THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with
great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I
hid My face from thee for a moment; but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith
the Lord thy Redeemer.--Isa. liv. 7 and 8.
The hand which holds my pen to-day trembles.
From the beginning it was not my intention to touch upon the
Concentration Camps, but this story of the war would be incomplete
without at least a brief outline of that which played so important a
part during the war.
After the occupation of Pretoria, and when it was found that
hostilities, instead of coming to an end, were continued under what
the English called a system of "guerilla" warfare, and that the Boer
forces, instead of being compelled to surrender through starvation or
exhaustion, continued to thrive and increase in numbers, the military
authorities found it necessary to adopt entirely new tactics. But
subsequent events showed that no greater strategical error was ever
committed.
Let me explain briefly for the benefit of those of my readers who have
forgotten the details of the great South African war.
The Boer Republics had no organised force. In the event of war against
natives or against some foreign Power, the burghers were called up
from their farms, the husbands, fathers, sons of the nation, to fight
for home and fatherland. This left the women and children unprotected
on the farms, but not unprovided for, for it is an historical fact
that the Boer women in time of war carried on their farming operations
with greater vigour than during times of peace. Fruit trees were
tended, fields were ploughed, and harvests brought in with redoubled
energy, with the result that crops increased and live-stock
multiplied.
From the natives they had nothing to fear--in fact, their work was
carried on with the help of native servants only. It soon became
evident to the British military authorities that the Boer forces were
being supplied with necessaries in the way of food and clothing by the
women on the farms.
From the Boer point of view this was right and good, but it was
perfectly natural that the English should resent it, and, in isolated
cases, where it was known beyond doubt to have taken place, the houses
were destroyed, and the women and children removed to the towns as
prisoners of war.
As time went on and the women continued to provide their men with the
necessaries of life, the British authorities decided to lay the entire
country waste, with the intention of depriving the Boer commandos of
all means of subsistence and forcing them, through starvation, into a
speedy surrender.
A systematic devastation of the two Boer Republics then took place.
Only the towns were spared; for the rest, the farms and homesteads
and even small villages, throughout the length and breadth of the
country, were laid waste. Trees were cut down, crops destroyed, homes,
pillaged of valuables, burnt with everything they contained, and the
women and children removed to camps in the districts to which they
belonged.
Now, we are well aware that a savage foe would have left these
helpless victims of the unavoidable circumstances of war on the veld
to die, but the English are not only not savages and heathens, but
they are one of the most civilised and humane Christian nations.
Concentration Camps were formed in every part of the country, and the
women and children placed in tents on the open veld, near the railway
lines where possible, or in close proximity to the towns.
The work of devastation, carried out by some British officers with
loathing and distaste, and by others with fiendish exultation, was not
completed in a few weeks or months. It was carried on right through
from the time when the policy was decided on until peace was declared,
and in the end nothing was left but the blackened ruins of once
prosperous homes.
* * * * *
If ever there was a war of surprises, it was the Anglo-Boer war.
* * * * *
Instead of hostilities being brought to a speedy termination by the
demolition of the farms, the Boer forces gathered and increased in
strength and numbers by the addition to their ranks of men who had
left the commandos and were again living on their farms.
Wives and children gone, homes devastated, there was nothing left for
the men to live for.
Instead of being brought to submission by the drastic measures taken
to compel them to surrender, they were transformed into raging lions,
with but one object in view, the expulsion of their enemy from the
land of their birth.
Not alone in the towns did the secret service do its work. As the
camps grew in size and close supervision became more difficult, the
spies crept in and out, bearing with them the information wanted by
the Boer leaders, concerning the condition of the inmates.
In nine cases out of ten the earnest request of the women to their men
was to fight to the bitter end--not to surrender on their account, but
to let them die in captivity sooner than yield for the sake of them
and their children.
Perhaps I may be allowed to say here that when Hansie was in the Irene
Camp as volunteer nurse she knew nothing of the work of the spies.
Love and pity drew her to the scene of suffering.
* * * * *
The British did not count the cost when they began the system of
gathering in the Boer families, any more than they did when they began
their "walk over" to Pretoria.
