|
Between
June 1940 and the autumn of 1943, no less than 400 Italian-Canadian
civilians were interned at Camp Petawawa, Ontario. These internees
comprised the largest contingent of "enemy aliens" in the camp.1
Although
they were generally well treated - the camp did not lack for basic
amenities - these men suffered from a variety of physical and psychological
deprivations.
The
loss of freedom, the confusion attending their arrest, the uncertainty
regarding the length of their confinement and the sudden removal
from their families and place of business, created a sense of bitterness
and frustration among them.
The
routine and regularity of life at the internment camp, moreover,
resulted in profound ennui, "a sense of boredom, of frustration
with the monotonous, mind numbing dullness of Camp life."2
In
his study of the camp, Mario Duliani observes, "there were days
when I wished I could have grown an extra nose, or three eyes, days
when I wished my face would turn inside out. Just to see a change
in things. But I didn't change. No one changed. Nothing changed.
Always the same passageway, the same camp, the same forest before
us, . . . the same barbed wire ...."3
In
an effort to allay the frustration and to avert the boredom of the
place, the POWS at the camp created a variety of "distractions."4
Among
the most popular of these distractions were the recreational and
sports activities organised in the camp. "Unless assigned to specific
duties," Duliani writes, "virtually all of the internees played
games of one kind or the other from morning till evening."5
The
games they played ranged from cards and Chinese checkers to ping-pong,
bocce and hockey. The materials and equipment for these games were
either "home-made," or acquired from the YMCA, the Red Cross and
other philanthropic associations.6
The
organisation of these activities was encouraged by Petawawa administration.
Besides ensuring at least a modicum of physical exercise, organised
sports served as "a means of letting off steam," an outlet for the
bitterness and frustration that underlay camp life.7
The
camp recreational activities - along with its social and cultural
programs 8 - served, further,
to make the internees feel that they had "a task to fulfill," that
they were accomplishing something;9
Confinement
did not necessarily mean the subjugation of will or the restraint
of talent.10
Accordingly,
the administration allowed the internees a large measure of freedom
in this area. The recreational, social and cultural events in the
camp were run by and for the inmates: "the guards rarely interfered
with day-to-day routine inside the compound.''11
There
were twelve large barracks, or huts in the camp, each housing sixty
or more people.12
Games
and sporting events were organised daily within each hut. As the
residential distribution of internees was primarily along ethnic,
national and ideological lines, social and sports activities differed
from hut to hut. Thus, the Germans played volleyball and soccer
and the French-Canadians played hockey to a far greater extent than
any other group.13
Among
the Italian Canadians the most popular recreational activities were
morra, bocce ("the Italian national sport") and Italian card games
(scopa, briscola, tresette).14
Sports
and games in Camp Petawawa, however, also brought about a certain
amount of intermingling among inmates from the various ethnic, national
and ideological groups. This was in part because of the universal
appeal of certain sports such as boxing, chess and even ping-pong
and baseball. As Berlino Colangelo recalls, on occasion huts organising
essentially "in-house" matches in these sports would ask for volunteers
from other huts to fill the team quota.15
The
younger internees, moreover, did not restrict themselves to sports
with which they were familiar; they were interested in participating
in a variety of sports.
Thus,
for example, Italian Canadians B. Ferri and Berlino Colangelo first
learned to skate and to play hockey at Camp Petawawa. The proximity
of the barracks, the shared sense of misery and the informal, spontaneous
dynamics of play also promoted interaction among members of otherwise
distinct groups.
Thus,
for example, in 1941 an annual Field Day was inaugurated in which
groups and individuals met to determine the camp champions in a
variety of sports and leisure activities. It is significant that
the first Field Day was organised during the Christmas season, when
the internees felt particularly homesick and dispirited.
The
committees in charge of coordinating the Field Day spanned the entire
range of groups in the camp. So the members of the entertainment
committee included: J.M. Scott, Hughes Bouchard, P. Niklas, Enrico
Sbragi and M. Lattoni (Camp Spokesman). For all the ostensible fellowship
that such events fostered, however, the many ethnic, national and
ideological groups remained largely insular. The communists, in
particular, wanted very little to do with fellow inmates whom they
viewed as "fascists" and ''Nazis.''16
"The
intellectuals," Duliani writes, "separated themselves into a coterie
all their own, where they found comfort in the exchange of familiar
ideas in a language appropriate to their particular frame of mind.
