>The industry of the Germans as compared to other types of interned persons was a matter of comment throughout the operations.The first effort to usefully employ interned persons was made at Camp “S”, St. Helen’s Island in the St. Laurence River in Montreal, where workshops for the Italian seamen and internees transferred from the United Kingdom in 1940 were instituted. The work was chiefly light industry, largely the fabrication of nets and cutting and sewing of textiles. These prisoners of war were paid at the rate of 20 cents per day and were found to be reasonably industrious. This employment was known as the Works Program (P.W.) and was later extended to refugee camps occupied largely by interned jewish refugees at Isle Aux Noix, Quebec; at Sherbrooke, Que.; and at Farnham, Que. As these persons were not prisoners of war it was possible to employ them at less limited types of work, more directly associated with the prosecution of the war. While it would be thought that they type of internee would have more interest in the production of materials which assisted the war effort, it was found that their industry compared very unfavorably with the Italians. When at a later date, selected German merchant seamen were transferred to Sherbrooke to continue this work on the the release of the refugees or their return to the United Kingdom, it was found that the production per man increased enormously.
Priebe was shot down and captured during the Battle of Britain in August 1940 and was a POW in Canada until after the end of the war. In May, 1945 the British foreign office issued an order to overseas POW camps that all internees were to be put on a diet of no more than 800 calories a day. In Canada the solution to this inhumane order was that German officers were offered the opportunity to work for ¢50/day in order to buy supplemental rations for themselves. Priebe later became the manager of Lufthansa's operation in Toronto and an Canadian citizen.
