During WW2 German prisoners of Wars in Canada were so well treated that they didn’t want to leave the country when released. Thousands of them eventually stayed or came back to Canada with one saying that the time in Canadian prison was “the best thing that happened to me.”

The Happiest Prisoners

Prisoners look out from behind barbed wire at Sherbrooke, Que., in 1945.

In the shadow of Mount Baldy, where lodgepole pine and trembling aspen compete for space in Alberta’s spectacular Kananaskis Country, all that remains of a Second World War prisoner of war camp are weedy building foundations, a rundown guard tower and a restored commandant’s cabin. Here and at 25 other locations across Canada, 35,046 German soldiers, sailors, airmen and potential insurgents were incarcerated under a program one later called “the best thing that happened to me.”

It’s how many of them felt about their time here; and it’s partly why more than 6,000 wanted to stay after the war ended.

The first camps were created to lock up some 358 individuals… Continue Reading

Source: https://legionmagazine.com/en/2012/03/the-happiest-prisoners/