The Nature and Legacy of British Imperial Internment

This chapter begins by highlighting the main findings of the book, including the globalization of internment by the Empire during the Great War and the consequences for individuals and their families, but also the fact that Britain treated those it had incarcerated in a humane way. The chapter examines the return to Germany, its consequences for individuals, and the way in which the German authorities dealt with the former residents of the British Empire. These people, who may not have seen their homeland for decades, made efforts to preserve the memory of their experiences, along with former civilian and military prisoners who came from other states at war with Germany. While the memory of internment may have survived into the interwar years, it disappeared in the second half of the twentieth century, but came back to life in the early twenty-first century, inspired by the centenary of the Great War.

Ahmednagar

Ahmednagar developed the same type of symbolic importance for those interned in India as that which Knockaloe held for the Germans interned in Great Britain. While much smaller in scale than the head camp further north, Ahmednagar lasted for a similar length of time and played a leading role in the incarceration of Germans from East Africa, India, and Siam. The camp lay on the site of a medieval fort. The few thousand male internees complained about the conditions they endured but, as in other imperial camps, they experienced humane treatment and developed a rich prison camp society. As in the rest of the Empire, the Germans in Ahmednagar and in the other camps in India faced deportation back to Europe, especially upon the Golconda during 1915 and 1916. This ship came to have the same symbolic significance as Ahmednagar for the end of the German presence in India.

Knockaloe

This chapter looks at the lynchpin in the entire imperial incarceration system in the form of Knockaloe on the Isle of Man, which became by far the largest camp in the whole Empire as well as the longest lasting, surviving from November 1914 until November 1919. Its administration involved a series of Whitehall departments and the government of the island while immediate responsibility fell to the camp commandant. At its height Knockaloe held over 20,000 prisoners. While the majority lived in Britain before 1914, a significant number came from overseas, especially those captured in British ports and in West Africa. The prisoners faced various problems including separation from families and a lack of proper employment, which could lead to barbed-wire disease. But Knockaloe became a true prison camp society with some of the richest social activities anywhere in the Empire because of the sheer number of people interned here.

India

The chapter begins with a brief outline of the operation of the Indian civil service, the Government of India, and its relationship to Whitehall through the India Office, as well as pointing to the role of India during the Great War. The narrative then tackles the issue of the development of a hostile Anglo-Indian opinion towards the Germans which meant that the white race split apart. As in other parts of the Empire, the Government of India introduced measures which controlled the movement of the German minority and also confiscated all German property. Those interned consisted mostly of Germans resident in India when the war broke out, including missionaries, although others arrived there from Bahrain, East Africa, and Siam. Apart from the head camp at Ahmednagar, a series of other establishments also evolved, including Belgaum which held families and Sholapur which incarcerated women transported from Siam.

Historical and Global Perspectives

This chapter places the incarceration of Germans in the British Empire during the First World War into global and historical context. It looks back to the birth of the practice of internment in imperial wars involving Britain, the USA, and Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It traces the path to the use of British incarceration during the First World War and demonstrates how this conflict acted as a key turning point in the history of civilian confinement, making it normal wartime practice. Civilian incarceration continued in the post-war period, especially in the fall-out from the Second World War and the collapsing colonial empires, while by the twenty-first century camps have become a weapon against refugees. The chapter demonstrates how the British Empire globalized and normalized civilian incarceration during the Great War and therefore argues that it played a key role in the normalization of this process.

Fort Napier

The main internment camp in South Africa was Fort Napier, a former British garrison fort in Pietermaritzburg. The camp housed approximately 2,500 prisoners throughout the war. This included artisans, merchants, hotel employees and hairdressers, seamen, farmers, miners, engineers, teachers, missionaries, and doctors. The chapter argues that vibrant cultural activities convey a positive impression on the surface but, in fact, were a mere distraction from the suffering that occurred. Written testimony shows that the civilians perceived their captivity as double emasculation, neither being able to support their families nor to fight on the front. German nationalism was displayed and led to a process of re-ethnicization among some inmates. The chapter provides a spatial interpretation of the camp, outlining its impact on the immediate environment and economy of Pietermaritzburg. Prisoner release only occurred from April 1919, with half of the inmates being deported to Germany. The camp was closed in August 1919.

Global Germanophobia during Wartime

This chapter provides the immediate global background to the internment of Germans in the British Empire during the Great War by explaining how this process formed part of a wider attack upon this minority not just within the Empire, but also in states either at war or about to enter war with Germany. The chapter argues that incarceration formed part of a wider policy of persecuting German minorities driven by a hostile public opinion which led to legislation to control the activities of this minority, whether through preventing German language use or by closing down German clubs. At the same time, property confiscation, born from pre-war economic animosity, became a key policy against German minorities. At the end of the war the solution to the presence of Germans within the Empire consisted of deportation, a process that had begun in the earlier stages of the conflict.

Great Britain

This chapter looks at the centre of the imperial internment system in the form of Great Britain. It begins by focusing upon those Germans already resident in the country who formed the bulk of those experiencing incarceration and the formation of policy towards them, which remained haphazard until the sinking of the Lusitania, which led to the decision to incarcerate all males of military age for the rest of the war. The chapter also examines those brought to Britain from the high seas, whether fishermen, those on ship journeys, or those captured in British ports. The chapter then moves on to outline the key camps which emerged in the British mainland during the war. It concludes by stressing the centrality of Britain in the whole imperial interment process both because it led internment policy and because it held more internees than the rest of the Empire put together.

The Extent and Nature of the Camp System

This chapter gives a broad overview of British imperial internment, stressing its globality. It first looks at internee numbers both within Britain and in the Empire as a whole. It then develops a camp typology which includes specially built environments such as Knockaloe, military establishments and forts, old factories, and prison islands. Some of these structures were permanent, others only temporary. The chapter then tackles cultural life within camps, as well as conditions and the notorious barbed-wire disease. The chapter moves on to a detailed examination of two areas of the British Empire which have attracted limited attention from scholars of internment during the Great War in the form of Canada, where attention has tended to focus upon Ukrainians rather than Germans, and the West Indies and Bermuda.

South Africa

In South Africa, inhumane camp conditions during the Boer War (1899–1902) had been detrimental to Britain’s standing in the world. The chapter argues that the relatively humane conditions in First World War camps were the result of a learning process. The chapter outlines public marginalization and rioting against German-owned premises in urban centres across South Africa. The internment process was first conducted through a number of temporary holding stations and, from the end of 1914, concentration and consolidation in the permanent camp, Fort Napier in Pietermaritzburg. Between September 1914 and summer 1915 the camp also held a number of deported men, women, and children from Lüderitzbucht, German Southwest Africa. Generally, women and children were not interned but suffered in equal terms because of public Germanophobia and precarious circumstances after the internment of the breadwinner. The chapter argues for a gendered perspective on internment which looks beyond the barbed wire.