Suspected of, let us say, less than enthusiastic support for the war effort during the world wars, many German-Canadians were interned.
These included Adolf Minchau, interned during WWII. He was the proprietor of the Minchau blacksmith shop, housed in the almost-hundred-year-old building torn down this last summer. It was one of the last reminders of the strong German presence in the Ritchie community of Edmonton.
Blacksmith Adolf Minchau was a right-wing German-Canadian. A first-generation Canadian, he applauded Hitler's reforms in Germany, perhaps even saying that he was "making Germany great" again!
As president of the German-Canadian friendship society he was one of Edmonton's most prominent Germans as WWII started.
A night-time military-style round-up scooped up him and many other heads of German families in the community
In the early stages of WWII, late one night the area of his blacksmith shop and his adjoining residence was cordoned off and engulfed in a tumult of army, police and other security forces as Minchau and many other German men living in the area were rounded up. He spent years in an internment camp and had his property seized. Later he was released and his property returned.
This event was later remembered by Bill McLean, a one-time friend of Adolf's son. Bill McLean's recollections were collected and published in the Memories of Bonnie Doon book.
The history of the Minchau blacksmith building is described in my book Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots.
Besides Minchau, there were many others interned, whose stories are not as well known or chronicled.
Thanks for reading.
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