Masculinity and Confinement: German-Speaking Refugees in Canadian Internment Camps (1940-1943)

Abstract

The forced migration of German-speaking refugees fleeing Nazism brought to Canada a group of “accidental” immigrants—the “Camp Boys.” The group consisted of German and Austrian nationals, Jewish and non-Jewish, who had previously migrated to the United Kingdom. In 1940, the British government decided to register all “enemy aliens” and to intern some of them. A few weeks later, approximately 2,000 male internees (aged from 16-65 years) were sent overseas to Canadian internment camps. They spent several months in a confined, allmale, but sociologically extremely diverse, environment. The internment camps thus became a vividly remembered matrix of masculinity, especially for the younger “Boys.” From the Camp Boys’ retrospective self-narratives, it appears that their self-representation and self-construction as “men” was deeply affected by the feelings of confinement, powerlessness, and impotence they experienced in the camps. By looking at the way power circulated in the camps, and the way hierarchies were constructed (intersecting class, religion, and sexuality), the author addresses and reframes the notion of subordinated vs. “hegemonic masculinity” (R.W. Connell). By looking at the retrospective self-narratives produced by these men, he also addresses the narrative and performative construction of masculine identities.