Not only had they to support women and children for an indefinite
period after the devastation of the farms, but the entire maintenance
of the scattered Boer forces fell to their lot. During nearly two
years the Boers lived on the enemy, took their convoys, wrecked their
trains, helped themselves to horses, clothing, ammunition,
provisions--everything, in fact, that they required for the
continuation of the war. To tell the truth, there was hardly a Mauser
rifle to be found in the possession of the Boers at the end of the
war, they having destroyed the rifles with which they began the war,
for want of Mauser ammunition, and using only the Lee Metfords of the
enemy.
Sickness broke out in the camps--scarlet fever, measles,
whooping-cough, enteric, pneumonia, and a thousand ills brought by
exposure, overcrowding, underfeeding, and untold hardships.
Expectant mothers, tender babes, the aged and infirm, torn from their
homes and herded together under conditions impossible to describe,
exposed to the bitter inclemency of the South African winters and the
scorching, germ-breeding heat of the summer, succumbed in their
thousands, while daily, fresh people, ruddy, healthy, straight from
their wholesome life on the farms, were brought into the infected
camps and left to face sickness and the imminent risk of death.
Over twenty thousand dead women and children stand recorded in the
books of the Burgher Camps Department to-day, as the victims of this
policy of concentration.
Over twenty thousand women and children within two years! While the
total number of fighting men lost on the Boer side, in battle and in
captivity, amounts to four thousand throughout the entire war.
That this appalling result was wholly unlooked for, we do not doubt,
but nothing could be done to prevent the high mortality until many
months after the worst period was over and only the strongest remained
in the camps. It was indeed a case of the survival of the fittest.
Let me briefly relate a tragic event of the war to show what the
people of the camps went through and what little cause for surprise
there is in the unprecedented death-rate.
During the winter of 1901 a blizzard passed over the High Veld, the
site of so many Concentration Camps, in the Balmoral district, and
overtook a young lieutenant, W. St. Clare McLaren, of the First Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders (the friend and playmate of Hansie's
childhood's years at Heidelberg) with his men.
They were without shelter, their commissariat waggons being some way
ahead, and crept under a tarpaulin for protection from the fierce and
bitterly cold blast.
During that awful night Mr. McLaren took off his overcoat to cover up
the perishing body of his major, and when morning came he was found
dead with five of his men, while around them, stiffly frozen, lay the
bodies of six hundred mules.
The brave and heroic heart was stilled for ever, a young and noble
life was lost in performing an act of rare self-sacrifice; but far
away in "bonnie Scotland" a widowed mother, smiling bravely through
her tears, thanked God for the privilege of cherishing _such_ a
memory.
Small wonder to us then, when tragedies such as this were brought home
to us, that in the camps the thin tents, torn to ribbons by the
storm, afforded no protection to the scantily-clothed, half-famished
inmates!
That the death-rate was not higher during the winter months we owe
entirely to the overcrowding of the tents, there being in Hansie's
ward at Irene many bell-tents, destined to accommodate six, holding
from sixteen to twenty-three persons for many months. But what was an
advantage during the winter months became a source of great danger
when the heat of summer came.
To return to our story.
It was Hansie's privilege--yes, privilege--to act as one of the
volunteer nurses from Pretoria during that very winter of 1901, and
though it is not my intention to record in this book the experience
connected with that period, I do not think it will be out of place
here to mention an important result of that sojourn at Irene.
Mrs. van Warmelo visited her daughter in the camp for the first time
on May 21st, and she was so much impressed by the misery she had
witnessed that, on her return to Pretoria that night, she could not
sleep, but tossed from side to side, thinking of some way to save her
country-women from suffering and death.
Suddenly she was inspired by the thought, "Write a petition to the
Consuls!"
It was 3 a.m. when she got out of bed to fetch her writing-materials
from the dining-room, and she then and there wrote a passionate appeal
for help to the Diplomatic Corps in Pretoria.
The Consul-General for the Netherlands, Mr. Domela Nieuwenhuis, to
whom she took the petition the following morning, advised her to lay
it before the Portuguese Consul, Mr. Cinatti, who, as the doyen of the
Diplomatic Corps, would bring the matter before the other Consuls, if
he thought it advisable.
