I hope everyone had a nice holiday season! I took it pretty easy, and spent some quality time with friends and family. I didn’t do much trash picking, but I think I’ll get back into it next week.
Today I’m showing you some old finds from the “archives” at my garage. This folder came from an interesting spot in Cote St-Luc, probably around 3 years ago.
This household had German roots, and apparently knew a German (or multiple?) who was detained during WWII and spent time at various Canadian POW camps. The folder contained various sketches from the period, most of which related to the war and their time at the Kananaskis internment camp.
Apparently the role of the camp changed over time. Before Canada even joined the war, they “began arresting and detaining known and suspected enemy sympathizers” to be interned at the camp. Given the history of WWII-era Japanese internment camps in Canada and the US, it’s fair to wonder if some of these people were actually threats. Later on, the camp began housing combatants and those with strong “pro-Nazi” sympathies. See the link above for a more thorough history.
All that to say, it’s very possible that these early prisoners were not hardened Nazis. One of them appears to have immigrated to Canada after the war, which indicates to me that he was probably just a German civilian who got caught up in that mess.
Anyways, this is a drawing of the Kananaskis hospital, dated 1939-1940 by Paul Schinz.
Here are some unsigned drawings. The ones below look to be wartime drawings, which is interesting.
Finally, I found several of these cartoons. They’re by a guy named Otto Ellmaurer, who if the birthdate is correct, would have been a teenager while detained at this camp. Some of them are kind of funny, zoom in for a closer look!
It looks like the Canada War Museum has a copy of all these, plus a few extra that I don’t have.
Interesting stuff. I haven’t really looked into their value yet, but I assume I can make a few bucks from these. The cartoons seem to be pretty rare, and the drawings are obviously one of a kind.
I have a bit more stuff from this spot to share. Maybe I’ll try to get those photos done tomorrow, and close the book on this years-old spot.
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? My main one is to finally start writing that garbage picking book that I’ve been talking about for years. There isn’t much reason to put it off any longer, and it’s not like I don’t have the time. If you have any topics you’d like to see covered in a book, please share in the comments!
Links
1. My eBay listings. Sign up for eBay (Canada, US). Search for something you want / research something you have (Canada, US). — These are Ebay Partner Network links. If you create an account or buy something after getting to eBay from these links, I get a small cut of the profit!
2. “Things I find in the garbage” on Facebook
3. Follow @garbagefindssells on Instagram (this is managed by a friend, I’ve quit Instagram for the time being)
4. Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. Note that I really suck at keeping up with my email.
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