The Galt has been digitally releasing stories about some of those objects to online audiences. The most recent of the objects to be featured are a chess set and painting that belonged to Willi Mueller, a German prisoner of war. These objects are of national historic importance.
Read MoreWilliam 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreThe Galt received a donation of a tuba that was played by German POWs interned at Camp 133 in Lethbridge and was later played by members of community bands in Lethbridge and southern Alberta.
Read More