Mr. Cinatti, after reading the petition, said the matter could
certainly be taken up if Mrs. van Warmelo would get a few leading
women in Pretoria to sign the petition.
This was done within a few days.
Under injunctions to observe the strictest secrecy, nine prominent
Boer women signed the document, and it was once more laid before the
senior member of the Diplomatic Corps, who immediately called a
meeting of the Consuls, the result of which was that a copy of the
petition, translated into French, was sent by the first mail to each
of the ten different Powers they represented and also to Lord
Kitchener.
General Maxwell, soon after these were dispatched, asked Mr. Cinatti
to see him at once in his office at Government Buildings, where, in a
long interview with him, he demanded from Mr. Cinatti the names of the
nine signatories.
Mr. Cinatti said he was not at liberty to disclose them--that, in
fact, they were not known (with the exception of the writer of the
petition) to the other Consuls. General Maxwell then pressed him to
give him that name only, as he particularly wished to know who had
drawn up the petition.
This was refused, fortunately for Mrs. van Warmelo, for the penalty
would have been great.
The military authorities left no stone unturned afterwards to find out
who the women petitioners were, but without success, thanks to the
great precautions taken by the Portuguese Consul.
A full month passed and no reply came from Lord Kitchener.
A second petition, more strongly worded than the first, was then drawn
up, imploring the Consuls to intercede on behalf of the victims of the
Concentration Camps and to inform the Powers represented by them, of
the death-rate which threatened the Boer nation with extinction.
Again a meeting of the Consuls was called, at which three of them were
appointed to form a committee of investigation:
Consul Cinatti, Consul-General for Portugal.
Baron Pitner, Consul-General for Austria.
Baron Ostmann, Consul-General for Germany.
Some of the other members at the meeting were:
M. Domela Nieuwenhuis, Consul-General for the Netherlands.
M. Aubert, Consul-General for France.
Mr. Gordon, Consul-General for United States.
The latter lived in Johannesburg, but attended all the meetings held
in Pretoria in connection with the Concentration Camps.
From General Maxwell the committee of investigation got permission to
inspect the Camp at Irene, called the "Model Camp," and with the
statistics obtained there, as well as the official statistics of all
the camps in the Transvaal, the Diplomatic Corps drew up a report,
which went to prove that unless immediate steps were taken to arrest
the appalling death-rate, the Boer population in the camps would be
extinct within a period of three years.
Copies of this report were sent to the Military Governor and Lord
Kitchener, and to ten foreign Powers, with copies of the second
petition.
What diplomatic correspondence then passed between England and the
foreign Powers we shall never know, for the utmost secrecy was
observed throughout; but what we do know is, that the famous
commission of inquiry, the "Whitewash Committee," so-called by the
Pro-Boers in England, was very soon afterwards sent out. It consisted
of six English ladies, and as a result of their investigations some of
the inland camps were removed to the coast, the rations increased,
additional medical and other comforts provided, and the general
condition of the camps improved to such an extent that after some
months the death-rate decreased considerably, continuing to do so
until it became nearly normal. But, as I have said before, not until
over 20,000 women and children had been sacrificed as a direct result
of being torn from their homes, exposed to the elements, and herded
together under conditions which only the strongest could survive. It
would take too much space to insert copies of the petitions here, but
they are to be found in Hansie's Dutch book on the Irene Concentration
Camp, published in Holland from her diary a year after the war.
The following statistics of what is known as "Black October 1901" are
taken from the Blue Books of England and will give the reader an idea
of the number of camps in the Transvaal alone, the number of their
inhabitants, and the full death-rate within the period of thirty-one
days:--
TOTAL CENSUS OF DEATHS, ETC. ETC., OCCURRING IN THE CONCENTRATION
CAMPS, TRANSVAAL ONLY, DURING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER 1901.
Camps. Census. Deaths.
