VEREENIGING KONSENTRASIEKAMP/CONCENTRATION CAMP

http://www.eggsa.org/library/main.php Lots of photo's avaiable on above link.

People in camp

314

People who died in this camp

206

Vereeniging was probably the most contented of all the camps. Like Heilbron and Kroonstad in the ORC, it was located in the maize-growing belt of the highveld, but on the north bank of the Vaal River, in the Transvaal, sloping down to the river. It was already in existence when the first civilian inspection took place on 19 February 1901 but it probably started about September 1900 (Dr Kendal Franks dated it from December 1900). G.W. Goodwin, then chief superintendent of the Transvaal camps, reported in February 1901 that the people were of a ‘superior class’ and appeared in good health, happy and contented. If this was the case, it may have been due to the first superintendent, Captain Bentinck, a remarkably capable man. But the people themselves, many of them employees and tenants of Sammy Marks’s Vereeniging Estates Company, had benefited from the burgeoning markets of the goldfields and were probably relatively affluent. Dr Kendal Franks, who visited the camp in September 1901, thought them ‘a superior class of burgher, better educated and more advanced in the manners and arts of civilisation’. Their tents were often well furnished, some with carpets, and the inmates were active, sewing, making jam tarts and the like. One benefit from the association with the Vereeniging Estates Company was the lavish supply of coal so the inmates were never short of fuel. Like the wiser superintendents, Bentinck had immediately adopted the ration scale which included meat and food was always fairly plentiful and good.1

By the time that the first formal camp report was submitted for May 1901, Bentinck had been replaced by Burton Tucker as part of the civilian administration, with Dr Allan Stuart Boyd as medical officer. The camp remained small, with never more than about 1,000 inmates but there was a black camp nearby, with over 2,000 people, mainly women and children. A school was started early, by two young women in the camp, and about 100 children attended, rising to over 300. In time the camp was divided into two parts, with a small section, the ‘Burgher [Scout] Camp’, consisting of about twenty-five families (150 people). Their men were employed mainly in the ‘looting’ corps, bringing in cattle and horses. They were allowed to keep 75% of the stock they caught but had to hand the horses over to the British army. The camp must have had a slightly untidy appearance. The Scouts’ camp, where the families used their own tents and were not under the same discipline, was neither as clean nor as orderly as the main camp. Some fifteen families lived in their own ‘nachtmaal’ tents while another seventeen lived in the town, where they paid rent.2 http://www2.lib.uct.ac.za/mss/bccd/Histories/vereeniging/

Blue names Geni Profiles

Black names Not on Geni Yet

They survived

A

B

M

They died in Kimberley Camp

A

B

C

D

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• Jacobs, Martha Sophia (32.6years) Born 26/10/1869 Died 9/5/1902

• Husband on commando, Gerrit Petrus Stephanus v d Westhuizen
• One daughter Martha Sophia born 10/4/1890
• Unique ID NO 21733
• Farm History: Valkfontein , Heidelberg.

S

• Maria Elizabeth Cornelia Strydom(27) on 19/8/1901 of measles & pneumonia Wife of Cornelis Floris Johannes Meyer

• Unique ID 14233
• Farm History: Rietfontein, Bloemhof.

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How to Participate

If you have an ancestor who was in the ABW Vereeniging Concentration Camp:

1. Get yourself added as a collaborator
2. Navigate to your ancestor's profile
3. Under the "More Actions" link choose "Add to Project"
4. Select the ABO ===Vereeniging===" project

How to add a link is explained in the attached document - Adding links to Geni profiles to projects.

Optional:

• Include in the "About Me" section of each person a brief biographical sketch of their lives. Also include their Settler party and ship name and arrival date if known
• Include a photograph/painting of your ancestor if one exists.
• Your ancestor's profiles should be marked as "public" and not "private".
• All included profiles should include full identifying information including birth and death dates as well as birth and death locations. It would also be very helpful if the immediate family of your pioneer ancestor, (their parents, siblings and children) profiles were public profiles also.
• Do not make public any profiles of living people.

NOTE: All POW included on this project will have their profiles editable by other geni.com collaborators of this project. The object of reproducing the list here is to see if these people can be located on Geni and perhaps develop trees from them. To take part in any project - you do need to first be a collaborator - so join the project. See the discussion Project Help: How to add Text to a Project - Starter Kit to get you going!