Manx National Heritage Library
Select Bibliography, No.1, June 2006.
The Isle of Man was used by the British Government for the internment of enemy aliens during both World War One and World War Two and there is still a great deal of interest, primarily from family historians who had relatives or friends detained in the camps.
During 1914-1919 there were two large camps on the Island at Douglas and Knockaloe near Peel. The first was a requisitioned holiday camp whilst the second was purpose built using prefabricated huts and even had its own railway link. Large numbers of internees were held for up to five years until the camps finally closed in 1919.
In the Second World War camps were located in the Douglas area, Peel, Port Erin/Port St Mary and Ramsey. These held much smaller numbers, sometimes only for a few months until the risk individuals posed was assessed. There were also some political detainees including those held under section 18B of the Defence (General) Regulations. This enabled the Government to imprison those citizens thought to be dangerous to national security without charge, trial or set term. Examples were members of the British Union of Fascists and the IRA.
Interest in this topic seems to generate a steady stream of new material and we are always interested to hear of any new publications or research into this area. This list has now been updated and expanded several times since it was first compiled in 1994.
Knockaloe Calendar 1918 (Library Ref B115)
There is a wide and growing number of sources from which the following are a selection.
World War One 1914 - 1918
Bailey, Leslie
Craftsman and Quaker:
The story of James T Baily 1876-1957
London : George Allen & Unwin, 1959.
Chapter 7, Red and Black Star pp 91-97
Chapter 8, Malignant City pp 98-107
The experiences of a Quaker relief worker as Industrial Superintendent at Knockaloe, 1915-1919.
Library Ref B115
Baily, James T.
Personal papers: including scrapbooks,
photographs, loose leaf ephemera.
Archive Ref MS 10417
Bernard, Roy
My German Family in England
Anglo German Family History Society 1991
ISBN 0-9514133-5-X
Helps explain why many Germans migrated to England and the reasons for anti German feelings.
The author’s grandfather kept a diary at Knockaloe.This book contains extracts from it together with other contemporary items.
Library Ref B115/16
British Treatment of Enemy Prisoners: Journalists visit Manx Camps.
In Manx Quarterly No. 17 Vol. 3 October 1916 pp.71-74
Brief account with details of prisoners’ rations.
Also available on Manx Notebook website.
Library Ref L.6/MQ1/4
Cohen-Portheim, Paul
Time Stood Still, my Internment in England 1914-18
London: Duckworth, 1931
The writer, an author and artist, refers to the Island.
Chapter 2, First Impressions of Knockaloe pp 33-40
Chapter 3, Organization at Knockaloe pp 41-46
Chapter 4, Some of the people pp 47-54
Library Ref B115/38
Drower, Jill
Good Clean Fun The story of Britain's First Holiday Camp.
London: Arcadia Books, 1982
ISBN 0-9508344-0-8
Cunningham's Camp situated at Little Switzerland just above Douglas Promenade was requisitioned as Douglas Internment camp during WW1.
pp.40-50 Holiday Camp to Internment Camp.
A well illustrated summary with rules and dietary details showing life in tents and chalets.
Library Ref F71q
Dunbar-Kalckreuth, Frederic Lewis
Die Mannerinsel
Leipzig: Paul List Verlag, 1940
Supposedly based on contemporary diaries, its time and place of publication suggest possible propaganda purposes. See also Cohen-Portheim and discussion by Newton below.
Library Ref B115/79
An Insight into Civilian Internment in Britain during the First World War. 2nd ed.
Anglo German Family History Society, 1998
ISBN 0-9514133-7-6
Part 1 Richard Noschike’s diary
Part 2 Rudolf Rocker’s essay on the life of prisoners.
Useful background information. Page 67 has a location map of British camps.
Library Ref B115/24q
Internment Camp Magazines:
Douglas and Knockaloe Camps (mainly in German):
- Camp Echo (Douglas) Nos 1-7 (Dec 1914 - Jan 1916).
- Das Schleierlicht (Douglas) Nos 1-4, (May 1916 - July 1916).
- Die Lager Laterne (Douglas) Nos 1-14, (May 1916 - Mar 1917).
- Unter Uns (Douglas) Nos 1-10 incomplete, (June - Dec 1917).
- Lager Echo (Knockaloe) Nos 1-11, (Nov 1916 - Nov 1917). No’s 1-7 (Jan 1918 - Oct 1918).
- Lager Zeitung (Knockaloe) Nos 1-19 (Oct 1916 - Sep 1918).
