Raphael Lemkin and the Genocide Convention

Raphael Lemkin, Polish: Rafał Lemkin (June 24, 1900 – August 28, 1959) was a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent who is best known for coining the word genocide and initiating the Genocide Convention. Lemkin coined the word genocide in 1943 or 1944 from genos (Greek for family, tribe, or race) and -cide (Latin for killing).

Life

Early years

Lemkin was born Rafał Lemkin on 24 June 1900 in Bezwodne, a village near the town of Wolkowysk in the Russian Empire.  He grew up in a Polish Jewish family on a large farm near Wolkowysk and was one of three children born to Joseph Lemkin and Bella née Pomeranz.  His father was a farmer and his mother an intellectual, a painter, linguist, and philosophy student with a large collection of books on literature and history.  Lemkin and his two brothers (Elias and Samuel) were homeschooled by their mother.  As a youth, Lemkin was fascinated by the subject of atrocities and would often question his mother about such events as the Sack of Carthage, Mongol invasions and conquests and the persecution of Huguenots.  Lemkin apparently came across the concept of mass atrocities while, at the age of 12, reading Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz, in particular the passage where Nero threw Christians to the lions.  During World War I, the Lemkin family farm was located in an area of fighting between Russian and German troops.  The family buried their books and valuables before taking shelter in a nearby forest.   During the fighting, artillery fire destroyed their home and German troops seized their crops, horses and livestock.  Lemkin's brother Samuel eventually died of pneumonia and malnutrition while the family remained in the forest.

After graduating from a local trade school in Białystok he began the study of linguistics at the Jan Kazimierz University of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine). He was a polyglot, fluent in nine languages and reading fourteen.  His first published book was a 1926 translation of the Hayim Nahman Bialik novella Noach i Marynka from Hebrew into Polish.  It was in Bialystok that Lemkin became interested in the concept of crime, later developing the concept of genocide, based on the Armenian experience at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, failed verification] then later the experience of Assyrians  massacred in Iraq during the 1933 Simele massacre. Lemkin then moved on to Heidelberg University in Germany to study philosophy, returned to Lwów to study law in 1926, becoming a prosecutor in Warsaw at graduation.

His subsequent career as assistant prosecutor in the District Court of Brzeżany (since 1945 Berezhany, Ukraine) and Warsaw, followed by a private legal practice in Warsaw, did not divert Lemkin from elaborating rudiments of international law dealing with group exterminations.

Career in interwar Poland

From 1929 to 1934, Lemkin was the Public Prosecutor for the district court of Warsaw. In 1930 he was promoted to Deputy Prosecutor in a local court in Brzeżany. While Public Prosecutor, Lemkin was also secretary of the Committee on Codification of the Laws of the Republic of Poland, which codified the penal codes of Poland, and taught law at Tachkemoni College in Warsaw. Lemkin, working with Duke University law professor Malcolm McDermott, translated The Polish Penal Code of 1932 from Polish to English.

In 1933 Lemkin made a presentation to the Legal Council of the League of Nations conference on international criminal law in Madrid, for which he prepared an essay on the Crime of Barbarity as a crime against international law. The concept of the crime, which later evolved into the idea of genocide, was based on the Armenian Genocide and prompted by the experience of Assyrians massacred in Iraq during the 1933 Simele massacre.  In 1934 Lemkin, under pressure from the Polish Foreign Minister for comments made at the Madrid conference, resigned his position and became a private solicitor in Warsaw. While in Warsaw, Lemkin attended numerous lectures organized by the Free Polish University, including the classes of Emil Stanisław Rappaport and Wacław Makowski.

In 1937, Lemkin was appointed a member of the Polish mission to the 4th Congress on Criminal Law in Paris, where he also introduced the possibility of defending peace through criminal law. Among the most important of his works of that period are a compendium of Polish criminal fiscal law, Prawo karne skarbowe (1938) and a French language work, La réglementation des paiements internationaux, regarding international trade law (1939).

