMER POW'S FROM THAT PERIOD, AND THEIR FAMILIES, VISITING GRAVENHURST, HAVE ALSO BEEN KNOWN TO TEAR OFF BITS OF THE WIRE.......EVEN AS UNFORTUNATE REMINDERS, OF A TERRIBLE PERIOD IN WORLD HISTORY....THAT MANY OF OUR FAMILIES WERE INVOLVED.
THIS ISN'T A PROJECT TO CREATE ANOTHER TOURIST ATTRACTION. IT'S TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT FOR THE HERITAGE CHRONICLE OF OUR COMMUNITY.....AND IT IS SOMETHING REMARKABLE, THAT WE PLAYED SUCH AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE PROTECTION OF THE FREE WORLD......BY KEEPING THESE PRISONERS FROM RE-ENTERING THE FIGHT. THIS COULD WELL HAVE HAPPENED IF THERE HAD BEEN AN INVASION OF BRITAIN, RELEASING THOUSANDS OF PRISONERS BACK INTO THE INVADING ARMY. INSTEAD, THEY WERE SHIPPED ACROSS THE ATLANTIC, AND TO OUR COMMUNITY, UNTIL THE END OF THE WAR.
WE SHOULD BE PROUD OF THIS HERITAGE.....NOT TRYING TO AVOID IT!
GRAVENHURST'S CALYDOR PRISONER OF WAR CAMP SHOULD BE HIGHLIGHTED AS A TOWN HISTORIC SITE
WOULD GERMAN VISITORS BE INTERESTED TO SEE THE SITE OF FORMER PRISON CAMP?
AS A RESIDENT OF THE CALYDOR SUBDIVISION, WE ARE ON THE FRINGE OF THE FORMER NAZI PRISONER OF WAR CAMP, SITUATED A FULL BLOCK WEST, ON THE SHORE OF MUSKOKA BAY. WHEN WE FIRST MOVED HERE, BACK IN THE EARLY 1990'S, I USED TO OFFER ANYONE WHO WAS INTERESTED, A GUIDED TOUR OF THE WORLD WAR II CAMP, THE SUBJECT OF A RECENT BOOK WRITTEN BY GRAVENHURST HISTORIAN, CECIL PORTER, CALLED "THE GILDED CAGE."
MY INTRODUCTION TO THE CAMP CAME MANY YEARS BEFORE MR. PORTER'S BOOK WAS PUBLISHED, WHEN A REPORTER WORKING FOR US AT THE FORMER HERALD-GAZETTE, AND MUSKOKA SUN, IN BRACEBRIDGE, DECIDED TO DO A LENGTHY FEATURE COLUMN ON THE CAMP. SCOTT MCCLELLAN WORKED FOR ABOUT A MONTH, RESEARCHING THE NAZI PRISON CAMP, AND WHEN THE STORY WAS PUBLISHED, SOMETIME IN THE MID 1980'S, IT CAUSED QUITE A STIR. THERE WERE THOSE WHO WERE TRULY INTERESTED IN KNOWING MORE ABOUT THIS PREVIOUSLY UNDER-KNOWN CONTRIBUTION OF CANADA TO THE WAR EFFORT, AND THERE WERE THOSE WHO DIDN'T WANT THE STORY TO GET ANY INK WHATSOEVER. I NEVER FELT THIS WAY, AND I BEGAN DOING MY OWN RESEARCH OF THE CAMP, ONCE WE MOVED INTO THE NEIGHBORHOOD. IN FACT, I PLANNED TO DO MY OWN BOOK ON THE CAMP BUT OUR ANTIQUE BUSINESS NEEDED MORE ATTENTION AND I SIMPLY ABANDONED THE IDEA. IT IS AN FOUR STAR INTERNATIONAL STORY, THAT SOMEHOW WAS BURIED FOR MANY YEARS, OUT OF MISGUIDED POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.
