British Internment And The Internment Of Britons

This edited volume presents a cutting-edge discussion and analysis of civilian 'enemy alien' internment in Britain, the internment of British civilians on the continent, and civilian internment camps run by the British within the wider British Empire. The book brings together a range of interdisciplinary specialists including archaeologists, historians, and heritage practitioners to give a full overview of the topic of internment internationally. Very little has been written about the experience of interned Britons on the continent during the Second World War compared with continentals interned in Britain. Even fewer accounts exist of the regime in British Dominions where British guards presided over the camps. This collection is the first to bring together the British experiences, as the common theme, in one study. The new research presented here also offers updated statistics for the camps whilst considering the period between 1945 to the present day through related site heritage issues.

This edited volume presents a cutting-edge discussion and analysis of civilian 'enemy alien' internment in Britain, the internment of British civilians on the continent, and civilian internment camps run by the British within the wider British Empire. The book brings together a range of interdisciplinary specialists including archaeologists, historians, and heritage practitioners to give a full overview of the topic of internment internationally. Very little has been written about the experience of interned Britons on the continent during the Second World War compared with continentals interned in Britain. Even fewer accounts exist of the regime in British Dominions where British guards presided over the camps. This collection is the first to bring together the British experiences, as the common theme, in one study. The new research presented here also offers updated statistics for the camps whilst considering the period between 1945 to the present day through related site heritage issues.

During the First World War, Britain was the epicentre of global mass internment and deportation operations. Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Turks, and Bulgarians who had settled in Britain and its overseas territories were deemed to be a potential danger to the realm through their ties with the Central Powers and were classified as 'enemy aliens'. A complex set of wartime legislation imposed limitations on their freedom of movement, expression, and property possession. Approximately 50,000 men and some women experienced the most drastic step of enemy alien control, namely internment behind barbed wire, in many cases for the whole duration of the war and thousands of miles away from the place of arrest. Enemies in the Empire is the first study to analyse British internment operations against civilian 'enemies' during the First World War from an imperial perspective. The narrative takes a three-pronged approach. In addition to a global examination, the volume demonstrates how internment operated on a (proto-) national scale within the three selected case studies of the metropole (Britain), a white dominion (South Africa), and a colony under direct rule (India). Stefan Manz and Panikos Panayi then bring their study to the local level by concentrating on the three camps Knockaloe (Britain), Fort Napier (South Africa), and Ahmednagar (India), allowing for detailed analyses of personal experiences. Although conditions were generally humane, in some cases, suffering occurred. The study argues that the British Empire played a key role in developing civilian internment as a central element of warfare and national security on a global scale.

The internment of 'enemy aliens' by the British government in two world wars remains largely hidden from history. British historians have treated the subject - if at all - as a mere footnote to the main narrative of Britain at war. In the 'Great War', Britain interned some 30,000 German nationals, most of whom had been long-term residents. In fact, internment brought little discernible benefit, but cruelly damaged lives and livelihoods, breaking up families and disrupting social networks. In May 1940, under the threat of imminent invasion, the British government interned some 28,000 Germans and Austrians, mainly Jewish refugees from the Third Reich. It was a measure which provoked lively criticism, not least in Parliament, where one MP called the internment of refugees 'totally un-English'. The present volume seeks to shed more light on this still submerged historical episode, adopting an inter-disciplinary approach to explore hitherto under-researched aspects, including the historiography of internment, the internment of women, deportation to Canada, and culture in internment camps, including such notable events as the internment revue What is Life!

Enemies in the Empire demonstrates how Britain developed a global system of mass deportation and internment during the Great War. Using case studies in Britain, South Africa, and India, the authors place these internees into the broader history of internment, the history of the First World War, and the history of the British Empire.

The internment of 'enemy aliens' during the Second World War was arguably the greatest stain on the Allied record of human rights on the home front. Internment during the Second World War compares and contrasts the experiences of foreign nationals unfortunate enough to be born in the 'wrong' nation when Great Britain, and later the USA, went to war. While the actions and policy of the governments of the time have been critically examined, Rachel Pistol examines the individual stories behind this traumatic experience. The vast majority of those interned in Britain were refugees who had fled religious or political persecution; in America, the majority of those detained were children. Forcibly removed from family, friends, and property, internees lived behind barbed wire for months and years. Internment initially denied these people the right to fight in the war and caused unnecessary hardships to individuals and families already suffering displacement because of Nazism or inherent societal racism. In the first comparative history of internment in Britain and the USA, memoirs, letters, and oral testimony help to put a human face on the suffering incurred during the turbulent early years of the war and serve as a reminder of what can happen to vulnerable groups during times of conflict. Internment during the Second World War also considers how these 'tragedies of democracy' have been remembered over time, and how the need for the memorialisation of former sites of internment is essential if society is not to repeat the same injustices.