During WWII

He left Warsaw on 6 September 1939 and made his way towards Wolkowysk, north east of Lwów, caught between the Germans in the west, and the Soviets, who now approached from the east, Poland's independence extinguished by the pact between Stalin and Hitler.  He barely evaded capture by the Germans and traveled through Lithuania to reach Sweden by the early spring of 1940 where he lectured at the University of Stockholm. Curious about the manner of imposition of Nazi rule he started to gather Nazi decrees and ordinances, believing official documents often reflected underlying objectives without stating them explicitly. He spent much time in the central library of Stockholm, gathering, translating and analyzing the documents he collected, looking for patterns of German behaviour. Lemkin's work led him to see the wholesale destruction of the nations over which Germans took control as an overall aim. Some documents Lemkin analyzed had been signed by Hitler, implementing ideas of Mein Kampf on Lebensraum, new living space to be inhabited by Germans.  With the help of his pre-war associate McDermott, Lemkin received permission to enter the United States, arriving in 1941.

Although he managed to save his life, he lost 49 relatives in the Holocaust;  The only European members of Lemkin's family who survived the Holocaust were his brother, Elias, and his wife and two sons, who had been sent to a Soviet forced labor camp. Lemkin did however successfully help his brother and family to emigrate to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1948.

After arriving in the United States, at the invitation of McDermott, Lemkin joined the law faculty at Duke University in North Carolina in 1941. During the Summer of 1942 Lemkin lectured at the School of Military Government at the University of Virginia. He also wrote Military Government in Europe, which was a preliminary version of his more fully developed publication Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. In 1943 Lemkin was appointed consultant to the U.S. Board of Economic Warfare and Foreign Economic

Administration and later became a special adviser on foreign affairs to the War Department, largely due to his expertise in international law.

In November 1944, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published Lemkin's most important work, entitled Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, in the United States. This book included an extensive legal analysis of German rule in countries occupied by Nazi Germany during the course of World War II, along with the definition of the term genocide.  Lemkin's idea of genocide as an offense against international law was widely accepted by the international community and was one of the legal bases of the Nuremberg Trials. In 1945 to 1946, Lemkin became an advisor to Supreme Court of the United States Justice and Nuremberg Trial chief counsel Robert H. Jackson. The book became one of the foundational texts in Holocaust studies, and the study of totalitarianism, mass violence, and genocide studies.

Postwar

After the war, Lemkin chose to remain in the United States. Starting in 1948, he gave lectures on criminal law at Yale University. In 1955, he became a Professor of Law at Rutgers School of Law in Newark. Lemkin also continued his campaign for international laws defining and forbidding genocide, which he had championed ever since the Madrid conference of 1933. He proposed a similar ban on crimes against humanity during the Paris Peace Conference of 1945, but his proposal was turned down.

Lemkin presented a draft resolution for a Genocide Convention treaty to a number of countries, in an effort to persuade them to sponsor the resolution. With the support of the United States, the resolution was placed before the General Assembly for consideration. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was formally presented and adopted on December 9, 1948.  In 1951, Lemkin only partially achieved his goal when the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came into force, after the 20th nation had ratified the treaty.

Lemkin's broader concerns over genocide, as set out in his Axis Rule, also embraced what may be considered as non-physical, namely, psychological acts of genocide. The book also detailed the various techniques which had been employed to achieve genocide.

Between 1953 and 1957, Lemkin worked directly with representatives of several governments, such as Egypt, to outlaw genocide under the domestic penal codes of these countries. Lemkin also worked with a team of lawyers from Arab delegations at the United Nations to build a case to prosecute French officials for genocide in Algeria.

Death

Lemkin died of a heart attack at the public relations office of Milton H. Blow in New York City in 1959, at the age of 59. Lemkin's funeral was well attended at Riverside Church in NYC.  He was buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Flushing, Queens, New York.

Opinions

Influence of the Armenian Genocide

Over one million Armenians died in the Armenian Genocide, which took place between the years of 1915 and 1917. Lemkin's interest in prosecuting the perpetrators was sparked when he first learned about the genocide during his studies at University of Lwów (from which he graduated in 1926). In his autobiography, Lemkin wrote that he had been influenced by the March 15, 1921 assassination of Talaat Pasha:

Then one day I read in the newspapers that all Turkish war criminals were to be released... The Turkish criminals released from Malta dispersed all over the world. The most frightful among them was Talaat Pasha, the minister of the interior of Turkey, who was identified with the destruction of the Armenian people... One day he was stopped in the street by a young Armenian with the name Tehlirian. After identifying Talaat Pasha, Tehlirian shot him saying, 'This is for my mother.'