WHEN CECIL LET ME KNOW HE WAS WRITING THIS LONG OVER-DUE STORY, I WAS THRILLED BECAUSE IT IS A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ASPECT OF GRAVENHURST HISTORY, THAT PUTS US ON THE WORLD STAGE OF HISTORIC SITES. CECIL PRESENTED ME WITH A COPY AND I READ IT COVER TO COVER ON THE FIRST NIGHT. IT WAS EVERYTHING I HAD WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRISONER OF WAR CAMP. THE ONLY THING MISSING? THERE ISN'T A PROPER HISTORIC PLAQUE, ON THE CALYDOR PROPERTY, AND WE'VE LARGELY AVOIDED PROMOTING IT, BECAUSE OF THE NEGATIVE REALITIES OF WAR-TIME IMPRISONMENT. WELL, I DON'T AGREE. WE SHOULD CELEBRATE THE HISTORY WE CONTRIBUTED TO, BY HELPING THE COMMONWEALTH, PARTICULARLY BRITAIN, BY HOUSING SOME OF THE MOST STALWART NAZIS……WHO WOULD HAVE POSED AN IMMEASURABLE THREAT TO THE SECURITY OF ENGLAND, IF A GERMAN INVASION HAD SET THEM LOOSE, WHICH WAS A MAJOR REASON FOR GETTING THEM OUT OF THE COUNTRY.
A SENSITIVE ISSUE? OF COURSE IT IS! BUT LIFE AND ITS HISTORY ARE FULL OF SENSITIVE STORIES THAT STILL HAVE TO BE TOLD
I spoke with a German visitor to our town this morning, and we talked for almost an hour, about local history, and particularly the former Calydor Prison Camp. I have talked to elderly German-Canadians, who have a general interest in the camp's heritage, and each one I've chatted with, had a basic knowledge of Calydor, and some of the inmates who were imprisoned there. And they were acquainted with those German citizens, who after the war, wished to come back to Canada, Muskoka specifically, where they had served part of the war years incarcerated. I always found this so amazing, as an historian, that they thought enough of our town and the region, to leave their homeland for good, and take up residence here….living amongst those who were once their armed guards.
I offered an apology, to this gentleman and his partner, that there was no historic plaque marking the site of the former camp, and that there was no brochure offering a walking tour of the new subdivision, that might be appreciated by those who may have even had family members at Calydor during the war. I asked him if German visitors today, would be offended to see a plaque, commemorating the years of Nazi incarceration, in Gravenhurst, and he answered that they wouldn't be upset by this type of identification, as there are similar World War II sites, with much more tragedy attached, than our small camp, patrolled by the Veteran's Guard, who never had to shoot a prisoner…..and for the most part, became friendly with most of the inmates. As to whether or not German tourists would visit such a site, if properly identified, he was noncommittal, but he did suggest that younger people from Germany, are less likely to attend such historic locations out of disinterest. But we had a good talk about life and times at the camp, and how the people first found out a POW facility was being located in their town……..when Gordon Sloan took that famous photograph, on the main street, of the parade of Nazi prisoners of all ranks, walking down the centre of Muskoka Road, under guard, journeying between the train station and the Calydor property which is quite a hike. He was quite interested in the two full-dress funerals held, and the parades from the camp to the Mickle Cemetery, and the two beautifully carved wooden grave markers, that adorned the plots. The German soldiers were exhumed in the late 1960's, and reburied in Kitchener, Ontario.
I think we have been overly sensitive in this town, ever since the war, about offending Germans who visit as tourists. Yet there have been many former prisoners of the camp, who have re-visited the place they were once under armed-guard, and they had, up until the reclamation of the property for a new subdivision, been leaving small and large written messages on the former concrete ruins of camp buildings. There are some who have reportedly broken off portions of barbed wire leftover from the prison years, that were coiled up near a path just across Lorne Street. While it was there, our boys used to break-off chunks once a week, and keep them in a wooden box, because we expected that at any time, the property owner would dispose of the barbed wire, not really knowing its significance. The barb wire even made it to print, in a paragraph of the Canadian POW camp history, "Escape from Canada," noting that former POW's did claim some of the wire as souvenirs, many years after the war.
