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Overview

The Whitewater PoW Camp Archaeology Project is investigating the people and stories of a Second World War internment camp built in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, Canada. Occupied from October 1943 to October 1945, the camp held 450 German Afrika Korps soldiers captured in Egypt after the Second Battle of El-Alamein. The research involves archival documents, oral history, and archaeological survey and excavation.

POWs at Whitewater c. 1943 Oral History Screening Soil Oral History Jerram a the total station 3D map of Whitewater site Adrian speaking to park visitors German Wehrmacht Water Canteen Test Excavation Unit The POW Camp in the 1940s Excavating one of the middens at Whitewater Canoes made by the POWs Excavation at the Camp Incinerator

Brief Project Updates

** 25 August 2011: The 2011 field season is now completed -  the next phase of work will be the analysis of the 50 boxes of artifacts we excavated this summer!

** 23 August 2011: The Whitewater Project was recently covered by the The Minnedosa Tribune, The Toronto Star, the Brandon Sun, CTV, and Der Spiegel.

** 1 August 2011: The Brandon University Archaeology Field School is working at Whitewater from now until the end of August.

** 16 July 2011: The Whitewater Project was featured on CBC Radio and CBC TV.

** 6 July 2011: Photos of our 2011 fieldwork are added daily to this album.

** 1 July 2011: The 2011 field season at Riding Mountain National Park is underway! Our goal is to complete twenty excavation units of 1 meter x 1 meter.

** 26 June 2011: Adrian Myers just got back from a trip to Germany where he interviewed three former PoWs that were held in the Whitewater PoW Camp during the Second World War. Read more here.

** 27 May 2011: We are actively collecting oral history about the Whitewater PoW Camp, and the PoWs’ time in Manitoba in general – click here if you can help!