This event became a topic of discussion for Lemkin during his studies on the topic of sovereignty at Lwów: "Sovereignty… 'Cannot be conceived as the right to kill millions of people."   The murder of Talaat Pasha and trial of Tehlirian prompted Lemkin's future path. Lemkin wrote: "At that moment, my worries about the murder of the innocent became more meaningful to me. I didn't know all the answers but I felt that a law against this type of racial or religious murder must be adopted by the world."

Views on the Ukrainian Great Famine (Holodomor)

In 1953, in a speech given in New York City, Lemkin described the Holodomor as one part of "perhaps the classic example of Soviet genocide, its longest and broadest experiment in Russification—the destruction of the Ukrainian nation", going on to point out that "the Ukrainian is not and never has been a Russian. His culture, his temperament, his language, his religion, are all different... to eliminate (Ukrainian) nationalism... the Ukrainian peasantry was sacrificed...a famine was necessary for the Soviet and so they got one to order... if the Soviet program succeeds completely, if the intelligentsia, the priest, and the peasant can be eliminated [then] Ukraine will be as dead as if every Ukrainian were killed, for it will have lost that part of it which has kept and developed its culture, its beliefs, its common ideas, which have guided it and given it a soul, which, in short, made it a nation... This is not simply a case of mass murder. It is a case of genocide, of the destruction, not of individuals only, but of a culture and a nation."

On Sunday, 20 September 1953, as part of a protest in New York, The Ukrainian Weekly reported a speech by Lemkin:

An inspiring address was delivered at the rally by Prof. Raphael Lemkin, author of the United Nations Convention against Genocide, that is, deliberate mass murder of peoples by their oppressors. Prof. Lemkin reviewed in a moving fashion the fate of the millions of Ukrainians before and after 1932–33, who died victims to the Soviet Russian plan to exterminate as many of them as possible in order to break the heroic Ukrainian national resistance to Soviet Russian rule and occupation and to Communism.

Recognition

For his work on international law and the prevention of war crimes, Lemkin received a number of awards, including the Cuban Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes in 1950, the Stephen Wise Award of the American Jewish Congress in 1951, and the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955. On the 50th anniversary of the Convention entering into force, Dr. Lemkin was also honored by the UN Secretary-General as "an inspiring example of moral engagement." He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize ten times.

In 1989 he was awarded, posthumously, the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Worship.

Lemkin is the subject of the plays Lemkin's House by Catherine Filloux (2005), and If The Whole Body Dies: Raphael Lemkin and the Treaty Against Genocide by Robert Skloot (2006).  He was also profiled in the 2014 American documentary film, Watchers of the Sky.

Every year, The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights (T’ruah) gives the Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award to a layperson who draws on his or her Jewish values to be a human rights leader.

On 20 November 2015, Lemkin's article Soviet genocide in Ukraine was added to the Russian index of "extremist publications", whose distribution in Russia is forbidden.

Works

The Polish Penal Code of 1932 and The Law of Minor Offenses. Translated by McDermott, Malcolm; Lemkin, Raphael. Durham,

Lemkin, Raphael (1933). Acts Constituting a General (Transnational) Danger Considered as Offences Against the Law of Nations (5th Conference for the Unification of Penal Law).

Lemkin, Raphael (1939). La réglementation des paiements internationaux; traité de droit comparé sur les devises, le clearing et les accords de paiements, les conflits des lois.

 Lemkin, Raphael (1942). Key laws, decrees and regulations issued by the Axis in occupied Europe. Washington: Board of Economic Warfare, Blockade and Supply Branch, Reoccupation Division.

Lemkin, Raphael (2008). Axis rule in occupied Europe : laws of occupation, analysis of government, proposals for redress.

Lemkin, Raphael (April 1945). "Genocide - A Modern Crime".

Lemkin, Raphael (April 1946). "The Crime of Genocide".

"Genocide: A Commentary on the Convention".

Stone, Dan (2013). The Holocaust, Fascism, and memory : essays in the history of ideas

Lemkin, Raphael, Soviet Genocide in the Ukraine

Urban Legends in Manitoba, Canada

Gather ’round the flickering flame of the campfire and settle in for an evening of shivers and scares. Bring these terrifying tales on your next camping trip in Manitoba, and you’re sure to feel a chill in the air over stories of ghosts, monsters, aliens and the occult.