This is an important location to be recognized. In fact, I believe it as important as the recognition of Dr. Norman Bethune, and it would be of even greater significance, if it had been acknowledged many decades before now, and given the respect it clearly deserves as a national heritage site. I think that most German visitors would acknowledge the same, that it is what it is! But I think to not recognize it, with a public plaque, or similar site identification, clearly points out, that as a town, we're kind of embarrassed the whole situation occurred in the first place. Why acknowledge the presence of a prisoner of war camp? The fact that the camp at Calydor, was a well run, and generally amicable arrangement for staff and prisoners; and was a credit to Canada and to the host community. Our town handled some of the most ardent, die-hard Nazi prisoners in Canada, and they handled the assignment capably, which should be recognized; not just by a book, but with public recognition, that this was an acreage on beautiful Muskoka Bay that made history every day it was in operation. Now think about this. Calydor began as a sanatorium for tubercular patients. It also treated some Canadian soldiers who had been injured by gas warfare in the trenches of France. Dr. Bethune was a patient at Calydor, before transferring to a sanatorium in New York. Then came the Nazi Prisoner of War Camp years, and then onto the Jewish Gateway Hotel, in its later years. Now its a nice, well treed subdivision, overlooking the sparkling water of a great Muskoka lake. There's a huge whack of history on that property, that does need to be properly addressed by this municipality, and Cecil Porter's book has led the way, to facing this perceived negative aspect of local history, with a proud outlook, about lessons learned……and obstacles overcome.
I don't expect the homeowners of the new waterfront subdivision, will appreciate tourists walking constantly through their subdivision, and I can understand this. I do believe however, most who have built on the site, know the history of the acreage, and have some reverence of what the land uses have meant to local history. There weren't many camps in Canada, and we had one of them. We had tunnels, we had escapes, and we had lots of drama. Yes you could make a movie about Calydor, and it would be interesting without a doubt.
I would have liked to take my German friend for a visit to the camp property, but alas we both ran out of free time to wander about the town. He seemed pleased a local citizen was willing to talk candidly about the circumstances of Calydor, without fear of upsetting him with details of camp life, armed guards and failed attempts at escapes. I think other German and European visitors might feel the same, and want to see where the camp was located, and learn more about its history, from tour guides interested in promoting local heritage. I believe, in fact, many folks would like to have this option, and know more about our small town's big role in the Second World War. I always enjoyed giving my tours, and many of those folks, after this, ran their own tours of the sprawling lakeside property. I think it's time to stop fearing that the public recognition of the Calydor Camp, will be detrimental or insulting to our German visitors, and show respect for the fact that even in the most desperate times of world crisis, friendships were being made here in Canada that would last a lifetime, and encourage many Germans to emigrate to our country and region, when given the post war climate of forgiveness.
I am certainly not suggesting that a museum be constructed and outfitted with memorabilia and articles from the period. I'm not recommending that a huge bill board be erected at the property to acknowledge Camp Calydor, or that a highway sign direct traffic up Lorne Street to see the place Nazis used to reside. I am most definitely suggesting, that a respectful and interpretative marker be considered, at various locations, to at the very least, let those interested in seeing the property, learn more about the years of its service to country and home. I think it should be the subject of special historical walking tours of the town, and can also be respectfully acknowledged in town promotional material, informing the public of our heritage attractions. We are avoiding a huge chunk of international heritage, and those who are part of the "let's leave it alone" group, are doing the community a disservice, at the same time, as they are trying to sanitize heritage on the mistaken hunch, a POW camp can't possibly offer anything positive, and advantageous, so therefore, it should be ignored. If it was a good enough bit of history to base a book, then it is worthy of full town recognition, that it is part of our history……and for our effort as a community, to help the war effort, it should be proudly acknowledged; credited to our ever-watchful citizens, at the time, who had to contend with the burden of Nazis in their midst, while they listened to the nightly war updates from Europe, on their crackling, static interrupted tube radios. From 1939 to 1946, our town played host to German Prisoners of War. It's fact. So let's get on with our own liberation from the fear of its public recognition, in case someone gets offended. It is wrong-minded to think that this part of our history is either negative, or best forgotten.
No comments:
Post a Comment