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Ruhleben showing racetrack with horseboxes behind the grandstand .
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A rare find in South Australia by this blog is a bound in volume of magazines produced by inmates of the civilian internment
camp , Ruhleben , west of Berlin . Although
intended for
English civilians , it also
held Australians, Canadians,
French, Irish, South Africans, Russians
and Spaniards . Some were honeymooners, others had been studying in
Germany and some were off
ships caught in port at the outbreak of war . The
camp , on an old racetrack , included a
casino and
was largely run
by the 4000 -5500
internees . The
inmates had their
own police
force, printing works ,
operated several shops and
ran
a university and
a school which had
75 classes and
more than 1000
pupils who were
given instruction in languages, literature
, philosophy, engineering, mathematics and
commercial subjects.
They
built their own
cinema, had a large
theatrical society which staged
regular plays and an orchestra. The
captain of one of
the camp’s tug-o-war-teams did
a roaring trade
selling genuine English toffee.
In stores run by the
internees you could buy butter, margarine, cheese, ham, eggs, vegetables ,pickles, bacon, Californian
fruits and breakfast cereals . There was a Japanese laundry
which promised to
take particular care of
silks and other delicate material, a Russian
tailor, a carpet maker, a raspberry
wine and lemonade stand,
several shoe blacks,
an exchange market, a watchmaker,
a man who darned socks and
several enterprising domestics
who ironed and
starched washing.
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Note the stores are located in fashionable Bond Street .
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Growing lads
in the need
of extra nutrition received a
daily eggnog. There was even a
service which did
the shopping for inmates
so that goods were
delivered in time
for lunch and tea. In this way it
did away with the need to
join long queues in
cold or hot weather. And
in a camp with a
preponderance of men , the camp commander’s wife, a
baroness, presented prizes at the
annual sports, to the accompaniment of
hearty clapping and
subdued wolf whistles.
If it
all sounds too good to be true, there was
a drawback-many of the internees
lived in cramped horseboxes , each holding six men
; the horse lofts held 200 . Even so, carpenters
could be hired to make
the boxes " more
like home " with
curtains and windows. The accounts of all
the communal enterprises
were checked by auditors arranged through
the American Embassy
in Berlin
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Drawing of a converted horsebox .
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Run along
democrat lines, there
were frequent mass
meetings to discuss camp developments. Discontent
over how money was spent once
led to a strike. Letters were written to the
camp magazine
claiming that the people running the
place through various
committees and societies were
becoming autocratic tyrants.
A letter writer complained
about the arty
farty section of
the prisoners , described as “ long-haired devils ”,
who wanted to
flood the camp with Ibsen
and Shakespeare , when
most were sighing
for the light- hearted musical
“ Charlie’s Aunt ” . The camp
erupted into heated argument
when there was a move to
get the British
government to sanction a
medal or badge for Ruhleben
prisoners. An Anti
Medal meeting said such
an act would divert money and metal from
the war effort . A
campaign was then
run to raise funds
for a Ruhleben
Bed in a
British Red Cross hospital.
With
its printing press,
the camp produced posters
, a football guide , postcards and a
special Christmas edition
of the camp magazine.
When it
came to football
matches , Australians were
included in a
team designated Scots-The Colonies. An
Australian mentioned by name
was Gordon Short , a
gifted pianist from
Melbourne, a member of
the Musical Society .
A violinist, Leslie Harris,
could also have been an Australian but it was not
absolutely clear this was
the case. Both musicians probably appeared in a full page
cartoon about the musical group. The
camp’s reference library
was run by Dr
Ettinghausen who donated
many of his books
to the collection . Talks
on Chinese beliefs
and superstitions were
given by Mr Pogson.
After the
cinema opened for the
first time ,
people wrote to the camp magazine with
ideas for other desirable
amenities. An article
headed Towards a
Complete Concentration Camp suggested
a handsome billiard room with
three Continental tables ,
an English up to date roller
skating rink , an Oriental dancing hall, a Turkish bath, a wintergarden with a
few palms and attractive waitresses , a
soda fountain , a deer park, a night club and a branch of
Madam Tussaud’s would be
nice additions .
And
no concentration camp
should be without
its own opium den. Recent
developments, wrote another, made an inebriates’
home an absolute essential . On wintry
days , the bleak
area in front of the casino
was known as the Esplanade
Les Anglais. When
heavy rain fell ,
huge pools formed about the camp
and caused debates
about whether Germany or
England had the worst
climate in the world.
Through the
pages of the camp
magazine , a mock bye-election
was run in
l915. Beer, champagne and
members of the
fair sex were offered as
inducements to eager
voters. A member of
the Liberal Suffragettes’ Party was
one of three
candidates standing for election and
attracted much support.
However, a telegram
purporting to be
from the British Wives and
Sweethearts’ League, London,
warned that if any
of their men voted
for the Liberal Suffragettes’
candidate immediate divorce
proceedings would be
instituted and pocket money
and food parcels stopped.
As it turned out, the Suffragette
won with 1220 votes
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A cartoon
in the magazine suggested
the ideal “retreat” for
the liberated but
“henpecked” Ruhlebenite . It showed
a man resting
inside a barb-wire topped
cage, reading the
paper, Scotch and soda
nearby, with his wife on the
outside.
It was suggested
inmates writing home for
food parcels should send a sketch of
themselves showing them
“pinched and haggard ”,
a practice which resulted in a
“bumper hamper ” every time . Ruhleben
boasted a large vegetable garden
and received seeds from the
Royal Horticultural Society
in Britain , some of the produce
displayed in the photograph below.
The last edition is dated 1917 . It seems inconceivable that this self run camp was being conducted on gentlemanly lines while the world was tearing itself apart outside. ---- (Peter Simon )