Monsters of the deep in Lake Manitoba

One of the great figures in Canadian folklore lies somewhere in the depths of Lake Manitoba. The Manipogo is a sea monster, predicted to be anywhere from 12 to 50 feet long – depending on the eye witness. While people have claimed to see the creature since the 1800s, its history goes much further back, with the Indigenous population of the surrounding areas having oral histories and legends of a serpent-like creature in the lake. In 1948, C. P. Alric reported a large creature that rose from the lake and gave a dinosaur-esque cry. Similarly, the snake-like creature was spotted by a couple in the 1960s, no more than 60 yards from their boat. In 2004, a commercial fisherman Keith Haden reported that several of his fishing nets that were cast near the Narrows had been torn up with damage similar to what a shark or killer whale would do in the ocean.

Although the sightings and descriptions vary, there’s no question that something strange lurks in Lake Manitoba. Perhaps to respect the beast or keep it at bay, the small community St. Laurent holds a Manipogo Festival in the first week of March each year, while a provincial park on the west shore of Lake Manitoba uses the monster as its namesake.

Paranormal activity in Fort Garry Hotel

Fort Garry Hotel has just the right aesthetic for a haunting. The hotel was built in 1913 by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in the popular château style, with an exterior featuring bold steep-sloped roofs and a grand interior with wide hallways and high ceilings. And it’s not entirely uncommon to feel a chill up your spine when wandering the castle-like hotel at night, especially given its history of hauntings. The room in question is #202, where guests have reportedly been woken by ghostly figures standing at the foot of their bed.

The origins of the haunting are said to have started with a pair of honeymooners, who booked into room 202 just before the bride got sick. When her new husband left to get her medicine, he never returned – he had died in a car accident on the way to get help. A combination of shock and grief sent the bride over the edge, and she committed suicide by hanging in the hotel room closet.

Today, the ghost has been spotted grieving in room 202, as well as in the lounge, where she weeps for love lost.

Close encounters at Falcon Lake

The Whiteshell is no stranger to bizarre and unusual happenings, with 2017 marking the 50th anniversary of one such event in particular…The Falcon Lake Encounter.

When it comes to UFO sightings, this story of Stephen Michalak remains as one of the most credible and well-documented cases, and one that will certainly make you a little wary when gazing up at the night sky in this region of Manitoba. The tale begins on May 19, 1967, when amateur geologist Stephen headed to the bush in search of precious minerals. When he emerged sometime later, he was a sorry sight – covered in burns, heaving with sickness – and a victim to the unexplained. Stephen had witnessed something unbelievable – an abnormal explosion that burned his clothing and skin with radiation, leaving a strange grid-like pattern and a series of illnesses in the years to come.

As the story goes, Stephen was deep in the bush when he saw two cigar-shaped objects hovering just 45 metres away. While one landed and changed shape, the other flew away, and Stephen took a few moments to observe from afar. Deciding to get a closer look, he approached the strange aircraft and touched its seamless surface, which melted the fingertips on his gloves. The unidentified flying object flew away with a sudden burst of hot air or gas that struck Stephen, burning him and leaving him in a nauseous and disoriented state. In the years to follow, Stephen stuck by his story but also occasionally stated he regretted saying anything at all about his experience, which was extensively investigated by the RCMP but remains unsolved.

Occult mysteries at the Manitoba Legislative Building

Would you be surprised to hear that Winnipeg is home to occult clues, hidden in plain sight, right before our eyes? If you live downtown or venture into our city’s core for work or leisure, chances are you’ve passed our incredible Legislative Building. What most people don’t know, however, is that the building is masonic in nature, rife with the occult. Frank Albo is the brain behind this discovery, and continues to guide guests through the space to unveil hidden hieroglyphic inscriptions, numerological codes, Freemasonic symbols, and references to alchemy and ancient religion.

There are a number of design choices throughout the Legislative that are particularly unsettling. Built in proportion to the original Solomon’s Temple, the Manitoba Legislative Building’s great hall is a perfect square, with each side being 66.6 feet long. According to Frank Albo, this could simply be a symbol for the power the sun, but it could also reference occult work and is commonly associated with the beast of revelation 13.

Directly beneath the Golden Boy is a room with a dome ceiling and an eight-pointed star – ie; a circular altar and symbol of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. That may not be creepy on its own, but the room is also designed like a sacrificial chamber, with the veined marble floor being a metaphor for the victim. And while that is absolutely creepy, the building is actually a balance of good and evil – with a number of protector beasts and spirits guarding its walls, from a pair of bison to the threatening head of Medusa.

