Concentration Camps
"My children have often asked what we used to play as children in the camps. What could I answer?
We were just fearful. When my mother sent us on errands we tried to get back to her as quickly as possible. One case which will always remain with me is when my mother's aunt and her four children all died within two days. We watched many little corpses being carried to the church yard. Some in soap boxes, others simply wrapped in blankets or cloths.
Was there time to think of play? We were afraid only. M.E. Kilian., Kampkinders, 1900-1902 -- 'n Gedenkboek., Van Schoor, M..C.E & Coetzee, C.G., Dreyer Drukkers., Bloemfontein., 1982., p.15
Women and children being transported to the concentration camps in open coal trucks
Accounts of survivors make frequent mention of how the women and children had been mocked, cursed and spat at as they passed natives at stations. These people were transported with no form of shelter or cover, despite blistering heat or freezing temperatures, or pouring rain. Sometimes a journey would last several days and some women even had to give birth on the train.
"... there [at Hatherley] we were put on coal trucks and transported to Pretoria. It rained the whole entire night -- we and especially the children, nearly died of hunger and misery. Only on the third day were we given a little food." M.J.J. Maritz.,Kroonstad concentration camp. Stemme uit die Vrouekampe, Gedurende die Tweede Vryheids Oorlog Tussen Boer en Brit van 1899-1902., Maritz, J, ed., Bienedell Uitgewers, 1993, p.28.
Women and children at their arrival in a concentration camp
With them are the only possessions that most of them have left in the world. "Where to now? What is going to happen to us next?"
"In the meantime the English [sic] collected 'n number of women and children. We had to lie on the open plains without shelter and it rained all the time. Those women who had still been able to rescue something here and there now had to sacrifice it, because during the night a huge bonfire was made from all the household articles. The kaffirs [sic] plucked the articles from the hands of their owners and threw it into the fire." M.J.J. Maritz.,Stemme uit die Vrouekampe, Gedurende die Tweede Vryheids Oorlog Tussen Boer en Brit van 1899-1902., Maritz, J, ed., Bienedell Uitgewers, 1993, p.70.
Women and children awaiting their turn to fetch water
Water supplies were in many cases contaminated and were the cause of many of the camp deaths. In a surprising number of cases, the water supply was situated very near, or below the cemeteries.
"... From this spruit [stream] our water came. This water had been the source of the enteric fever germs of which most of the people died... In the spruit there were deep pools of water. Above the camp by the stream there was a location. Later the skeletons of little children from the location were discovered in these pools. After Emily Hobhouse's visit, and investigation was called for in order to determine the cause of all these cases of disease... Therafter things improved..." G. Kruger." Kampkinders, 1900-1902 -- 'n Gedenkboek., Van Schoor, M..C.E & Coetzee, C.G., Dreyer Drukkers., Bloemfontein., 1982.
Standing in line, waiting for food
A picture which might easily have been taken in Dachau or Treblinka.
"The meat that we received was totally inedible and the [maize] meal was too little to keep us alive, but also too much to cause us to die. We used holes in the bank of the Keerom spruit and it often happened that the soldiers stole our bread while it was still in the holes.
On a certain day in October a number of women asked the commandant for beter and mroe food; he cursed them and swore at them, however. This was too much. The women pulled his tent down so that he had to flee in great haste. The camp police intervened, but the women attacked them to such an extent that more than one had to be taken to the doctor." Johanna le Roux, Palmietfontein., Stemme uit die Vrouekampe, Gedurende die Tweede Vryheids Oorlog Tussen Boer en Brit van 1899-1902., Maritz, J, ed., Bienedell Uitgewers, 1993, p.16.
Rows of bell tents in the Johannesburg concentration camp
Adequate accommodation for soldiers on the move. For large families that have to live in these tents year round, this tent-towns probed to be hell on earth. Freezing in winter and unbearably hot in summer. Summer storms turned the bare ground into stinking quagmires.
"Wind and storms were terrible. One could not see through all the dust and sand. The next morning we children could not contain our tears anymore when we saw the trears rolling down our mother's cheeks." A.D. Kilian. Kampkinders, 1900-1902 -- 'n Gedenkboek., Van Schoor, M..C.E & Coetzee, C.G., Dreyer Drukkers., Bloemfontein., 1982. p.43
Winburg concentration camp.
A large concentration camp in the Free State
A choking dust bowl in winter, and a squelching mud-pot in summer.
"We had to sleep on the ground, nine of us in one tent with no bedding; no chair, no crockery. We possessed nothing of the kind. later the English gave us bowls from which to eat, and pots for cooking. Each family received only one pot and about a month after our capture we also received a few blankets." M.J.J. Maritz., Stemme uit die Vrouekampe, Gedurende die Tweede Vryheids Oorlog Tussen Boer en Brit van 1899-1902., Maritz, J, ed., Bienedell Uitgewers, 1993, p.28.
Another large concentraton camp.
A typical camp family
It would have been usual for this family of twelve to have to share one such a tent. In some cases, only one or two people from such a large family would have survived the death camps. In other instances, all would survive. Sometimes the entire family would perish...
"Next to me there was a tent which housed a woman who had six children; four had already died of the measles and during the night of the storm, the other two also died." E.J. van Rensburg., Kroonstad concentration camp.Stemme uit die Vrouekampe, Gedurende die Tweede Vryheids Oorlog Tussen Boer en Brit van 1899-1902., Maritz, J, ed., Bienedell Uitgewers, 1993, p.37.
The end of the road for another victim
Her name was Lizzie van Zyl and she should not have died. Just one out of between 25,000 and 29,000 deaths which occurred due to malnutrition, starvation, sickness and miserable living conditions. Some historians suspect that the actual number of camp deaths had been significantly higher.
"I often saw how fifteen people or more had been buried on one day. I saw how they were placed, four to five in one grave..." Mrs. H.R. Colins, Kroonstad concentration camp. Stemme uit die Vrouekampe, Gedurende die Tweede Vryheids Oorlog Tussen Boer en Brit van 1899-1902., Maritz, J, ed., Bienedell Uitgewers, 1993, p.70.
Another little boy that didn't survive the death camps...
Pictures such as these are comparatively rare. The camp authorities went to great trouble to prevent such pictures from being taken and shown to the world -- understandably.
"The bodies of the deceased were loaded upon a wagon and buried outside the camp. Rations were brought from town to the camp on the same wagon." P.M. Pretorius. Kampkinders, 1900-1902 -- 'n Gedenkboek., Van Schoor, M..C.E & Coetzee, C.G., Dreyer Drukkers., Bloemfontein., 1982., p.28
One more casualty -- one more statistic...
A socking picture, but apparently not shocking enough to induce camp authorities to improve conditions for the women and children who were starving and wasting away due to disease and malnutrition
"There was a hospital but one shuddered at the thought of having to go there. It happened that mothers who had gone to visit their sick children, found them dead on the floor without anyone having known about it. The rate of deaths were very high. We young children eventually had to carry the dead to their graves. There also weren't always coffins for the dead. It was very difficult to obtain a coffin since there was only one coffin-maker who also didn't always have the material." Mrs. S.C. Jurrius. Kampkinders, 1900-1902 -- 'n Gedenkboek., Van Schoor, M..C.E & Coetzee, C.G., Dreyer Drukkers., Bloemfontein., 1982. p.23
Kroonstad concentration camp mortuary 1902
Acknowledgement: All photographs by the courtesy of the SA National Archives in Pretoria, South Africa. | 
