Niagara PoW’s story was one of resilience
Ed Carter-Edwards lived through unimaginable horror, but he wasn’t afraid to revisit it.
Time and time again, the Smithville Second World War veteran who survived a Nazi concentration camp shared his story in an effort to teach others.
He spent hours over the years talking about his experience at Buchenwald with elementary and high school students in Niagara and beyond. He met with seniors, military groups, university students and service clubs.
“It was difficult, but I think he felt the story was so powerful and important to get out that he was quite happy to speak to just about any group,” said his son Dennis Carter-Edwards, Thursday.
Ed Carter-Edwards died Wednesday at age 93 at McNally House Hospice in Grimsby.
Born in Montreal and raised in Hagersville and Hamilton, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at age 19 during the Second World War knowing he could be killed.
“I personally felt it was up to me to do something to try to help England to ward off the threat of this massive monster machine Germany had put together,” he told The Standard in an interview for Remembrance Day in 2014.
He was a wireless operator on a bomber, jamming enemy fighters’ radios and surviving 21 missions. But in June 1944, his Halifax bomber was shot down in enemy-held territory in France. The French Resistance aided him but he was eventually betrayed and captured by German military.
Carter-Edwards was sent to a French prison run by the Gestapo but was later packed into a cargo train bound for the Buchenwald concentration camp. Held there with 167 other Allied airmen, disease, random shootings and starvation were the reality and people were treated as “less than rats.”
“There were people lying on the ground, naked, skin and bone,” he recalled in 2013. “They were lying there crying and pleading for you to help them, but you couldn’t. You were so sick yourself. You almost became immune to the cruelty.”
After the war, Carter-Edwards returned to Canada, married Lois, the woman who would be his wife for 70 years, settled in Ancaster and raised a family. He worked at Westing house / Camco for 40 years until retiring. The couple moved to Bala and Florida before settling in Smithville in 1994.
Carter-Edwards didn’t talk much about his war experience while his children were growing up, his son said.
That changed during the 1980s, when Holocaust deniers on trial were making headlines.
“He saw first-hand what had happened. To see people denying it and raising questions about whether these events were as bad as everyone made out — it really got him thinking that if he didn’t get out and tell his story, people would forget,” Dennis said. “I think that was a real turning point. From then on, he was very anxious to tell the story.”
He said the message his father, and many other veterans, wanted to share is that they experienced the consequences of intolerance and hate. It led to the Second World War and there is always a worry the world is heading on the wrong path that will lead to another conflict.
“That mutual understanding, human compassion, kindness — it all seems so simple and yet hard to do,” Dennis said. “That was a message that he felt strongly about, because of what he saw and experienced personally in the camps in Buchenwald and as a PoW. I think that really inspired him to get out and get that message across.”
Laura Secord Secondary School teacher Bruce Williamson said Carter-Edwards spoke to thousands of students at schools over the years and was a compelling storyteller.
“Nobody could capture their attention better than him,” Williamson said. “It was an important story. It was a story of hope and forgiveness.”
Williamson said Carter-Edwards would describe the barbarity and horror of war, but his was also a miraculous story of determination and perseverance.
“It was overcoming the worst possible adversity that a person can find and still being a hopeful, loving, caring soul.”
Students would hang onto every word and after he finished would mob him like a rock star.
Smithville’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch 393 president Brent O’Connor said a lot of vets won’t talk about their time served because it brings back too many memories, but Carter-Edwards spread the word.
“It’s extremely important to let people know what the men and women went through. There are a lot of people today who don’t realize the sacrifice that they have made and it’s tremendous.”
Carter-Edwards returned to Buchenwald a few times, met the Queen while attending the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial in London in 2012 and received the French Legion of Honour.
Over the years he shared his story with The Memory Project, numerous news agencies and was featured in the National Film Board’s The Lucky Ones, a film about Allied airmen and Buchenwald.
His son said music was important to his father and was an outlet. He sang with the Harlequin Singers, church choirs in Ancaster, Hamilton and Smithville, and in productions of the Hamilton Theatre Company.
“Despite all he endured, and probably seeing the worst of humanity, it never made him bitter. It never made him angry. He was always upbeat. Always had a joke. Always singing,” Dennis said.
“I think he really believed in looking at the better side of human nature and appealing to that.”