Apparitions of St. Andrews on the Red

St. Andrew’s on the Red was completed in 1849 and is located outside of the town of Selkirk on River Road. Indeed, it is the oldest stone church in Western Canada, and as such, has its fair share of paranormal activity. People who grew up in the area can probably remember daring their friends to walk “widdershins” (backward) around the Church three times; with the expectation, you would disappear. While that likely did not come to fruition, there are a number of other reports from this church that led to its haunted notoriety.

Those who have dared visit the church at night have reported on disembodied red eyes that float through the cemetery, organs that play spontaneously, a mysterious woman cloaked in white and reoccurring nightmares of rattling church gates.

Urban Legends in Saskatchewan, Canada

Real life ghost stories, creepy, mysterious, unexplained happenings, otherworldly sightings… that’s right, all in Saskatchewan! If you’re a fan of the paranormal, a thrills and chills seeker or you’re just interested in some fascinating paranormal history, Saskatchewan truly has it all! Get ready to discover a whole new realm of possibilities. Don’t worry if you miss Halloween. Most of these spooky sites can be seen and visited all year round.

St Louis Ghost Light, St. Louis

This light has attracted attention since people first started noticing the strange occurrence of a light along the old abandoned railway in the town of St. Louis. The light travels the length of the track, changing its colour and some have even said that the intensity of the ghostly light changes as well. Many people have tried to scientifically explain how the light occurs and find a cause of the phenomenon. Others are content to attribute the light to paranormal activity. Many people have attributed the light to a ghost train. Others have said it is the light from the lantern of a CNR engineer who was involved in an accident with a train and beheaded. Some have said he’s out with his lantern searching for his head. Whatever the cause of the light, it’s a must see and a rare find for all who love spooky, unexplained activity.

Government House, Regina

Built in 1891, the Government House served as the Lieutenant Governor’s residence until 1945. The house has been used for many purposes including a place for Second World War veterans to recuperate, an education centre and currently a museum. Thousands of antique items are on view to the public who can tour through the home. Myths, legends and lore of hauntings and ghostly happenings are a huge draw to many of those who tour through the house. Staff has reported hearing ghostly footsteps, music boxes playing when no one is around and artifacts like chairs that turn up in different rooms. There are so many ghost stories that the house has been featured on ghost stop tours in the province. Book a tour today and see for yourself!

Moosehead Inn at Kenosee Lake

Once a dance hall, the Moosehead Inn was purchased by its new owner in 1990. Strange occurrences happened right from the start. Missing items, loud noises caught on video with no explanation as to what was making the sound, occurred right from the start. As the story goes, as soon as the new owner went to do renovations on the inn, loud noises, as loud as car crashes, began. Sometimes heavy security doors swing wide open in full view of guests. The Inn has attracted a wide variety of paranormal enthusiasts over the years. Mediums and ghost hunters have come to try and explain the strange happenings. A séance was once held and it’s said that three ghosts were in communication with those gathered, including the ghost of the old owner. After the séance the happenings were reported less often but it’s said a ghostly presence can still be felt in every room. Stop on by… if you dare.

1800 Victoria Ave, Regina

This incredible house has seen a lot of history throughout its century long life. The house was once home to a judge and his family and has since seen other private owners. It has been a coffee shop and is now home to the Computer Clinic. Local legend has it that the place is haunted. Staff have reported ghostly sightings. One staff member went so far as to say a female wearing a wedding dress walked right through her. Appliances have been said to turn on and off. Secondary sightings of the figure of a woman on the top floor and unexplained footsteps overhead have all been reported. Many theories arose over the years for the cause of the hauntings but most, if not all have bene proven false. If you’re in Regina, walk or drive by and spend a few moments staring up at the second story. You might just see a ghost for yourself.

Gravelbourg School, Gravelbourg

The historic convent in the small town of Gravelbourg, turned into a school, is reportedly haunted. Unexplained noises and stories of ghostly sightings abound. The fourth floor is said to be haunted with ladies who open and closes doors. A little boy who disappeared was said to be seen in the auditorium. The spirit of a girl who died of tuberculosis is said to have returned to haunt the school. The age of the building itself lends an aura of mysticism. There are also many other things to see and do in the town of Gravelbourg, making it well worth the trip out.

