Germans, the Patients

Heroes Remember

Germans, the Patients

Transcript

They were marvellous. Interviewer: Were they? We scared the living daylights out of them at Christmas time. We all got dressed in our blues, dressed up, and we were singing Christmas carols and we went up to their ward. They were so funny, when we, when any of the Canadians, like the Nursing Sisters would walk in, they'd get to attention right at their bed, and we went in to sing and I think they thought they had gone to heaven. You know, we had our veils, and we were dressed to kill in our best. But then when the war ended, and we were, we didn't move on, we were suppose to leap frog, that's the way the hospitals were suppose to work you see, and then when the front moved, somebody that was behind us, maybe still in France, would play frog us and go up, then it would be our turn to leap frog that one to go up, but anyway we didn't move, we stayed there. But you see, during the occupation, a lot of these Germans had married Belgian girls, I mean they were in Belgium a long time. So when the Armistice was signed, they were all hell bent to get out, over the fence.

Description

Mrs. Page talks about Germans POWs in the hospital.

Nancy de Boise Page

Mrs. Page was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. Her father was a doctor and her mother a nurse. Mrs. Page recalls going to the hospital with her father when she was young and knowing early on that nursing was her calling. She trained at the Royal Victoria in Montreal and in 1942 joined the army as a Nursing Sister. She served overseas in England, France and Belgium loving every moment she was able to help the soldiers. Following the war Mrs. Page returned to Queen Mary's Veterans Hospital in Montreal to continue nursing Canadian Veterans.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:52
Person Interviewed:: Nancy de Boise Page
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Northwest Europe
Branch:: Army
Occupation:: Nursing Sister

Language selection

Germans, the Patients

Heroes Remember