Home > CMH > Vol. 27 (2018) > Iss. 2

 

Abstract

The four years I spent in British and Canadian POW Camps offered ample time to study English Literature. This experience in particular had a decisive effect on my later career as university teacher of English literature. It also helped me to become one of the first Anglicists at German and Austrian universities, who included Canadian literature in his syllabus and a founder member of the German Association for Canadian Studies. In this essay based on my war-autobiography, I describe the experience of German POWs in Canada. I was captured in 1942 when serving as third officer of the watch on board U-331 after my vessel was sunk in the Mediterranean by a torpedo fired from a RAF Albacore. I also deal with the so-called Laconia affair and the ambiguity of Admiral Dönitz’s orders issued to U-boat captains concerning the treatment of survivors of sunken ships.

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