1. Barberton 1,907 12
2. Balmoral 2,580 70
3. Belfast 1,397 33
4. Heidelberg 2,173 41
5. Irene 3,972 101
6. Johannesburg 2,937 29
7. Klerksdorp 3,822 176
8. Krugersdorp 5,500 90
9. Middelburg 5,602 127
10. Mafeking 4,783 410
11. Nylstroom 1,819 52
12. Pietersburg 3,598 41
13. Potchefstroom 7,467 90
14. Standerton 3,005 215
15. Vereeniging 920 9
16. Volksrust 5,280 47
17. Vryburg 1,256 53
------ ------
58,018 1,596
------ ------
During this terrible month there was a population of 112,619 in all
the Concentration Camps in South Africa. There were 3,156 deaths, i.e.
a death-rate of 28 per 1,000 per month. After "Black October" the
mortality decreased steadily, as will be seen from the following
figures:
Population. Deaths.
November 1901 117,974 2,807
December 1901 117,017 2,380
January 1902 114,376 1,805
February 1902 113,905 638
March 1902 111,508 402
April 1902 112,733 298
May 1902 116,572 196
CONSULAR REPORT ON THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS
The following is the Report on the Concentration Camps by the
Committee appointed by the Consular Corps of the Transvaal in response
to a renewed appeal addressed to them by the Committee of Boer Women
of Pretoria. The appeal was supported by three of the Consuls.
The Committee, which you have appointed to examine the situation in
the prisoners' camps, where Boer women are concentrated, though they
could not always obtain the required accurate information, have gained
sufficient results to arrive at the conclusions as laid down in short
in the following report:--
I.--In order to formulate a clear idea of the situation the Committee
has laid down the following tables:
(a) Showing the population and deaths in the Camps during April
1901, compiled from the official reports of the
Inspector-General of the Camps.
(b) The death-rate in the Camps of the Transvaal calculated from
Table A, as well as from reports published in the Official
Gazette, and according to other trustworthy information.
(c) The death-rate in the Camps at Bloemfontein and Kroonstad,
compiled from the notices in the Official Gazette of the
Orange Free State.
(d) Diseases and deaths according to Official Gazette.
II.--Although the returns are not complete through absence of returns
for whole weeks in the official publications, we may arrive at the
following conclusions:
1. That the death-percentage in the Camps surpasses all
hitherto-known proportions.
2. That the death-rate amounts to 14 times that of Pretoria,
which has, according to Dr. Stroud, an average of 25 per
thousand per year.
3. That the death-rate among the children confined to the Camps
has increased to an alarming extent.
The Committee, basing their verdict partly on the repeated assertions
of public opinion, on the communications of eye-witnesses, on the
evidence given by certain witnesses in a case before the Military
Court at Pretoria, and finally on the personal observations of four
members of the Consular Corps, to whom permission was granted to visit
the Camp at Irene, feel compelled to believe the principal causes of
diseases, carrying in their train such an abnormal death-rate, to be:
1. The difficulties and misery and privations to which the Boer
families are subject after having been driven from their
farms (their journeys often lasting about 20 days).
2. The insufficient quantity and frequently even bad quality of
articles of food distributed among them. Often the food given
to the children is in every respect inadequate to their
wants.
3. The great fall in temperature during the night.
4. The insufficient protection against cold experienced in the
tents by the healthy population, and all the more by the
invalids.
5. The absence of clothing and blankets.
6. The insufficient providing for invalids and the inadequate
state of medical stores.
7. The want of employees for the sanitary service in the Camps.
In view of the importance of the problem put before the Committee,
they have drawn up the above report and have sent copies of same to
all the members of the Consular Corps.
(Signed) S.S. PITNER.
P. CINATTI.
BN. OSTMANN.
TABLE A
DIRECT CAUSES OF THE DEATHS IN THE CAMPS OF THE IMPRISONED BOERS,
COMPOSED ACCORDING TO THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TILL JULY
10TH, 1901.
Diseases. Number of Deaths.
