Torrens Island Detention Center
The Torrens Island Internment Camp ( English Torrens Island Internment Camp ) was located on Torrens Island , an island near Adelaide in South Australia , which was operated from October 1914 to August 1915.
It was the camp with the toughest living conditions for internees during the First World War . It fell into disrepute in the spring of 1915 for the practice of penalties that were not covered by any legal system. It was closed on August 19, 1915 after it became known that on the instructions of the camp commandant, Captain George Edward Hawkes, inmates who had fled had been whipped and beaten as a punitive measure.
Ethnic Germans in South Australia
South Australia found itself in a special situation, because at the beginning of the 20th century around 10 percent of the population were of German descent. Therefore, not all of them could be placed in camps. Those who had not been arrested had to report continuously to their local police.
Camp inmates
Up to 400 people of Austrian , German and naturalized English who had been living in Australia for years were interned in the camp. They had been declared " enemy aliens " (German: "hostile foreigners"). Among the internees there were also German seafarers who had been detained on merchant ships that were in Australian ports at the beginning of the war.
Storage conditions
The living conditions in the camp were harsh, the camp inmates had to live in tents and prepare their own food in their tents as there was no camp kitchen. They were allowed to grow their own vegetables. Seven or eight men were housed in a tent. Everyone was given waterproof protective clothing and two blankets. The daily ration consisted of meat, potatoes, some vegetables, bread, jam, coffee, sugar, salt and pepper, which was distributed once a day.
It was recognized that interned fathers could not provide for their families living in South Australia. Therefore, the families received state financial support. Internees could send a maximum of two letters a week and short visits from family members were possible. The mail was checked.
In spite of the adverse living conditions, the inmates organized their own cultural and entertainment events, set up the Kaisers Kaffee , formed a choir and two music bands and issued their own publication, called "Kamerad". This publication, known as the weekly newspaper, was handwritten, illustrated with drawings and advertised.
Relations between military guards and internees were relatively normal until Camp Commander Hawkes was appointed. On January 27, 1915, a celebration was even permitted on the occasion of the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II. This changed when Captain Hawkes took over the camp management in the spring of 1915. The camp was relocated to the south of the island in March, resulting in differing views on structural measures between internees and camp management. This was qualified as a riot. Hawkes then had two dozen internees detained in a barbed wire-fenced area for two days in the rain without protection. The morning after the sentence ended, he fired a shot in a tent that injured an intern who allegedly insulted him. However, he stated that he should have asked him for a cigarette.
When two prisoners fled in June 1915, after he got hold of them, he had them whipped and beaten in front of the camp inmates and the guards as a punishment. The injuries that occurred were documented photographically and published in the camp magazine. There was an investigation that resulted in the camp commandant being released and the camp closed. The inmates were transferred to Holsworthy Detention Center or Trial Bay Gaol Detention Center in New South Wales .
today
Today (2017) there are no more traces of the two warehouse locations. The first camp, which only existed for five months, was in the west of the island, a few hundred meters south of the quarantine station. The second camp was from March to October 1915 in the south of the island in the area of the Torrens Island Power Station , a power station that was built in 1973. In 2007, a bronze plaque was placed in the opposite port of Adelaide to commemorate the internment camp.
From October 2014 to September 2015, the Adelaide Migration Museum held an exhibition Interned: Torrens Island, 1914–1915 in memory of the internment camp. A book was also published on this.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Torrens Island Internment Camp , on migrationsheritage.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved October 13, 2017
- ↑ a b c Torrens Island Internment Camp , at sahistoryhub.com.au. Retrieved October 13, 2017
- ↑ Interned Torrens Island 1914-1915 , on wakefieldpress.com. Retrieved October 13, 2017
Coordinates: 34 ° 46 ′ 57.4 ″ S , 138 ° 29 ′ 39.8 ″ E