Origin of concentration camps Madam, - In a lively article on Nazi propaganda films which exploited Ireland's independence struggle, Kate Holmquist remarks… Wed Jan 31 2007 - 00:00
Madam, - In a lively article on Nazi propaganda films which exploited Ireland's independence struggle, Kate Holmquist remarks that concentration camps were a German invention ("Irish rebels with a German accent", Weekend Review, January 27th). I quote: "The Germans, who invented concentration camps, created the fiction that it was actually a British invention during the Boer War."
A Spanish general named Weyler first implemented the use of reconcentrados, or "camps of reconcentration" to enclose the Cuban civilian population loyal to Spain in what were meant to be safe areas. This was during the Cuban War of Independence in the 1890s, when the Spanish empire was faced with a guerrilla insurrection. Those outside the designated camps were to be deprived of amenities and forced into submission. In practice, about 25,000 died in the "camps of reconcentration" due to poor diet and disease.
A few years later during the Boer War, in what is modern South Africa, Britain's General Kitchener used "concentration camps" to contain hostile civilians. These were mainly Boers, whites of Dutch origin. Blacks were also subjected to this treatment. Some 28,000 whites and 14,000 blacks died in Kitchener's camps. The tactic played a major part in winning the war for the empire.
The British concept of camps or areas of concentration for civilians was different to that of the Spanish in that they were deployed to house a hostile or suspect population. The result in both cases was the same for those "concentrated": their mortality rates rose sharply due to being confined in large numbers in ill-prepared quarters.
So, a case can be made for either Spanish or British origin, depending on how the concept is defined. Even within the past year there have been a number of instances in the British broadsheet press where commentators or editorial writers have referred to the concentration camp as being invented by the British during the Boer war.
As for myself, being Irish, I am at ease accepting the concentration camp as a British invention. - Yours, etc,
TIM O'SULLIVAN, Homefarm Park, Dublin 9.