Measles 123
Inflammation of the lungs 50
Dysentery 45
Inflammation of the bowels 35
Consumption 33
Diarrhoea 29
Bronchitis 27
Old age 21
Inflammation of the stomach 15
Malaria 18
Cramps 15
Measles and bronchitis 14
Typhoid fever 14
Weakness (Debility) 13
Heart disease 12
Croup 11
Old age 11
Cramps and inflammation of the stomach 10
Measles and weakness 11
Lying-in fever and child-birth illness 5
Measles and inflammation of the lungs 4
Inflammation of the brain 4
Diphtheria 4
Consumption and measles 4
Disease of the kidneys 6
Measles and diarrhoea 3
Measles and dysentery 3
Exhaustion 3
Inflammation of the bowels 3
Debility 2
Heart disease 4
Inflammation of the kidneys and debility,
diseases through teething, asthma, influenza 6
Various 26
Not classified 57
---
641
_Summary and Percentage_
Cases. Percentage.
Simple and complicated measles 149 23
Diseases of the respiratory organs 106 17
Diseases of the bowels 105 17
Fever 67 10
Debility, old age, consumption 75 12
Convulsions 15 2
Debility through old age 13 2
Heart disease 12 2
Not classified 57 9
Various 42 6
---
641 cases.
TABLE B
DEATH-RATE OF THE IMPRISONED BOERS IN THE CAMPS OF THE TRANSVAAL
ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL REPORTS AND TRUSTWORTHY INFORMATION.
------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| |
Camps and Months. | Number of prisoners +
| under 8 years. |
| |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| | | |
| Male. | Female. | Total. |
------------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Middelburg April | 666 | 626 | 1,292 |
Potchefstroom April | 1,577 | 4,147 | 5,724 |
May 1-17th | 1,605[B] | 4,207[B] | 5,812[C] |
Standerton April | 584 | 553 | 1,137 |
Volksrust April | 1,911 | 1,667 | 3,578 |
Irene April | 2,134 | 1,589 | 3,703 |
" May | 2,364[B] | 1,738[B] | 4,102[C] |
" June | 2,593[B] | 2,007[B] | 4,600[C] |
Johannesburg April | 1,705 | 1,465 | 3,170 |
May 1-27th | 1,770[B] | 1,515[B] | 3,285[C] |
All Camps in | | | |
Transvaal April | 11,098 | 12,714 | 23,612 |
------------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Death Rate for the Period Indicated. |
Camps and Months +------------------------+----------------------+
| Under 8 years. | Per 1,000 per ann. |
| | Under 8 years. |
+-------+--------+-------+------+--------+------+
| Male. | Female.| Total.| Male.| Female.| pr. |
| | | | | | 1000 |
------------------------+-------+--------+-------+------+--------+------+
Middelburg April | 5 | 4 | 9 | 86 | 77 | 83 |
Potchefstroom April | 7[A] | 17[A] | 24 | 53 | 39 | 54 |
May 1-17th | 8 | 17 | 25 | 106 | 86 | 94 |
Standerton April | 5[D] | 20[D] | 25 | 104 | 372 | 255 |
Volkstust April | 5 | 21 | 26 | 32 | 153 | 87 |
Irene April | 14[A] | 35[A] | 49 | 79 | 270 | 161 |
" May | 19 | 49 | 68 | 58 | 331 | 200 |
" June | 38[A] | 97[C] |135[E] | 177 | 588 | 366 |
Johannesburg April | 9 | 82 | 91 | 62 | 681 | 349 |
May 1-27th | 12 | 67 | 79 | 94 | 598 | 325 |
All Camps in | | | | | | |
Transvaal April | 69 | 171 |240 | 75 | 161 | 122 |
------------------------+-------+--------+-------+------+--------+------+
A: According to the proportion for the month of May.
B: According to the proportion for the month of April.
C: Average number from April till July 9th.
D: According to the proportion for Volksrust.
E: Statement by a nurse in service at Irene.
Without further comment the figures are borrowed from the official
reports of the month of April or published in the _Official Gazette_.
TABLE C
RETURN OF DEATHS OF THE IMPRISONED BOERS IN THE CAMPS OF
BLOEMFONTEIN AND KROONSTAD (ORANGE FREE STATE) ACCORDING TO THE
"OFFICIAL GAZETTE."
