Zonderwater POW camp

Zonderwater POW Graves
Operational scope
Largest allied POW camp in World War Two
Planned bySouth African Army

The Zonderwater concentration camp was a prisoners of war (POW) camp that was established in 1941 during World War II in South Africa.[1] Consisting initially of tents, in the Cullinan area, this internment camp became the biggest Allied concentration camp, with almost 100,000 POW.[2][3] Still a member of the Commonwealth, Jan Smuts wanted to show that South Africa could meet its existing obligations to protect the security of the Empire.[4] He had refused German POW because of German sympathies among the Ossewabrandwag and the Stormjaers,[4] and instead housed Italian POW, far away from the theatre of war and their homes, as it would be unlikely that these opponents could return home[5]

'n scene from The Count of Luxembourgh performed by Italian prisoners of war in Zonderwater. All the parts were perfromed by men.

In March 1941, Italian war prisoners from East Africa[6] were transported by ship to Durban harbour, then by train to Pietermaritzburg on livestock wagons, to be deloused and inspected after which they were transported up to the waterless place (Zonderwater) near Pretoria. There, they met with inadequate facilities, accommodation and clothing against the highveld winter.[4]

"South Africa were not ready, we were not organised for, we were not expecting, such large numbers so suddenly"[7] The camp and its commonders were not ready to receive prisoners nor could they house them according to the standards laid out in the Geneva Convention.[4]

Zonderwater's first camp commander was Col Rennie,[8] who found duties challenging. He was replaced by Colonel Dawid de Wet and then Colonel Hendrik Prinsloo.[9] These commanders encountered a vast concentration of humans, requiring hygiene substance and shelter.

Colonel Hendrik Prinsloo, the son of H. F. Prinsloo, a commander of the Carolina Boer Commando at Spion Kop,[10] turned Zonderwater into a place of respect where prisoners, a commander and various communities, chose to work together.[11] This internment facility was made by POW's who converted the camp into a set of barracks that would house over 90 000 prisoners. Permanent built-up structures of brick and wooden buildings were arranged as blocks. Each block could hold 8000 prisoners and there were 44 blocks in total, able to house 112 000 people.[12]

Prinsloo built up the prisoners' morale and self-esteem by organizing picnics, treating the prisoners like adults, making improvements to buildings, allowing visits from the Archbishop, and arranging daily exercises. Under his command, an orchestra was even formed and craft exhibitions and art classes were organized. A library with 10,000 books was established and 11,500 prisoners voluntarily attended school. Illiteracy among the prisoners, who included many small farmers, was reduced from 30% to 2%.[13] The camp was closed in January 1947,[14] but the Zonderwater - Italian WW2 P.O.W cemetery can still be visited and the Zonderwater spirit can still be seen.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "VISIT TO ZONDERWATER POW CAMP | The South African Archaeological Society". www.archaeology.org.za. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  2. ↑ "Zonderwater: a concentration camp in South Africa. - Zonderwater". www.zonderwater.com. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  3. ↑ Forth, Aidan, Barbed-Wire Imperialism: Britain's Empire of Camps, 1876-1903 (Oakland, CA, 2017; online edn, California Scholarship Online, 24 May 2018), https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520293960.001.0001, accessed 11 Oct. 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Horn, Karen (2022-07-01). ""only the rags we had on ...": Zonderwater Italian Prisoner-of-War Camp, 1941–1942". Journal of African Military History. 6 (2). Leiden: Brill: 81–106. doi:10.1163/24680966-bja10010. eISSN 2468-0966. ISSN 2468-0958. OCLC 9715452165. Archived from the original on 2024-07-10.
  5. ↑ Coetzee, Ianco (September 2022). "Investigating the construction and destruction of the Zonderwater internment camp from an archaeological perspective". Pretoria Historia. p. 24.
  6. ↑ Internazionale, Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione. "Consolato Generale d'Italia Johannesburg". consjohannesburg.esteri.it. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  7. ↑ "South African Military History Society - Journal - Italian Prisoners of War in South Africa 1941 - 1947". samilitaryhistory.org. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  8. ↑ Content, Print (2021-04-18). "Who was Lieutenant Colonel George Rennie?". Benoni City Times. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  9. ↑ Grange, Anna La (2025-06-03). "Prisoners of Jan Smuts: Italian Prisoners of War in South Africa in WWII (Karen Horn)". Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies. 53 (1). doi:10.5787/53-1-1518. ISSN 2224-0020.
  10. ↑ "South African Military History Society - Journal- Forty-seven Years After "Spion Kop"". samilitaryhistory.org. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  11. ↑ "Consolato Generale d'Italia Johannesburg".
  12. ↑ "What is the connection between Zonderwater Italian military cemetery and Castiglione South African cemetery?" (PDF). www.saafa.co.za.
  13. ↑ Die Suid-Afrikaanse Krygshistoriese Vereniging, CAPE TOWN BRANCH NEWSLETTER NO. 325 - SEPTEMBER 2005, visited on 13 October 2025
  14. ↑ "Zonderwater - Italian Prisoner of War Museum". 23 November 2020.
  15. ↑ https://ditsong.org.za/en/the-zonderwater-spirit/
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