What is it about?
Most of the 90 000 POWs in South Africa recalled their imprisonment during World War Two with fondness, yet the first two years of the largest POW camp in the world was chaotic. This article examines the early days of the camp and the extent to which the military authorities did not meet the regulations of the Geneva Convention.
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Why is it important?
This study is the first to look critically at the Italian POW experience, stripping away the nostalgia and the myths that had developed around war prisoners in the Union of South Africa. The research is based on Italian POW memoirs and on archival documents.
Perspectives
This articles provides insight into the individual lived war and POW experience of Italians who spent time in South African POW camps. By looking at a number of POW memoirs, the many different experiences and perspectives are portrayed in this article.
Dr Karen Horn
University of the Free State
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “only the rags we had on …”, Journal of African Military History, July 2022, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/24680966-bja10010.
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