Daring prisoner escapes — Hollywood's bread and butter for psychological thrillers — happened in Southern Alberta too. Many mirrored or even surpassed the classics of the genre.

ArticleAndrew ChernevychDecember 2, 2021Galt Museum & ArchivesEscape, Police, Lethbridge, Lethbridge HeraldComment

Escape! Internment in Canada, 1914–1920 with Ben Weistra

In honour of the 100th anniversary of the end of Canada's first national internment operations during the First World War from 1914–1920, we are releasing a video presentation by Ben Weistra about the Internment Camp in Lethbridge, Alberta, focusing on William Perchaluk's tragic story.

A Prisoner's Story

William Perchaluk was one of 8,579 individuals interned in Canada as “enemy aliens” during the First World War. He was born in about 1890 in Dereniowka, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and likely immigrated to Canada between 1911 and 1914.

The Lethbridge Internment Camp

In the first month of the First World War, Canadian military officials began planning for an internment camp, to be located at the Exhibition Grounds in Lethbridge. Renovations were completed to convert the horse stables and poultry building into living quarters, and to add a barbed wire fence. The facility was opened on September 30, 1914, and in mid-1915 it became a first-class camp designated for non-working prisoners who were primarily German or German-speaking Austrians.