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Lessons come to life
ALANA TOULIN, Chronicle-Journal, 29 Oct 08
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At first glance, it is hard to imagine how Paul Mengelberg made the decision to live in Canada. After all, the 92-year-old‘s introduction to the country was as a prisoner of war during the Second World War.
Then a member of the German navy, the young man was captured by British soldiers 485 kilometres off the coast of Ireland while he was working on a submarine.
Mengelberg was sent to Canada where he was kept in several PoW camps until 1946, including a stint at one located at Angler Creek near Marathon from 1941-42.
He was at the Thunder Bay Military Museum on Tuesday to talk to Lakehead University history and education students about his wartime experiences.
The talk was a way to “give (the students) a sense of our local connection to the bigger picture,” said LU faculty of education professor Walter Epp, who added that the students will be able to apply this first-person understanding of wartime history to their classroom placements next week.
“Getting away from textbooks and hearing from him is very special,” said Epp.
When a 17-year-old Mengelberg signed up for the German navy in the 1930s, he didn‘t have much of a choice. Under the Nazi government, military service was compulsory.
Although he said he wasn‘t overly political, he recalled details of his life growing up around Cologne, Germany in the years after the First World War devastated Europe.
“Right through the 1920s and up to the 1930s, (Germans) had a life that was not very pleasant,” he told the students.
After Hitler rose to power, things at first began to improve economically, but it came at a terrible cost.
“I had a Jewish girlfriend and one day she disappeared,” Mengelberg said, adding he still doesn‘t know if she was able to escape Germany or if she and her family were sent to a concentration camp.
“I don‘t know where she went – one day, just gone, along with her parents.”
Although he was imprisoned in the Angler Creek PoW camp, the memories of his time there are not entirely unpleasant, he said.
Mengelberg worked as a postmaster within the camp‘s walls, which allowed him a little bit more freedom than most had.
“They were excellent,” he said of the conditions faced by the German prisoners in the camp.
But there was an exception.
“I didn‘t like the guys in the airforce,” he said with a lauch of some of his fellow prisoners. “(They were) snobs – I don‘t like them.”
While he also joked about the prison camp diet as a way to lose weight quickly, he acknowledged that being a PoW was tough. Nobody ever made a successful escape from Angler Creek. He recalled that two who did get away were arrested after making it to Calgary, and others who attempted were killed.
After the war was over, Mengelberg returned to Germany, got married and then decided to come back to Canada where there were more work opportunities.
After spending time in Toronto, London, and farming community Glencoe, Mengelberg and his family were drawn back to Northwestern Ontario.
“I don‘t like a city – the air isn‘t fresh enough, for one thing,” he said. “Then I moved up to Longlac and have lived there ever since, since 1953,” he said, adding that he retired from the Kimberly-Clark mill more than 20 years ago.
For history student Luke Brkljacic, hearing Mengelberg‘s story made a lot of the learning he‘s done seem more real.
“We‘re so used to reading textbooks, articles and periodicals – it‘s much more memorable coming from the actual source. It hits home,” Brkljacic said.
Prof. Walter Epp, left, and his Lakehead University students listen to war veteran Paul Mengelberg at the Thunder Bay Military Museum on Tuesday.
Lessons come to life
ALANA TOULIN, Chronicle-Journal, 29 Oct 08
Article link
At first glance, it is hard to imagine how Paul Mengelberg made the decision to live in Canada. After all, the 92-year-old‘s introduction to the country was as a prisoner of war during the Second World War.
Then a member of the German navy, the young man was captured by British soldiers 485 kilometres off the coast of Ireland while he was working on a submarine.
Mengelberg was sent to Canada where he was kept in several PoW camps until 1946, including a stint at one located at Angler Creek near Marathon from 1941-42.
He was at the Thunder Bay Military Museum on Tuesday to talk to Lakehead University history and education students about his wartime experiences.
The talk was a way to “give (the students) a sense of our local connection to the bigger picture,” said LU faculty of education professor Walter Epp, who added that the students will be able to apply this first-person understanding of wartime history to their classroom placements next week.
“Getting away from textbooks and hearing from him is very special,” said Epp.
When a 17-year-old Mengelberg signed up for the German navy in the 1930s, he didn‘t have much of a choice. Under the Nazi government, military service was compulsory.
Although he said he wasn‘t overly political, he recalled details of his life growing up around Cologne, Germany in the years after the First World War devastated Europe.
“Right through the 1920s and up to the 1930s, (Germans) had a life that was not very pleasant,” he told the students.
After Hitler rose to power, things at first began to improve economically, but it came at a terrible cost.
“I had a Jewish girlfriend and one day she disappeared,” Mengelberg said, adding he still doesn‘t know if she was able to escape Germany or if she and her family were sent to a concentration camp.
“I don‘t know where she went – one day, just gone, along with her parents.”
Although he was imprisoned in the Angler Creek PoW camp, the memories of his time there are not entirely unpleasant, he said.
Mengelberg worked as a postmaster within the camp‘s walls, which allowed him a little bit more freedom than most had.
“They were excellent,” he said of the conditions faced by the German prisoners in the camp.
But there was an exception.
“I didn‘t like the guys in the airforce,” he said with a lauch of some of his fellow prisoners. “(They were) snobs – I don‘t like them.”
While he also joked about the prison camp diet as a way to lose weight quickly, he acknowledged that being a PoW was tough. Nobody ever made a successful escape from Angler Creek. He recalled that two who did get away were arrested after making it to Calgary, and others who attempted were killed.
After the war was over, Mengelberg returned to Germany, got married and then decided to come back to Canada where there were more work opportunities.
After spending time in Toronto, London, and farming community Glencoe, Mengelberg and his family were drawn back to Northwestern Ontario.
“I don‘t like a city – the air isn‘t fresh enough, for one thing,” he said. “Then I moved up to Longlac and have lived there ever since, since 1953,” he said, adding that he retired from the Kimberly-Clark mill more than 20 years ago.
For history student Luke Brkljacic, hearing Mengelberg‘s story made a lot of the learning he‘s done seem more real.
“We‘re so used to reading textbooks, articles and periodicals – it‘s much more memorable coming from the actual source. It hits home,” Brkljacic said.
Prof. Walter Epp, left, and his Lakehead University students listen to war veteran Paul Mengelberg at the Thunder Bay Military Museum on Tuesday.
