Amherst Internment Camp

Amherst Internment Camp was an internment camp that existed from 1914 to 1919 in Amherst, Nova Scotia. It was the largest internment camp in Canada during World War I; a maximum of 853 prisoners were housed at one time at the old Malleable Iron foundry on the corner of Hickman and Park Streets.^[1] The most famous prisoner at the camp was Leon Trotsky. There was a commemoration of the guards and prisoners for the 100th anniversary of the closing of the Amherst Internment Camp on July 2, 2019, at the Amherst Armoury. [1]

Background

Part of a series on the
Military history of Nova Scotia
Citadel Hill in Halifax
Notable events Battle of Port Royal 1690 Siege of Port Royal 1710 Battle of Winnepang 1722 Northeast Coast Campaign 1745 Battle of Grand Pré 1747 Dartmouth Massacre 1751 Bay of Fundy Campaign 1755 Siege of Louisbourg 1758 Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax 1758 Halifax Treaties 1760–1761 Battle of Fort Cumberland 1776 Raid on Lunenburg 1782 Establishment of New Ireland 1812 Capture of USS Chesapeake 1813 ‪Battle of the Great Redan 1855 ‪Siege of Lucknow 1857 CSS Tallahassee escape 1861 ‪Halifax Provisional Battalion 1885 ‪Battle of Witpoort 1899 ‪Battle of Paardeberg 1899 Imprisonment of Leon Trotsky 1917 Jewish Legion formed 1917 Sinking of Llandovery Castle 1918 Battle of the St. Lawrence 1942–1944 Sinking of Point Pleasant Park 1945 Halifax VE-Day riot 1945
Notable regiments Mi'kmaq militias 1677–1779 Acadian militias 1689–1761 40th Regiment of Foot 1717–1757 Louisbourg Garrison 1717–1758 Gorham's Rangers 1744–1762 Danks' Rangers 1756–1762 84th Regiment of Foot 1775–1784 Royal Fencible American 1775–1783 Royal Nova Scotia Volunteers 1775–1783 King's Orange Rangers 1776–1783 1st Field Artillery from 1791 Royal Nova Scotia 1793–1802 Nova Scotia Fencibles 1803–1816 Halifax Rifles from 1860 Princess Louise Fusiliers from 1867 78th Highland 1869–1871 Cape Breton Highlanders from 1871 Nova Scotia Rifles 1914–1919 No. 2 Construction Battalion 1916–1919 West Nova Scotia from 1916 Nova Scotia Highlanders from 1954
Related topics Captivity narratives Impressment
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When the First World War began in 1914, there was widespread suspicion in Canada that immigrants from enemy nations might be disloyal. In response, the federal government passed regulations allowing it to monitor and intern anyone who had not become naturalized British subjects. These people were labelled "enemy aliens." In total 8,579 men were prisoners of war in 24 camps across the country.^[1]

The Amherst camp was one of three internment camps in Nova Scotia. The others were on Melville Island in the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbour and in Citadel Hill (Fort George). Unlike the rest of Canada, where internees were mostly of Eastern European origin, the internees in Nova Scotia were mainly German reservists.^[1]

Camp

The camp consisted of a building that was 100 feet wide by a quarter of a mile long. The south end was used as the German Officers' quarters, the camp hospital and the medical inspection room. The north end housed the prisoners' quarters and their washrooms. Further to the north, close to Patterson Street, was the large mess hall, recreation room, kitchen, and pantry stores.^[2] Of these eight hundred prisoners, about five hundred were sailors from German warships sunk by the Royal Navy; about two hundred were workers caught by the war in Canada, and a hundred more were officers and wealthy civilian prisoners.^[3]

By April 1915, the Halifax camp had become overcrowded and a new one opened at Amherst. The first prisoners of the camp arrived from Halifax on April 17, 1915, aboard armed trains. A total of 640 sailors of the captured vessel SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. The Citadel now housed only first-class prisoners of war (officers) and Amherst housed those considered second-class (reservists from the ranks and enemy aliens). When the Citadel camp closed on October 3, 1916, its prisoners were transferred to Amherst. At one point toward the end of the war, the Amherst camp held 854 internees and was the largest in Canada.

On June 25, 1915, a group of prisoners refused to enter the compound upon a guard's order. The riot that ensued resulted in one guard being injured and one prisoner was shot and killed and four others were wounded. An inquiry found that discipline had been lacking and the camp commander, Major G. R. Oulton, a veteran of the Second Boer War, was replaced by Colonel Arthur Henry Morris [ru].

Trotsky and his family were living in exile in New York City during World War I and decided in 1917 he wanted to return to Russia. His return ship, SS Kristianiafjord, temporarily docked in the Halifax Harbour. On April 3, 1917, Trotsky was detained at the Citadel, and shortly thereafter was brought to the Amherst Internment Camp (Trotsky's wife, Natalia Sedova, and his children remained in Halifax at a hotel, reporting daily to the police station).^[3] Trotsky referred to the camp as a concentration camp.^[3]

He wrote about the camp commanders' attempts to block his mobilization of the other prisoners to join the Russian Revolution, writing:

The whole month I was there was like one continuous mass meeting. I told the prisoners about the Russian revolution, about Liebknecht, about Lenin... the British colonel... forbade me to make any more public speeches. But this did not happen until the last few days of our stay at the camp, and served only to cement my friendship with the sailors and workers, who responded to the colonel's order by a written protest bearing five hundred and thirty signatures. A plebiscite like this, carried out in the very face of Sergeant Olsen's heavy-handed supervision, was more than ample compensation for all the hardships of the Amherst imprisonment.

During the four years of the camp, six prisoners successfully escaped while approximately eleven others had died during their internment because of accident, or ill health. A tombstone, located at the Amherst Cemetery, marks the death of these POWs. Their bodies were returned to Germany in 1919. The camp closed on September 27, 1919.^[1]

References

External links

• Leon Trotsky – Amherst Internment Camp
• Trotsky in Amherst – Silver Donald Cameron
• Amherst Camp – Museum
• CBC report – Trotsky

45°49′09″N 64°12′39″W / 45.819105°N 64.210772°W / 45.819105; -64.210772