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Pietermaritzburg, Natal
http://www.eggsa.org/library/main.php
Photo's from eGGSA above.
People in camp
623
People who died in this camp
216
Pietermaritzburg was one of the earliest camps, established in August 1900, originally to provide for the Afrikaners of northern Natal who had lost their homes in the early offensives of the war. Pietermaritzburg is a pretty town and the camp was well placed, not in the sultry ‘sleepy hollow’ of the valley, but on the high slopes to the north, which are much cooler. One visitor described it as ‘a vast space, almost like a deer park, on a slope, with much long, coarse grass’.1 Nevertheless, at the height of summer, in February, and in the depths of winter, the climate can be extreme. Almost everyone in the camps complained about the Maritzburg summer heat.
The camp was never large, with about 2,500 people for most of its existence. Because it was located in a relatively well-developed town, there were few problems with water and sanitation. Initially about half the people were housed in tents, but these were gradually replaced, first with canvas rooms, and later with more solid housing. For much of the time there was no hospital, for the sick were treated at the military hospital at Fort Napier. Only towards the end of the period was a canvas hospital introduced. The Natal authorities prided themselves on their economical running of the camps and complaints about the food may have been partly due to this, for the expensive fresh meat the military had supplied was replaced in 1902 with frozen meat, at a saving of about 1d per lb. Since Maritzburg consumed about 1,000 lbs a day, the difference was fairly considerable (£336 15s 7d was saved in January 1902) but the Boers disliked the frozen meat.2
The most outstanding feature of Maritzburg camp is the number of inmates, visitors and staff who have left accounts of life there. The Natal camps took in Transvaal Boers, not only to reduce the size of the camps, but because Kitchener wanted to remove ‘irreconcilables’.3 These included the wives of some of the Boer commandants, most notably Mrs de Wet, the wife of General Christian de Wet, and most of the families sent down had men who were still on commando. For these women, deportation was a bitter punishment. Pietermaritzburg was, therefore, unusually full resentful women.
Often it was the journey and the arrival which people remembered. A visitor to the camp described the influx of one group, in hot mid-February:
‘In an hour the new prisoners came. A few soldiers first, who looked good natured, and as if not particularly relishing their work, then a long, straggling procession, broken often into clumps. Mostly mothers and children, many babies in arms, many toddling alongside, clutching gown or hand, most of them weary, sad, grave, a look of destitution imprinted on faces and clothing alike. One little lad of seven or eight was so tired that he lay down twice in the grass, and was made to go on. All down to the infants had some little thing, presumably the most precious or necessary in one hand, a water bottle, a kettle, a small bundle of clothing; here and there a bag with a few provisions; one lone woman was cherishing a cat. One old woman, with a little child beside her, came in a ricksha; the rest were all on foot and with no umbrellas against the sun. The general effect was very sombre and infinitely sad’
http://www2.lib.uct.ac.za/mss/bccd/Histories/Pietermaritzburg/
Blue names Geni Profiles
Black names Not on Geni Yet
They survived
A
- Ellen C Aveling, (13) Unique ID:115971
- Camp History:Harrismith RC 03/08/1901- 17/05/1902
- Reason departure: transferred Pietermaritzburg RC arrived on 18/05/1902
- Tent number:736/2701
- Farm History:Oosterbeek,Harrismith
- is the daughter of Mrs Elizabeth Aveling (E M)
- Mrs Elizabeth Aveling , (33) Unique ID 115968
- Camp History:Harrismith RC 03/08/1901- 17/05/1902
- Reason departure: transferred Pietermaritzburg RC arrived on 18/05/1902
- Tent number:736/2701
- Farm History:Oosterbeek,Harrismith
B
- Cecilia Johanna Badenhorst Mrs. (31) Unique ID 115097
- Camp History:Harrismith RC 18/04/1901 - 05/08/1901
- Reason departure:transferred to Pietermaritzburg RC
- Tent number: 865/3152
>*Farm History:Mount Paul / Mount Powell, Harrismith.
- Relationships
- is the mother of Master Albertus Badenhorst (Albertus Johannes)
- is the mother of Miss Cecilia Badenhorst (Cecilia Johanna
C
P
They died in this Camp
A
- Ackerman, Dekker Barnard, 5 months died of enteritis on 3/9/1901 Unique ID NO 2124
- Family history: Ackerman Family ,Wakkerstroom
B
How to Participate
If you have an ancestor who was in the ABW Pietermaritzburg Concentration Camp:
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