Yves Barnard and Carol Bergeron, Trop loin de Berlin, ISBN 2-89448-021-0, 1995, 360 pages, illustrated.

During the Second World War, Canada received about 35,000 German prisoners of war.  For more than six years, at the request of the British government, the Canadian government administered camps all over the country, but mainly in Quebec and Ontario. The camps at Farnham, Sherbrooke, Grande Ligne, Trois-Rivières, Bowmanville, and Angler were part of a network of twenty camps set up by the Canadian army. Some camps stayed open throughout the war; others, like the Cove Fields camp on the Plains of Abraham, were used only until the military authorities could set up new, more functional and isolated camps. Fifty years later, Trop loin de Berlin takes us back to the era of the war thanks to previously unpublished photographs, archival documents, and first-person accounts.  The ex-prisoners interviewed by the authors remember and relate a part of Canadian history that has remained almost unknown up to now.

Yves Bernard, a journalist, has worked at Radio-Québec and Radio-Canada. Caroline Bergeron is a photographer whose work has appeared in a number of Quebec magazines and newspapers.

The Hara-kiri Club

One of the most interesting discoveries made during the authors' research was the Hara-Kiri Club, In November, 1944, an "ultra-secret" directive was sent to the camp commandants. This document reveals the existence of a plot among prisoners of war to perpetrate massive sabotage and assassinations in Canada. This destructive project was code-named the Hara-Kiri Club. The plan was brought to the attention of Canadian authorities thanks to informers recruited from among the prisoners. According to the informers, this operation was to be executed, among others, at camp 44, Grande Ligne, in Quebec. The plan was inspired by an old German legend known as Dusk of the Gods. This legend relates that one day, the gods decided to die, but their death was accomplished in a final orgy of violence. 

According to the document, the Hara-Kiri Club's plans involved the following steps:

- It would start when it became obvious that Germany 's surrender or destruction was imminent.

- When the exact moment for operations to begin was chosen by the plan's leaders, one group would initially be in charge of killing prisoners considered to be sympathizers or collaborators.  

- Then, the main forces would attack the guard towers, without regard for losses suffered, and would open the gates.

- At the same time, they would kill as many of the camp's personnel as possible . . .

In another step, the plan called for a number of German officers to head for strategic sites such as airports, hydro-electric stations, and major factories to commit various acts of sabotage. One of the goals, according to the document, was "to create the most damage and victims as possible". It had to be realized, the document continued, that innocent people would be killed if the plan were carried out, even though it was also clear that all the prisoners who attempted such an operation would also die. For the Nazi officers, death in battle would be a glorious death. 

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