Medicine Hat, a small town on the South Saskatchewan River in southern Alberta, known for natural gas, coal, clay, and farmland garnered national attention during World War II for the murder of Nazi POWs while interned at a prisoner-of-war camp. Building on previous examinations of the internment camp system in Canada, Nathan M. Greenfield’s Hanged in Medicine Hat: Murders in a Nazi Prisoner-of-War Camp, and the Disturbing True Story of Canada’s Last Mass Execution, is a unique – if not, eye opening – examination of the World War II prisoner of war Camp 132 at Medicine Hat, Alberta. The author of many books on Canada’s military history, Greenfield moves off the battlefield to trace the murders of two German POWs, August Plaszek and Dr. Karl Lehmann, followed by the trials and executions of their fellow internees.
During the Second World War, POW camps were established throughout Canada to house captured soldiers. With few exceptions, a majority of the prisoners housed at Camp 132 were hardened National Socialists captured as part of the Erwin Rommel’s elite Afrika Korps. Understanding the circumstances under which the POWs were captured and the geopolitical discussions that brought 12,000 of them to Medicine Hat is important to understanding the subsequent three years between 1943 and 1946 that is the focus of Greenfield’s book. Using trial transcripts, prison and investigative reports, and interviews, the emphasis of the book is the structure of the camp’s disciplinary system and two trials. Unlike other internment camps throughout the country that housed Canadian citizens of Japanese, German, and Italian descent, the question of legal jurisdiction lingered over the murders at Camp 132. The former, albeit unlawful, clearly came under Canadian control as it imprisoned Canadian citizens or permanent residents. The Medicine Hat camp, as Greenfield suggests, might fall under the authority of the Geneva Convention as it interned soldiers captured on the battlefield
POWs, by way of the Geneva Convention, were given plenty of flexibility to police themselves. The camp leadership – known as the Gestapo – were staunch, ideological Nazis and used fear and intimidation to maintain strict discipline and uphold National Socialist values. During the lengthy investigation it became clear from the prisoners’ point from view that these killings were not believed to be murder. Rather, they believed they were following orders to execute for treason or traitorous behaviour in opposition of National Socialist ideology. “Hitler’s order to “mercilessly eradicate” those who would stab Germany in the back radicalized the Gestapos in POW camps around the world” (pg. 56). Whether it was speaking out against the German war effort, anti-Hitler rhetoric, reporting to Canadian authorities, or homosexual behaviour in the camps, the camp leadership took it upon themselves to deal with traitors in their midst. All of which was tolerated, or at least ignored, by Canadian authorities.
Each of the accused was tried separately. But the defence employed a similar three-pronged strategy in each trial. First, they argued the Geneva Convention applied and the Canadian civilian courts had no jurisdiction. Because the Convention had applied during their detention, the lawyers argued it should also apply during their trials. Also, the accused were soldiers, captured as soldiers, detained as soldiers, and they should be subject to a military tribunal where they would be tried by a jury of their peers. Their second strategy, more a matter of fact of the jury, was that the POWS had been subjected to years of National Socialist indoctrination, and this was not to be ignored because they were placed in custody. As such, the Gestapo inside the camp believed themselves to still be at war and were justified in executing the traitors among them in defence of Nazi Germany and the Führer. Lastly, the defence argued that the jury be instructed to consider manslaughter in their deliberations. Because of the mitigating factors, including being soldiers in war, executing orders received from Germany via short-wave radios they secretly built, and long-term National Socialist ideological indoctrination, the jury should consider the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The prosecutors correctly responded that the Convention asserted that the detainees were also subject to the laws of the country in which they were held. However, as Greenfield points out, other jurisdictions, such as the United States, allowed prisoners to be tried by military tribunals when charged with a crime that occurred behind barbed wire. The prosecutors were satisfied that the authorities had taken the necessary steps to ensure both the Geneva Convention and War Measures Act dealing with POWs was followed. Chief Justice Howson agreed with the prosecution and rejected the manslaughter charge and the jurisdictional issues. Howson reasoned that Medicine Hat was in Canada, and Camp 132 was “merely an area of land fenced in for the safe-keeping of German prisoners of war.” He continued that the “law of Canada relating to criminal offences within that area is the same as applies to all other parts of Canada.” Howson concluded this “court has jurisdiction to try criminal offences committed in Alberta by those persons residing within that enclosure in the same manner as by those persons residing outside of its boundaries” (pg. 188). Greenfield does take issue with the Chief Justice’s reasoning in both cases. Although Howson was legally correct in maintaining that the acts occurred on Canadian soil, he “ignored the fact that the world within the wire was more contested. Geneva recognized that even as they were subject to the laws of the country in which they were prisoners, POWs remained subject to their army’s laws” (pg. 210).
The jury, in the end, found all the defendants guilty of murdering August Plaszek and Dr. Karl Lehmann and were sentenced to death by hanging. After all the appeals – where one defendant had his sentence commuted to life in prison – were exhausted, the sentences were carried out. These men remained defiant to the end as hardcore ideological soldiers defending the Nazi cause. Walter Schwalb, the first to be hanged, uttered the words “My Führer, I follow thee” (pg. 150). The four POWs being hanged for Lehmann’s murder also remained dedicated Nazis. They were dismayed to be hanged like common criminals and not executed by firing squad, which was considered a death much more befitting a soldier. Furthermore, they were to be hanged in Lethbridge, Alberta, along with former Canadian soldier and convicted child molester and killer, Donald Sherman Staley. For the German POWs, who believed themselves to be honourable soldiers, this was unacceptable.
Greenfield’s latest book is thoroughly researched and well written. He masterfully weaves together the camp’s leadership structure with discipline and the murders of German POWs, while also parsing out the intricate details of the trial to help non-lawyers understand the nuances of the law. Whether tried in a military or a civilian court, the POWs were to be subjected to treatment that reflected the values and norms of Canada’s justice system, the principles of democracy, and the spirit of international human rights. History, like war, can be unpleasant and Greenfield’s book challenges many of the common assumptions about Canada’s justice system during the Second World War.
