Holsworthy Internment Camp

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Prison building for internees, called Sing Sing , which was later used as a powder magazine and general store.

The Holsworthy internment camp ( English Holsworthy Internment Camp ) was located southwest of Holsworthy , a suburb of Sydney in the Liverpool City district of New South Wales in Australia . It was the largest Australian internment camp in World War I and had been occupied by 4,000 to 6,000 internees.

The conditions in the camp are assessed differently in the literature. In contrast to the two camps Trial Bay Gaol and Berrima internment camp , which were not fenced in and were run even more liberally, there was a barbed wire fence around the camp site. The internees and prisoners of war were obliged to work. In the Second World War, instructions to work prisoners of war were prohibited and only possible on a voluntary basis. The camp committee and the military camp administration cooperated. The inmates developed initiatives to build, for example, buildings such as theaters, cafes and restaurants. There was a general store, butcher, newsagents, thrift stores, and fruit stores where inmates could shop. The camp inmates who had the financial means were able to organize camp life individually. Those internees who had no funds received funds from surpluses of entrepreneurial businesses. The hygienic conditions were primitive and the guards were overwhelmed. There were definitely problems, most of which resulted from the long length of stay of the inmates, in some cases up to six years. Since there was a criminal gang in the camp who extorted money and items, a riot broke out in the camp in 1915 and vigilante justice was practiced. After 14 criminals came from the camp to prison, the situation calmed down again.

Terminology

During the First World War , internment camps in Australia were commonly referred to as concentration camps . The term concentration camp , which is literally translated into German, reflects an entirely different reality that relates to the criminal regime of the Third Reich (1933–1945), so such a translation is obsolete. In the more recent Australian literature, the term concentration camps is no longer used as a clarifying fact for internment camps.

During World War II , Australian internment camps were commonly referred to as internment camps .

prehistory

As early as 1913, the Australian military purchased 32,375 hectares of land near Holsworthy. The Commonwealth , the federal government of Australia, issued the War Precautions Act in 1914 . Under this law, German or German-born persons or persons were, who were allied with the warring German empire to enemy aliens : (German internal enemies are) explained and interned in camps. Initially, this group of people was housed in military barracks or training camps. But it soon became clear that special accommodation had to be provided for this purpose and further internment camps had to be set up across the country.

Inmates

During the First World War, prisoners of war as well as people of German and Austro-Hungarian origin , some of whom had lived in Australia for generations, were held in internment camps. Until the end of the First World War in 1918, Austria-Hungary was a multi-ethnic state that existed from 1867 to 1918 . In this monarchist state structure, German-speaking Austrians lived together with other speakers such as Serbs, Croats, Hungarians, Czechs and Romanians.

Internees from other camps that were too small or unsuitable were also transferred to Holsworthy Detention Center. The Trial Bay Gaol camp , for example, was closed because German warships were feared or the camp on Rottnest Island was closed because the hygienic conditions became unsustainable and safe food could not be guaranteed.

Internment camp

At the beginning of September 1914, around 100 German marines were brought to the Holsworthy internment camp for the first time. There they found a number of tents in an open field. There was no furniture and no beds in the tents, the inmates had to buy linen and straw or get moss from the bush to have a place to sleep. They had to make tables and chairs on their own initiative. Later the tents were replaced by barracks. There were three-meter-wide paths between the barracks and seven-meter-wide streets at a distance of four barracks. Cooking was not allowed in the barracks. Kitchens had been set up close to the latrines. Flies were therefore a constant nuisance. In May 1916 six showers with cold water, 20 with hot water and 48 outdoor washing facilities were counted. A bakery was not built until September 1918. The camp area was tightly fenced with wire and outside there was a watchtower on which a machine gun was mounted. There was a prison in the camp called Sing Sing , where inmates were detained after trying to escape and committed criminal acts in the camp.

job

The first camp inmates had to clear the bush for four hours a day. After a riot in 1915 (see below), work in the camp was reorganized. 500 inmates each worked in the morning and another 500 in the evening. These groups were released from work after 14 days and other internees were divided into equal numbers. From May 1917 750 to 800 workers cleared the bush and built roads. In February 1917 work began on a 2.2 kilometer section of a railway line from Liverpool to the camp and a railway bridge, which was completed in January 1918. Those inmates who behaved well were allowed to grow and sell vegetables.

Camp committee

There were several internment camps in Australia, but only one camp committee at Trail Bay Gaol, Berrima and Holsworthy camps. This committee planned and organized life in the camp in coordination with the camp commandant.

Regulations were coordinated such as sporting activities, the creation of areas for sporting activities and corresponding gardens. Structural measures, artistic work and the publication of newspapers were discussed. The purchase of seeds, material for theatrical performances and for the production of handicrafts, musical instruments and for holding competitions has been clarified.

The coffee and canteen in the camp were run like one company. Funds that were raised had to be managed. Surpluses were made available to those internees who could not work and received no money from their relatives or their businesses. The surplus from the canteen was used to finance necessary measures in the camp or was paid out as a bonus to every internee.