The other groups did the same thing. The sailors [Italians and Germans],
above all, remained apart from the other internees and united among
themselves as if they were still at sea."17
top
|
In-hut
habitation during the long winters exacerbated insularity, and even
the daily and occasional sporting matches highlighted national and
ideological divisions in the camp.
As
William Repka, a trade-unionist from western Canada who was interned
in the camp, recalls in a retrospective on Camp Petawawa:
The
Germans were very sports-minded, and they organized boxing matches
among themselves. However, the Italian defeated the German champion
and then challenged our group to a match.
The
Italian was a muscular, hairy-chested barrel of a man, with a jaw
like a cement block, arms like tree branches, and the neck of a
gorilla. They wanted us to put a man to fight him. This posed a
problem for our group of editors, writers and union organizers.
It
so happened that there was a clean-cut Canadian youth, perhaps 25
years old, in our hut. He was constantly on the parallel bars and
the rings, doing exercises for hours.... Some of our people immediately
suspected him to be an RCMP plant.
After
much discussion somebody had an inspiration. Why not put the cop
against the Italian? The man agreed.... When the two stood in the
ring, it was a clear illustration of the difference between a lightweight,
fast moving athlete and a brawny gorilla.
If
the gorilla had even swatted the cop once, he would have flattened
him. But for all his lunging, the Italian could never get near the
cop.... He kept jabbing and banging at the Italian until the bigger
man became exhausted, stumbled and hit out blindly.... There was
also a chess tournament in the camp. The Germans and Italians played
each other and this time a German won.
The
German was blond, 200 pounds, 6 foot 2 inches, and a perfect specimen
of humanity and the master race. He challenged one of us to a match.
Here
our problem was a good deal simpler. Saunders, our champion, weighed
110 pounds, was 5 foot 4 inches, and had thick glasses - clearly
one of nature's inferior specimens.
The
Germans were all chuckling that their super race, as exemplified
by their champion, was going to mop up the floor with this Jew in
the chess tournament. But to the amazement and chagrin of the master
race, Saunders, a mathematician, wiped the floor with the blond
giant.18
As
these examples suggest, matches of all types often became national
contests, pitting "Germans" against "Italians," or "Canadians" against
"fascists."
Their
shared fate as POWS did not suffice to override the bitter ethnic
and ideological rivalries which divided Camp Petawawa inmates.
NOTES
1.
Interviews with B. Ferri, B. Colangelo, G. Boccaccio and F. Zaffiro.
Observe also, Mario Duliani, La Citta Senza Donne (Montreal, 1946),
passim.
2.
John Melady, Escape From Canada! (Toronto, 1981), pp. 4647, 76.
3.
Duliani, La Citta Senza Donne, p. 218.
4.
Ibid., p. 1 83.
5.
Ibid., p. 185; interviews with B. Ferri and B. Colangelo.
6.
Duliani, La Citta Senza Donne, p. 184; Melady, Escape From Canada!,
p. 52; Eric Koch, Deemed Suspect (Toronto, 1980), p. 147; William
Repka and K.M. Repka, eds., Dangerous Patriots (Vancouver, 1982),
p. 147.
7.
Interview with B. Ferri.
8.
Among the various social and cultural events within the camp were
theatrical and musical performances, language classes, public readings
and handicraft exhibits. See Duliani, La Citta Senza Donne, passim.
9.
Koch, Deemed Suspect, p.148.
10.
Virtually all of the Italian-Canadian internees left the camp with
carved mementoes of one kind or another. Amateur talent, as B. Ferri
observed, was not only manifest in the sculpturing abilities of
the inmates, but in the literary, dramatic and musical accomplishments
of many internees.
11.
Melady, Escape From Canada!, p. 80; Duliani, La Citta Senza Donne,
pp. 295, 299; Koch, Deemed Suspect, pp. 146ff.
12.
Duliani, La Citta Senza Donne, pp. 29. 42-43, 59-60.
13.
Interviews with B. Ferri and B. Colangelo.
14.
Duliani, La Citta Senza Donne, pp. 123ff.
15.
Interview with B. Colangelo.
16.
Repka, Dangerous Patriots, pp. 140, 146, 153-54, 155-56. Though
interned as "enemy aliens," the majority of the Italian-Canadian
internees were neither fascists - enemies - in the political sense
of the term, nor aliens, judging by the length of their Canadian
residency.
17.
Duliani, La Citta Senza Donne, p. 242.
18.
Repka, Dangerous Patriots, p. 155.
|
