The POW Camp 23, Monteith was a Canadian-run

POW camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, an ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, located in Monteith,

Iroquois Falls Iroquois Falls is a town in Northern Ontario, Canada, with a population of 4,418 at the 2021 census. The town centre lies 11 km east of Hwy 11 on the banks of the Abitibi River, west of Lake Abitibi. Timmins, one of the largest cities in ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

History

Before World War II, the camp was a

lumber camp A logging camp (or lumber camp) is a transitory work site used in the logging industry. Before the second half of the 20th century, these camps were the primary place where lumberjacks would live and work to fell trees in a particular area. Many ...

employing about forty men. Board lumber was cut on site and shipped about 8 km to the rail line. In July 1940, the camp was converted into POW Camp Q, later called Camp 23, by the Canadian government. The camp had a maximum capacity of 4000. The prisoners included interned German nationals in addition to captured German soldiers. The German national internees, as distinct from prisoners of war, had largely been classified as "enemy aliens", many shipped from Britain after the fall of France in 1940 under Churchill's "collar the lot" edict. As most of these were in fact Jewish or political refugees from the Nazi regime (and so would have formally had their German citizenship withdrawn by the authorities there, thus being effectively stateless, even if this factor was not realised or recognised in the UK), after vetting many were allowed to return to Britain to join the armed forces. One such interned German national was Wulff Scherchen, the 20-year old son of the German conductor

Hermann Scherchen Hermann Scherchen (21 June 1891 – 12 June 1966) was a German conductor, who was principal conductor of the city orchestra of Winterthur from 1922 to 1950. He promoted contemporary music, beginning with Schoenberg's '' Pierrot Lunaire'', follow ...

, who was living in Cambridge when he was arrested in 1940 and shipped to Canada. Wulff Scherchen was the romantic interest of

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

, himself only 26 at the time. Many of his letters to Britten from Camp Q (POW Camp 23) survive. Over 80 years later, with his consent, these heartfelt letters were made into an orchestral song cycle called Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra by composer Lyle Chan. The camp ceased operating as a military POW camp in 1946 and became a provincial reformatory known today as the

Monteith Correctional Complex The Monteith Correctional Complex is a medium/maximum security prison located in Monteith, a community in Iroquois Falls, Ontario.Hans Höchersteiger papers
Division of Special Collections, University of Alabama Libraries. Höchersteiger was a prisoner here. See 'Correspondence, Outgoing - POW letters and postcards,' which contains 17 items in German. {{DEFAULTSORT:Monteith Pow Camp History of Cochrane District World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Canada Military history of Canada during World War II