Crave Kitchen & Bar, Regina

The beautiful unique building that serves as the home of Crave in Regina has a long history. The building was once home to a kind of gentlemen’s club where upper class and elite men would gather. Legend has it that some pretty dark deeds happened in that club. A prostitute is said to have been murdered in one of the rooms upstairs. Her ghost reportedly walks the halls, appears in windows and makes horrible noises. The beautiful building is well worth checking out and even if you don’t see anything (the upstairs is usually closed off), you can still order a drink or dinner.

Kinsmen Park, Prince Albert

If you’re looking for a real creepy experience, visit the Kinsmen Park in Prince Albert. It was once home to the jail on 28th Street. The jail came fully equipped with a gallows where people were executed. Legend has it that the last five people who were hanged were possibly buried in what is now the park or near it. If you go to the park on a quiet night and listen, you just might be able to hear the voices of these five departed men. Details

St. Paul’s Hospital, Saskatoon

If you’re ever visiting the hospital or a patient, keep an eye out for the unexplained. There have been many stories of ghostly activity over the years including staff who have reported seeing doors open and close on their own. Some have said this was even caught on security camera footage. Ghostly voices and footsteps have been said to be heard by patients and staff alike. There are also stories of the ghosts of nuns who haunt the basement.

Bekevar Church, Kipling

Built in 1910, the Bekevar church was the heart of the area until times changed in the 1960’s and the church was seldom used. Stories of a woman clothed in white who appeared to passing cars trying to hitch a ride and then disappearing, leaving only gloves behind, surfaced in the 1970’s. Other stories which report ghostly figures appearing in upper windows, the sound of church bells tolling and the feeling of a presence in the church have all surfaced in the following years. The stories have drawn attention of many ghost hunters and spiritualists over the years. For a truly authentic experience, visit just at dusk and wait until it gets dark. You might spot a ghost for yourself.

Prince Albert Arts Centre

Stories of the Prince Albert Arts Centre being haunted are well known. People have reported seeing ghostly images through the windows, lights turning off and off unexpectedly, unexplained noises and sometimes even music playing. Popular belief holds that there are two spirits that haunt the premises. The Arts Centre was once the City Hall. Lore has it that a man named Hoo Sam had a business partner who was shot and killed on the steps of the then City Hall. Rumour has it the ghost haunts the building to this day. Come check it out for yourself if you’re in the area!

Western Development Museum, Saskatoon

The WDM in Saskatoon is well known for its ghostly, paranormal history. There have been sightings of a woman dressed in red appearing in the café or ghostly noises echoing through the museum’s lobby. The WDM is home to the longest indoor street in the world and is filled with period correct buildings and artifacts. One popular explanation for the hauntings is that the spirit of the departed or the energy of the departed attaches itself to an object. That object was then moved and placed in the museum, the perfect recipe for a haunting. Even if you don’t see anything while you’re at the museum, it’s a great place to visit and the café is excellent.

Darke Hall, Regina

If you’ve ever been to the beautiful Darke Hall in Regina you know what an experience it is to take in a show or performance there. The building itself is a wonderful work of architecture. The hall was completed in 1928 and took its name from Francis Nicholson Darke, a former city mayor. It’s said that the ghost of Francis Darke. It’s said that he appears, dressed like he used to and sits in his former spot.

Uranium City

Located on the northern shoes of Lake Athabasca, a little over seven hundred and fifty kilometers from Prince Albert, is the now (almost) ghost town of Uranium City. The town was founded due to the many mining sites in the area and gained most of its population the 1960’s. In 1982, when the mines closed, the community suffered an economic collapse. Currently only just over seventy people remain in the community. While there isn’t exactly anything haunted about the community or area, many of the houses and buildings stand abandoned, many with possessions left behind. It’s an odd, eerie feeling with nature reclaiming many of the buildings and ruins. The area itself is incredibly beautiful and people do still try and make a living. If you go see the town, just remember to be respectful of the properties and the residents that still call the area home.

Urban Legends in Alberta, Canada

What’s Underneath West Edmonton Mall?

West Edmonton Mall is absolutely massive. It covers 490,000 metres, has more than 800 stores, and houses the world’s largest indoor water park and a wealth of other attractions. So it isn’t surprising that a shopping centre of such magnitude would have its fair share of mysteries attached to it.

