DIFFERENTIAL ADJUSTMENT TO INTERNMENT CAMP LIFE.

This article presents a paper, which discusses the differential adjustment to internment camp life. This paper considers some factors that predispose prisoners in an internment camp to differential forms of adjustment. The observations, lasting for a period of over two years, were made on a group of Italian civilian internees deported from England to Canada in the first part of 1940 during World War II. When Germany invaded the Low Countries in the spring of that year, the English government had most male enemy aliens residing in England interned. After brief temporary allocations, the prisoners were sorted out and some were deported. One group of 317 Italian civilians was brought to Canada and assigned to Camp "X" in Quebec. According to the original plan, this group should have been composed of unmarried men under 30. However, in the great confusion of the moment, a number of individuals were included who did not correspond to these qualifications. Most of the population was between 22 and 35 years old.