Jan Kempdorp
| Jan Kempdorp | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Coordinates | 27 ° 55 ′ S , 24 ° 50 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| North Cape | |||
| District | Frances Baard | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA-NC | ||
| local community | Phokwane | ||
| height | 1165 m | ||
| Residents | 24,220 (2011) | ||
| founding | 1938 | ||
Jan Kempdorp (literally: Jan-Kemp-Dorf), originally Andalusia , is an agricultural small town with almost 24,220 inhabitants in South Africa . Its predecessor, Andalusia, was one of three internment camps from 1940 to 1945 in which mainly Germans from what was then South West Africa were forcibly housed.
history
When the first settlers arrived in 1938 , the Andalusia farm was established , named after the Andalusian giant donkey, a breed of donkey that was used here to build irrigation canals ( Vaalhart's Irrigation Scheme ). It was named in 1954 after the Boer general and Minister of Agriculture Jan Kemp († December 31, 1946). At times the municipality belonged to both the Cape Province and the Transvaal . In 1964 it was completely added to the Cape Province. City since 1967 , the reorganization of the provinces of South Africa in 1994 brought the division into the provinces of North West and Northern Cape . Since 2006 the municipality of Jan Kempdorp has been exclusively in the Northern Cape Province .
According to the 2011 census , the population is 79% black , 11% colored and 7% white . The mother tongues are mainly Setswana (64%), Afrikaans (20%) and isiXhosa (10%).
Camp in World War II
Immediately after the South African parliament voted on September 4, 1939 with a narrow majority against neutrality and in favor of participation in the Second World War on the side of the United Kingdom , some of the Germans living in South Africa and South West Africa began to be interned. While most South Africa Germans were brought to Baviaanspoort , a prison near Pretoria that is still in use today , the German residents of South West Africa first came to the Klein Danzig camp in the former German radio station in Windhoek . The warehouse manager in Windhoek was the lawyer Hans Hirsekorn , member of the "Südwester Executive ".
Andalusia
In June 1940 the Germans were transferred from Windhoek to the newly established Andalusia camp. A little later, Hirsekorn was replaced there by Adolf Gutknecht, who founded a "Notgau of the NSDAP". Since 1934 this was only banned in South West Africa, not in the South African Union . Gutknecht made his own comrades as well as the camp commandant unpopular with his demand for unconditional submission to the discipline of the NSDAP . Therefore, he was transferred to Baviaanspoort in 1940 , where he stayed until after the war. His successor was Heinz Beckurts, since 1938 chairman of the German School Association Windhoek and patron of the German Scouts in South West Africa.
The last 1600 people lived in Andalusia's corrugated iron barracks , which were lined with wood . In addition to the South West African Germans, East African Germans and members of other nations were also interned here. In August 1945, three months after the end of World War II , Andalusia was dissolved; many inmates were not released. The German South West Africans who reported to return to the German Reich from 1933 to 1945 during the war were transferred to Baviaanspoort . German sailors , captured passengers from German merchant ships , German East Africans and members of other nations also came there. Therefore, from the summer of 1940, Germans from the South African Union were also interned in Andalusia .
Everyone else went to the third large camp, after Koffiefontein in the Orange Free State . Mainly nationalist Boers who had sympathized with National Socialist Germany were interned there . When this camp was also closed in March 1946, not all were released; many were relocated to Baviaanspoort , where releases from prison had given way and the Germans had to wait months for their final release.
Historical traces of the camp
Apart from a few building foundations and ruins, nothing has survived from the former Andalusia internment camp . The graves of 17 inmates who died during the internment are a reminder of the camp. In 1965 a large teak cross was erected in the municipal cemetery , in front of which a plaque was later placed with the names and dates of the Germans buried there.
Persons related to the internment camp
- Peter Pauly
- Hans Hirsekorn (1887–1960)
Web links
- Phokwane Local Municipality: Jan Kempdorp . on www.phokwane.gov.za (English)
- Maps by Jan Kempdorp (Saexplorer)
- Short documentation about the former internment camp Andalusia
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 2011 census , accessed on September 19, 2017
- ↑ a b c d e Wolfgang Reith: Buried under the Southern Cross. An almost forgotten chapter of German-South African history (1997–1999) ( Memento from June 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )