Monday, May 10, 1915
I now know why the soldiers seemed angry with us. Private Palmer says that a telegraph message arrived early Sunday morning with terrible news. A passenger ship called the Lusitania has been torpedoed by the Germans. There were 2,000 people on board and no one knows yet if there are any survivors. He said that the mood in the soldiers’ quarters is very bad. They are all blaming “people like us” for the sinking. I told him that we are not German and we are not truly Austrian. He says he knows that but it doesn’t make a difference with most of the soldiers. It is like they need to find someone to blame. Can’t they see that we are people just like them?
Tuesday, May 11, 1915
Dear Diary, all of our men have been organized into new teams. They will not be going into the forest and chopping wood right now. All of the teams will be building more bunkhouses.
Later
More people are being sent to Spirit Lake. That is the reason for building the new bunkhouses. Oy.
Private Palmer says that a new telegram came. The sinking of the Lusitania has caused “hysteria” in the cities (“hysteria” means when a bunch of people get angry all at once). To calm people down, the government is arresting more Ukrainians.
Oh, Dear Diary, I am so confused. What is the government thinking? They must know that we are not German and we are not Austrian. We are Ukrainians. Even if we were Germans or Austrians, how could we sink the Lusitania from here? Why would we? It seems to me that the government isn’t thinking straight.
Friday, May 14, 1915
Dear Diary, early this morning, the train stopped at the main camp and hundreds of new prisoners have arrived. Since the sinking of the Lusitania, there has been a frenzy against foreigners. I guess being interned is for our own safety, but I feel so bad about it. I wonder if there will be more women and children too?
Later
There were four more families on the train. They look so scared and frightened and tired and thin. Is that what we looked like when we arrived?
Saturday, May 15, 1915
Can you believe that it is snowing today?
Wednesday, May 19, 1915
It is the middle of May and yet it is still so cold. My wash basin was again frozen this morning, and even though it is nearly noon, I can still see my breath.
Stefan’s father was let out of “solitary confinement” last night. Mrs. Pemlych volunteered to cook supper today even though tomorrow is her usual day. The food that we get here is plain and not very plentiful, but she wants to fatten her husband up fast because he is so skinny and old looking.
Mrs. Pemlych offered to do laundry for one of the unmarried camp guards in exchange for a bit of beef. She is in the cookhouse right now making a thick rich stew for tonight’s supper. We all get some, but Mr. Pemlych gets the most. He has gone off with the others to chop wood. I don’t know how he can do it, but I guess it is nothing new to him. Stefan told me that even though his father was on bread and water rations while in confinement at night, he still had to do hard labour every day.
Monday, May 24, 1915, Empire Day
Dear Diary, we were all marched down to the parade grounds in the centre of the main camp and we listened to the Commandant give a speech about our duty to Canada. He said that when the war is over, we will be able to go back home and live good lives as British citizens. He also said that any of us who want to stay here after the war would be allowed to. This confuses me. Why would we want to be prisoners?
Later
Mary explained. They think we might like to become farmers up here.
Wednesday, May 26, 1915
It is almost June and it is far too cold. The chill seeps in through the floor and through the walls. I am bundled in my bed with all five blankets. Everyone is still asleep and so I thought I should take this time to write down what my day-to-day life is like in the internment camp.
We have breakfast with our men and then they go off with the camp guards to cut down trees and clear land. One of the guards has purchased some land up here and Tato says that sometimes it is his land they’re clearing, which makes Tato angry.
While the men are gone, some of the women begin preparing food for the next meal, while others do laundry. The men get so muddy that every day is a washday.
There is no school and no teacher, so Mary gives the younger children English lessons each morning. Mary knows some French, so she is also teaching a bit of that too. I don’t teach, but I do help Mary. The children play mostly hide-and-seek and ball games in the afternoons and we keep an eye on them. The air up here is fresher than in Montreal. Mykola has a healthy glow about him.
I also sit with Mama in the late afternoons and we do sewing chores. I have made an outfit for Slava and one for Stefan. I also made a new shirt for Slava’s father. I made a blouse and skirt for myself with the bolt of cloth that Private Palmer brought us. Mama is so pleased with my handiwork that I will be making something special for my hope chest. She has given me a length of cloth that she has bleached pure white and I am to make a rushnyk. I don’t know the English word for rushnyk. It is a long piece of embroidered cloth that is only used on special days. I work on my embroidery at night. I will not be working on this beautiful length of cloth until I have perfected the satin stitch. I have made eight handkerchiefs using a blanket stitch.
Private Palmer has his family here with him. His wife is as nice as he is and sometimes she brings me mending and I get paid for it. They have a son who I think is the same age as Mykola. He is quite chubby though. Sometimes he comes here when Mrs. Palmer brings mending but he is not allowed to play with us.
Thursday, May 27, 1915
This morning, a woman from Amos came. She had two children with her and a basket of eggs. Mary’s French is good enough that she was able to talk to the woman and found out that she wanted to sell us her eggs. We all crowded round and showed her items that we thought she might be interested in trading the eggs for. Mama brought out a pair of my newly embroidered handkerchiefs and the woman’s eyes lit up. For two simply embroidered handkerchiefs, we got twenty eggs. Mama will make babka to fatten up our menfolk and I shall help her. I can hardly wait to see Tato’s face when he comes home this evening!
Oy, my hope chest is not getting any fuller, but our stomachs shall be!
Later
I had a good idea and Baba thinks it is an excellent idea too. We are going to blow out the eggs so that we can still make babka with the insides, but we will have hollow eggs to make pysanky with — of course they won’t really be pysanky because you never ever would make a real pysanka with a hollow egg. Besides, it isn’t Easter. But we are going to decorate these blown-out eggs and trade them for food!
Later