Educational activities such as learning the English language , music, photography, painting, etc. were offered. Some learned the carpentry trade.

Camp life

The camp inmates were structurally active. The resulting structures were planned and built by the inmates with the permission of the camp management.

In early November 1914, the German Theater Liverpool put on its first performance in a tent. The inmates were later allowed to build a theater building, which was completed in June 1915.

There were activities to teach arts, music bands, and recreational activities. The bands developed into orchestras that played first in the camp and later in front of the residents of Liverpool, a nearby city. Soon there were four theaters as well as an open-air theater in the camp.

There were some wealthy camp inmates whose property the Australian government had confiscated. However, they were allowed to use their money for their own personal purposes. Other inmates opened small shops. In 1918 there was a butcher's shop, fruit shops, nine cafes and restaurants. There was also a pawn shop, thrift and clothing stores, a leather workshop, bookbinding, cigarette stands, and lending libraries.

Camp life was not comfortable, it was overcrowded, and the sanitary facilities were primitive. There were differences between the ethnic groups and political views in the camp. Heat, cold, fog and boredom, stress and a life without family and without professional life lead to the so-called barbed wire disease (German: barbed disease ). The guards mocked the inmates and shot them too. Some internees tried to flee or committed suicide. Many were sent to prison in the camp if they behaved unruly.

  • Ruins of the sergeant's mess
    and sandstone billiard room

  • Lounge
    for the guards and military personnel

revolt

At the beginning of 1915 there was an uprising in the camp because of insufficient food and bad working conditions. The camp committee and the military camp leadership could not agree on the conflict. The inmates were examined for weapons and dangerous objects. Internees who did not follow the instructions were sent to prison. Outdoor access outside the camp premises was prohibited and a watchtower with a machine gun was built outside the camp. The camp was fenced off.

Another uproar occurred in 1916 over a criminal gang called the Black Hand , which consisted of Serbian members. This gang of criminals threatened internees and extorted money and goods from them. The camp committee succeeded in infiltrating the gang. On April 18, 1916, there was a riot, the internees took action against the criminals. The camp management under Colonel Sand did not succeed in preventing this. Two criminals were killed. On April 19, the gang leader named Portman was found dead. Later 14 members of the Black Hand were jailed and the camp was quiet again.

The guards were mostly unfit for duty who suffered from poor health and had to do shift work. They were unsuitable for this service. Other reports also portray them as brutal and criminal.

closure

After the end of the First World War, around 5,600 people were interned, around 1,000 of whom applied for naturalization. Only 306 applications were approved, including 179 naturalized Australian-born individuals. In May 1920 the camp was closed.

In May 1919, the New Zealand ship Willochra arrived in Sydney with inmates infected with flu. 101 people from this ship were brought to the camp and 665 camp inmates were repatriated on this ship. More men were brought to the camp and deported. It soon emerged that hundreds of the 4,000 inmates were infected with the flu. Of these, 95 died. The last inmate to become ill died on July 19, 1919. The last interned left the camp on May 5, 1920, after which it was closed as an internment camp.

In December 1919, the internment camp's buildings were offered for sale. However, some of the permanent buildings that the inmates had built had already been dismantled before closure. After that, the military used the site as a training ground.

During the Second World War, the Liverpool Internment Camp was set up on the site of the Holsworthy Internment Camp in 1939 . Today (2017) there is a large military camp with buildings and an airfield, the Holsworthy Barracks .

Personalities in the camp

  • Jerger Charles Adolph (1863–1927), Catholic priest
  • Fritz Baur , entrepreneur (1890–1965), arrested in Hong Kong in 1914 and interned in Australia
  • Paul Dubotzki , photographer and painter (1891–1961), took extensive photos of camp life
  • Edmund Resch , German brewer (1847–1923) who had lived in Australia for 50 years when he was interned
  • Nyānatiloka and the other German Buddhist monks of the Island Hermitage on Ceylon, until the end of 1916

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Beverley Donald: Holsworthy Internment Camp during World War I. on dictionaryof sydney.org. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  2. ^ The Camp Committee. on migrationsheritage.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  3. ^ A b Holsworthy Internment Camp. on migrationsheritage.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  4. ↑ Life in Holsworthy. on migrationsheritage.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  5. ^ The Black Hand Movement. on historylearningsite.co.uk. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  6. ↑ Black Hand. on migrationsheritage.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  7. ↑ a b The Camp Closes , on migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  8. ^ Liverpool Internment Camp during the World War II on dictionaryofsydney.org. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  9. ^ P. L'Estrange: Jerger, Charles Adolph (1869–1928). on adb.anu.edu.au. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  10. ^ GP Walsh: Resch, Edmund (1847-1923). on adb.anu.edu.au. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  11. ↑ Hecker, Hellmuth; Life pictures of German Buddhists; 1990-2,21996; Vol. ~ 1: \ textit {The founders,} Vol. ~ 2: The successors