A piece of Muskoka’s Second World War history is being brought back to life on film.
From Sept. 7 to 11, a Norwegian film crew shot a documentary at several locations connected to the wartime history of Norwegian airmen in Canada, including Olympia Sports Camp, Muskoka Airport, and Little Norway Park in Toronto.
According to Olympia Sports Camp Associate Director Greg Rogers, when Germany invaded Norway during the war, King Harald and the Norwegian royal family escaped to North America. Norwegian merchant ships were also directed to Canada, where Norwegian personnel helped establish a resistance effort and trained as fighter pilots before returning overseas to fight Germany.
Some of that training took place at Olympia Sports Camp, which was then known as Vesle Skaugum.
The two-day shoot at the camp saw the film crew move through the camp’s historic buildings, documenting the remnants of its past and exploring the stories of the people who trained there.
Among those taking part was Jennifer Dailloux, Algonquin Highlands deputy mayor and the granddaughter of a Norwegian airman who trained at Olympia.
Dailloux said the documentary is still in its early stages, being developed by two Norwegian communicators and filmmakers who are conducting the first round of filming as part of what is expected to be a two-year project. While few details about the finished production are available yet, Dailloux hopes it will eventually be broadcast in both Norway and Canada.
Dailloux said her family had always known about her grandfather’s wartime history, but when she moved to the area, she did not realize just how close she was living to the place where he once trained.
“It was such a delight to realize I was this close, and was able to investigate, in a very personal way, the story of my family’s history,” she said.
Dailloux first visited Camp Olympia in 2003, which she describes as a deeply emotional experience.
“It was like receiving the most extraordinary and unexpected gift. It was receiving the gift of the past being brought back to life in the future, which is something none of us ever anticipate experiencing. And I have,” Dailloux said. “I can touch the place where my grandfather was, and I can sit at the bench where he ate and know that I am feeling part of his story that he was never able to tell me himself.”
The stories passed down through Dailloux’s family paint a picture of the extraordinary journeys many Norwegian airmen went through to reach Canada.
She said for many, the journey took months, and for some, nearly a year. They travelled by whatever means they could find, hitchhiking, walking and boarding vessels along the way. Dailloux said once they arrived in Toronto, many made their way north to Muskoka and Vesle Skaugum.
At the camp, the men underwent basic military training before travelling to Muskoka Airport for flight training. After completing their training, many returned to the camp to rest before being sent back overseas to fight.
“For many, this was a place at the beginning and end of their Canadian journey,” Dailloux said. “It was an extremely important part of their journeys, their personal journeys as humans and their journeys as airmen and soldiers in the Second World War.”
Dailloux said a major part of what makes Camp Olympia significant to the story is the condition of the building, as characteristics such as beams, fireplaces, and light fixtures have been preserved close to their original state.
“What’s so incredible about here is this is the final location where there are physical things that you can touch that are original from the Little Norway time,” she said.
The legacy of Little Norway extends beyond the buildings themselves. Dailloux said approximately 200 Norwegian soldiers returned to Canada after the war and married their Canadian sweethearts, creating families whose descendants remain in the region today.
For Dailloux, those connections are one of the reasons the history deserves to be preserved, as the story is not solely a piece of Norwegian history, but one that is deeply rooted to Canada.
“Many moments in our collective history are often lost. It’s not the big battles that are lost, it’s those smaller moments and those smaller connections that we tend to lose sight of,” she said. “Norwegians and Canadians have lost sight of that story, so to bring it back now is to pull back a vital moment in the relationship between our two countries.”
As for what the camp serves as today, Dailloux said a sports camp is an extremely fitting use given the site’s history.
“I think the Norwegian airmen who were here would be delighted to know that the building that they created and trained in and became stronger, more courageous leaders in, is now a sports camp,” she said. “I think they would love that, because the kids who come through here are pushing their bodies, pushing their minds, they’re leaving their comfort zones, growing as young people, and they go home having really accomplished something. It’s a really great continuation of the story.”
