The accidental captives

By Carolyn Gossage

Subjects: Biography, Women, World War, 1939-1945, Women prisoners of war, German Prisoners and prisons, Kanadierin

Description: In April 1941, a passenger ship sailing from New York to Cape Town was attacked and sunk by a German raider in the South Atlantic. The passengers were pulled from the waters and transported to Nazi-occupied France, where the majority, as (at that time) neutral citizens of the United States, were released and returned home. News of their fortunate escape soon broke and the story became an overnight sensation. Yet amidst the excitement generated by the captives' release, the fate of those left behind was all but forgotten. Among these unlucky few were seven Canadian women, whose remarkable wartime journey was only just beginning. Interned in German detention camps as 'enemy aliens', they were eventually moved to Berlin, to await repatriation. But - due to a bureaucratic mix up - when they arrived in Berlin, this small group of women found themselves alone, stranded in the heart of Hitler's Germany.