Cigarettes for a Fine Camera

Heroes Remember

Cigarettes for a Fine Camera

Transcript

I knew that they had some pretty good cameras, Leica cameras, and they’re the very best. So I says to them, I don’t want to go home without having a Leica camera. And of course I didn’t smoke but I had about four five thousand cigarettes in the kitbags and I didn’t want to take them back to Canada. So I went back to the camp, and, with a jeep, and I asked a guy “Anybody sprechen Franco?” And so on about French, and no, nobody could speak French. But then they said they knew a guy that could speak English. So I says “Ok.” Alright he came down, so I said “I’m looking for a camera and I don’t want to steal it,” I says, “I want to make a deal with one of your officers for this camera. But I don’t want to steal it,” I says “I just want to buy it.” “Oh,” he says, “Ok here’s a guy I know that has a camera and he’s got it hidden in a hill down there and you wouldn’t find it anyway even if you wanted to.” I says “I’m not trying to.” So that’s it. So he brought, brought me this guy and so the guy says “You got cigarettes?” “Yes.” I says “I got cigarettes, five thousand cigarettes.” So they opened up the bags and made sure that it was not full of straw or hay or something...no. They counted the bags, they counted the boxes and everything was there. Five thousand. I says “Ok” “Yes,” he says, “He’s willing to trade Leica camera.” I says “It’s in good shape?” “Oh yes,” he says “In very good shape.” He says “I got it in a plastic bag and, but it’s buried in the ground and you wouldn’t find it.” I says “Ok, so how do we get it?” “Well,” he says “I’ll go around the hill” he says “On this side, and you go around on the other side. I don’t want to walk with you because that would stir up some trouble.” So he says “Let’s go separate. You go one side and I’ll go the other side.” So went behind the hill and he kicked around in the dirt and he pulled out this bag, plastic bag and that was a cigarette....uh - my Leica. I looked at the lens, made sure there was no scratches on it. Oh yes in very good shape, it looked good. So I put out my hand, he put out his, we had a handshake. He went his way, I went my way. I had the camera, he had the cigarettes. And that’s the way it went. Now there was a lot of bargains that were made like that.

Description

Many merchandise exchanges took place between allied soldiers and members of the surrendered German army. Mr. Grand describes how he was interested in taking home one of the excellent German cameras and how he arranged a deal.

John Grand

Mr. Grand was born in 1909 in, as he described it, “a small hamlet in the wilderness of southern Manitoba.” His father homesteaded in Manitoba and then Saskatchewan. John Grand described his growing up during the Depression as poor and tough.

Mr. Grand was very interested in electronics as a teenager and held an amateur radio licence. He tried to join the Signal Corps in the 1930's, but was rejected for being “too flat-chested”. He remembers being so poor that he often joined the soup line to get something to eat. His first job was on the assembly line at Canadian Marconi for eleven cents an hour.

He joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals when war was declared in 1939. He was first assigned as a radio operator, but when his superiors saw his mechanical skills he was quickly re-assigned as a radio technician. His overseas service included landing at Dieppe, participating in the Normandy Campaign and in the liberation of Holland.

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