The most common urban legend regarding the behemoth mall is what exists underneath it. Some people believe that the mall stands above a series of tunnels that connect the homes of the Ghermezian families. Others claim that the tunnels had been refortified as a bomb shelter after 9/11, while some optimists believe it’s the foundation of a future LRT station.

What’s that sound in the La Boheme hotel?

Guests at the La Boheme Bed and Breakfast hotel in Edmonton’s Highland district have complained about being woken up in the middle of the night due to eerie creaking sounds and repeated thudding. These creaking and thumping noises can certainly be explained by old, worn-down infrastructure, but that doesn’t explain the ghost that apparently appears in the closet. Nobody can explain the footless ghost that will suddenly chill the temperature of the room, but some believe a caretaker murdered his wife at the hotel many years ago and then proceeded to burn her body in the basement’s furnace.

The Curse of the Hidden Gold Mine

At the turn of the 20th century, a group of prospectors from Montana traveled to Alberta to search for gold along the North Saskatchewan River. Two members of the group traveled off on their own and allegedly found a massive haul of gold buried beneath some bedrock at the top of a mountain. The two prospectors fought over what to do with their treasure, resulting in one killing his partner as he slept. Rumour has it the Chief of the Blackfoot Tribe overheard the spat and laid a curse on the area. Many have searched for the gold rush reported by the prospectors, but have failed and fallen victim to the curse. One prospector allegedly found the mine, but was killed when the cabin he was staying at burned to the ground. To this day, the mine has never been found.

Room 873 at the Banff Springs Hotel

If you travel to Banff to stay at the Banff Springs Hotel, don’t bother requesting room 873 — it’s allegedly been sealed off after renovations and hotel management have long denied that the hotel is haunted. Legend has it long ago, a family was brutally murdered in the room, but when the police investigation was finished; the room was redecorated and opened up to guests. That didn’t last long. People staying in room 873 have reported being woken up in the middle of the night to screams, flickering lights, and the sight of bloody hand prints on the walls and mirrors of the room.

Frank Slide

The Albertan mining town, Frank, was home to one of the largest and deadliest landslides in Canadian history. In 1903, nearly 90 million tons of limestone slid down Turtle Mountain, crushing the mines, most of the community, and the railway into the town. More than 75 people were killed in the disaster and many of the bodies were never found. While the disaster is explainable, many people who have adventured up Turtle Mountain have claimed sights of paranormal activity. It’s believed that the spirits of the families of the people who were never found still wander the mountain searching for their loved ones.

Albertan Crop Circles

Crop circles are a large part of popular imagination, and with a province as wide and vast as Alberta, it isn’t surprising we’ve seen our share of massive, bizarre patterns show up on farmland. Most crop circles can be explained as the work of pranksters, or as man-made land art, but the crop circles found in Duhamel, a small hamlet outside of Camrose in the 1960s, is still unexplainable to this day. Canada’s Department of National Defence investigated the phenomena but was unable to come to a conclusion. Investigators say the rings vary in size, with the smallest one being 31 feet and nine inches in diameter. There’s also no evidence of tire marks, exhaust from a vehicle, or signs of human activity outside of the circles. It’s suggested that it must be the work of a massive aircraft.

The Sound Heard Around the World

From the United States to England, all the way to Conklin, Alberta, people have reported hearing a powerful, bizarre sound without a trace of origin. People from Colorado, Brazil, England and Malaysia have also reported a similar, powerful, deep, humming sound that appears to be coming from beneath them.

The sound in Conklin appears to come and go, as the sound begins as something mechanical, but slowly turns into what apparently sounds like a hollow scream, or loud moan. As of right now, there’s no geographical explanation for the sounds, or where they’re coming from.

The Charles Camsell Hospital

The Charles Camsell Hospital, located in the west side of Edmonton, is regarded as the scariest haunted building in the city. The hospital was originally used to treat tuberculosis patients, but as the epidemic waned, it was given a new function as a general treatment hospital. Controversy surrounding the hospital suggests that the aboriginal population was terribly mistreated by staff, and that various medical experiments were conducted on patients. It’s been abandoned since 1996 and residents of the area claim they can feel eyes watching them as they walk or drive by. Recently, a paranormal investigator led a team into the hospital, where they recorded what appears to be sounds of male and female voices coming from the fourth floor — which used to be a psych ward.