--------------------------+---------------------------------+
| Number of Deaths. |
+-----+-------+----------+--------+
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | Children | |
Camps. | Men.| Women.| under 8 | Total. |
| | | yrs. | |
--------------------------+-----+-------+----------+--------+
Bloemfontein from April | | | | |
2nd till July 2nd, 1901 | 33 | 80 | 198 | 311 |
| | | | |
Kroonstad from April | | | | |
1st till May 16th, 1901 | 8 | 8 | 41 | 57 |
| | | | |
Kroonstad from May 26th | | | | |
till June 23rd, 1901 | 9 | 12 | 26 | 47 |
--------------------------+-----+-------+----------+--------+
--------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Causes of Death. |
--------------------------+----------+--------+----------+---------+-----+
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| |Lung and|Typhoid, | | |
Camps. |Infectious|Heart |Dysentery,|Debility,| Per |
|Disease. |Disease.|Diarrhoea.|Old Age. |1000.|
--------------------------+----------+--------+----------+---------+-----+
Bloemfontein from April | | | | | |
2nd till July 2nd, 1901 | 101 | 99 | 107 | 4 | 309 |
| | | | | |
Kroonstad from April | | | | | |
1st till May 16th, 1901 | 15 | 16 | 24 | 2 | 195 |
| | | | | |
Kroonstad from May 26th | | | | | |
till June 23rd, 1901 | 18 | 14 | 15 | 6 | 213 |
--------------------------+----------+--------+----------+---------+-----+
Number of prisoners till June 1st: Bloemfontein, 4,339; Kroonstad, 2,638.
TABLE D
RETURNS OF DEATHS AND DISEASE OF THE IMPRISONED BOERS IN THE ENGLISH
CAMPS OF THE TRANSVAAL DURING APRIL 1901.
----------------+---------------------------------------+
| Number of Prisoners. |
+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| | | | |
| Men. | Women. |Children.| Total. |
Camps. | | | | |
----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Barberton | 38 | 151 | 236 | 425 |
Middelburg | 191 | 475 | 626 | 1,292 |
Irene | 892 | 1,242 | 1,569 | 3,703 |
Johannesburg | 505 | 1,200 | 1,465 | 3,170 |
Potchefstroom | 322 | 1,255 | 4,147 | 5,724 |
Klerksdorp | 120 | 350 | 521 | 991 |
Krugersdorp | 234 | 381 | 473 | 1,088 |
Vereeniging | 175 | 312 | 346 | 833 |
Heidelberg | 377 | 327 | 432 | 1,136 |
Standerton | 271 | 313 | 653 | 1,237 |
Volksrust | 452 | 1,459 | 1,667 | 3,578 |
Mafeking | 96 | 140 | 529 | 765 |
+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Total | 3,673 | 7,605 | 12,664 | 23,942 |
----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Number of Cases during April 1901. |
+---------+---------+-----------+--------+------------+
| | | | | Deaths |
| Men. | Women. | Children. | Total. | during the |
Camp. | | | | | Month. |
----------------+---------+---------+-----------+--------+------------+
Barberton | 6 | 26 | 27 | 59 | 4 |
Middelburg | 29 | 46 | 55 | 130 | 9 |
Irene | 51 | 85 | 181 | 317 | 49 |
Johannesburg | 3 | 26 | 110 | 139 | 90 |
Potchefstroom | 3 | 30 | 29 | 62 | 24 |
Klerksdorp | -- | 7 | 12 | 19 | 2 |
Krugersdorp | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | -- |
Vereeniging | 5 | 8 | 11 | 24 | 5 |
Heidelberg | 13 | 21 | 32 | 66 | 2 |
Standerton | 10 | 17 | 20 | 47 | 35 |
Volksrust | 14 | 19 | 33 | 66 | 26 |
Mafeking | 12 | 96 | 44 | 152 | 4 |
+---------+---------+-----------+--------+------------+
Total | 146 | 381 | 556 | 1,083 | 250 |
----------------+---------+---------+-----------+--------+------------+
This table is compiled from an official report by an attendant of
the Prisoner-Camps.