Captain Dr. Benjamin Bernard Wagman

Dr. Benjamin Wagman enlisted in the army on September 15, 1942. He was sent overseas in December 1942. From July of 1944 until March of 1945, he served in Normandy as a medical officer of the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Engineers. He was in charge of the 2nd Graves Concentration unit from March 1945 until September 1945. He was then called as a witness in the Canadian War Crimes Trial of German General Kurt Meyer in Germany in December 1945. He returned to Canada in 1946, and was discharged in February of that same year. Dr. Wagman was and is an avid photographer, and he took hundreds of photographs during his years in the service. He also developed his own photographs, setting up darkrooms in the back of his ambulance and truck, wherever he could find a bit of sufficiently dark space. He was even able to build an enlarger during his time in France and Belgium with the help of some lenses he came across in an abandoned house in France. We are grateful to him for allowing us to view his photographs, and to include some of them here.

Picture and Document Gallery

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