Bloemfontein concentration camp during the Boer War Introduction The Boer war has recently ended and the British have won the war.
Thanks to Ms. Hobhouse’s help and her observations on the Bloemfontein concentration camp, our organization is willing to create awareness about the past events in South Africa. The British created “refugee” camps (31 in total), and kept the women and children whose houses had been burnt there. For the British, this meant that the Boers who were fighting at the moment, would no longer be able to obtain food or other needs from their families.
Moreover, it also meant that the men wouldn’t get to see their families. Nevertheless, their main goal was to demoralise the Boers by leaving their women and children homeless. However, the conditions of life in these concentration camps weren’t exactly great. People normally died, due to hygiene and undernourishment problems. The camp in Bloemfontein is a perfect evidence of the usual conditions of these “refugee camps”. Location of the Bloemfontein concentration camp Bloemfontein Concentration Camp General Information This concentration camp was located in Bloemfontein, in the Orange Free State.
Although, its size is not known, this concentration camp was bigger than the town of Bloemfontein itself and it was one of the largest camps in the Boer War. This concentration camp was directed by Captain Arthur Hume and Goold Adams, but they didn’t own it. The camp didn’t have an owner, it was simply British property. Surprisingly, the population of the camp was massively increasing all the time.
By the end of November 1900, there were 519 people, and less than a year later-in August 1901- there were around 7,500 people in this concentration camp. ,236 children and 432 women over 15 were considered to have died in this concentration camp. All outside world contact was cut off. Conditions of life This concentration camp had five long tin huts in addition to the tents, and it was not tidily pitched. It was not regularly cleaned and above all, the latrines were filthy. The prisoners or refugees – as the British liked to call them- were put though extreme and harsh situations every day.
The children were starved, crying out for food, and were callously treated, left shivering with cold.The British couldn’t care less for the children. The people were only given a blanket and a tent crowded with people to sleep. In these poor conditions, there were even Vermin crawling over the blankets. Additionally, when Emily Hobhouse noticed the lack of soap and complained about it, Hume replied by saying that soap was an article of luxury.
According to Emily Hobhouse, the conditions of the camp were terrible, “I call this camp system a wholesale cruelty… To keep these Camps going is murder to the children”. Bloemfontein hospitalFurthermore, the Bloemfontein camp hospital had a particularly bad reputation. The wards were dirty and unruly; the place was noisy as staff tramped up and down in nailed boots. Patients would be kept together in a room with other 10 different people. Shockingly, patients wouldn’t be separated by sex, age, or ailment. The Mothers weren’t allowed to visit their children, even if they were dying.
They were only allowed to visit them once a week for only five minutes. Most of the deaths in this concentration camp were caused by Pneumonia, dysentery, and diarrhoea.Diarrhoea caused the death of 29 babies in February 1901. Daily Diet for the Prisoners In concentration camps, there were two types of prisoners. The “Refugees” which were usually Boers just finding a place to live in, and the “Undesirables”, which were Boers whose relatives were fighting in the Boer War.
This chart shows the daily diet of Boer Prisoners. Refugees | Undesirables | ? lb. Fresh Meat. ? lb. either Meal, Rice, Samp or Potatoes.
1 ? oz. Coffee. 3 oz. Sugar. 1 oz. Salt.
1/12 th tin of Condensed Milk | ? lb. Fresh Meat. ? lb. either Meal, Rice, or Samp. 1 ? z.
Coffee. 1 oz. Sugar. 1 oz. Salt.
1/18 th tin of Condensed Milk. | As noticeable, the daily food that the Refugees obtained was much better than the one that the Undesirables did. However, it was not the required quantity of food for a person. Besides that, the meat was barely cooked, and often the meat would be given to the prisoners with ice.
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