Historic Prisoner of War Camp Photo TR

Cyber.Fiber · June 23, 2010

Welcome to Camp 30

Recently, a housing development group purchased the land and historic buildings known as "Camp 30" in Bowmanville Ontario, with plans to tear them down and build a subdivision. My friends and I decided that we should make a trek down to the area and take some pictures and explore a bit before the opportunity is gone for good.

Some interesting history about the Camp:

The camp was originally built in 1925 as a training school for delinquent boys. The school was named, “Pine Ridge Boys Training School”. Later, this school would be named in a multi-claimant lawsuit for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse against its residents.

The school was transformed into a Prisoner of War Camp during WWII used to hold High Ranking German Officials. The location was picked as it would prevent, in the case of escape,the highest ranking officials from returning to the war across seas.

Conditions for the prisoners were excellent, 5-Star rated, and the only complaint about the camp was that the urinals were too low.

There was only one attempted escape, in which failed. The Nazi prisoners created an underground railroad pulley system underneath building 4. It was used to carry dirt from the construction of an underground tunnel back to the building to be stored in the attic. Fortunately, before the tunnel was completed, the weight of the dirt stored in the attic caused the celling to collapse, and the prisoners plan was foiled.

The camp returned to its original use as a Private School and more recently was used as the campus of Darul Uloom Islamic University, where it was abandoned in spring of 2008. When abandoned, all the contents were left behind, and the buildings have since been severely burned making for a very lonely, eerie environment.

Since our visit, the Developer has donated 24 hectares in which the 18 buildings sit and the area surrounding them to the community to be turned into a historical park. Refurbishment and Reconstruction is being done to the buildings to return them to their former glory.

The historical value of the buildings is incredible and the buildings are beautiful, especially the Gymnasium and Pool House.

I used a Nikon D5000 to shoot, and it was my first time using a DSLR, so forgive me if the photos aren't the greatest!