- Lager Ulk (Knockaloe) Nos 1-3, (Sep-Nov 1917).
- Werden (Knockaloe) No 1, (Autumn 1915).
- Quousque Tandem (Knockaloe) (Oct-Nov 1915).
Library Ref B115/3f
Internment Camps 1914-1917
A collection of concert programmes, drawings,postcards etc., illustrating camp life.
Library Ref B115/2x
Internment Camps.
Miscellaneous collection in scrapbook of tickets,programmes and leaflets, mainly in German.
Library Ref B115/1x
Knockaloe Camp IV
Internal P.O.W. Administration, Camp 4 (organisational diagram); Camp Central Committee & other committees, 1917.
Photocopies of originals in The Library, Society of Friends House, London.
Archive Ref MS 08879 [MD 1178]
Kny, W.E.C. (Camp IV Secretary)
Knockaloe Camp Internal administration of the Prisoners of War Camp No. IV, 1915-1919
Official reports to the IOM Government Secretary prepared by an internee which detail camp life and activities.
Library Ref B115/43
Living with the Wire:
Civilian Internment in the Isle of Man during the two World Wars
Douglas: Manx National Heritage, 1994.
ISBN 0-901106-35-6
Chapters 1-8, World War 1.
Library Ref B115/22
Newton, Gerald
Wie lange noch? Germans in Sheffield 1817-1918.
Frankfurt: Peter Lang
Offprint from Mutual Exchanges Sheffield-Munster Colloquium II, Sonderdruck 1999, pp. 103-116
Includes references to and extracts from the two main contemporary accounts of internment camp life by F.L. Dunbar-Kalckreuth and P. Cohen-Portheim.
Library Ref B115/28
Norris, Samuel
Manx Memories and Movements
3rd ed.Douglas: Manx Heritage Foundation, 1994.
ISBN 0-9524019-1-6
Reprint of 1941 edition.
Memoirs of a man prominent in Manx politics and the labour movement which record the social and economic effects of the war on the local population.
Library Ref G88/NOR
Panayi, Panikos
The Destruction of the German Communities in Britain during the First World War
In: Germans in Britain since 1500,
London Hambledon Press 1996
ISBN 1-85285-126-0
see pp 113-130 for background to the introduction and progress of internment.
Library Ref 941GER
Panayi, Panikos
The Enemy in our Midst, Germans in Britain during the First World War
Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1991
ISBN 0-85496-308-1
includes details of Douglas and Knockaloe camp
Library Ref B115/40
Photographs
Prisoners of War - Douglas Camp WW1.
Views of the camp, chapel, brush making & camp life.
Prisoners of War - Knockaloe Camp WW1.
views of the camp, camp life and crafts.
Sargeaunt, B.E.
The Isle of Man & the Great War
Douglas: Brown and Sons, 1920
Chapter 3, The Prisoner of War Camps pp 58-86
Chapter 4, Some Official Visitors pp 87-94
The author was Government Secretary and Treasurer during the war.
Library Ref B114/7
Stoffa, Paul
Round the World to Freedom
London: Bodley Head, 1933
Chapters 12 to 14 deal with life as a prisoner at Knockaloe Camp, pp 227-275
The author was an Austro Hungarian army officer.
Library Ref B115/6
Thomas, Anna Braithwaite
St. Stephen’s House
London: Emergency Committee for the Assistance of Germans, Austrians and Hungarians in Distress,
c.1926. This recalls the work of the Society of Friends with internees and their families.
chapter 6 (pp 66-81) Knockaloe.
Library Ref B115/21
Walling, John
The Internment and Treatment of German Nationals during the 1st World War
Great Grimsby: Riparian Publishing
ISBN 0-952-38482-5
The author's grandfather Richard Siebenhuner was interned at Knockaloe
Library Ref B115/95
West, Margery
Island at War
Laxey: Western Books, 1986
ISBN 0-9511512-0-7
Chapter 12, Behind Barbed Wire. pp 81-91
Chapter 13, For the Duration. pp 92-103
Chapter 14, Twilight of Knockaloe. pp 104-107
Historical account which includes several photographs of camp life and personnel.
Library Ref B114/1
World War Two - 1939-1945
Barwick, John
Report on Alien Internment Camps in the United Kingdom
s.l. : War Prisoners Aid of the World's Committee of Young Mens' Christian Associations, 1941
Detailed illustrated account of the administration, general features, cultural activities, sports, occupations and general services of the camps by a neutral representative of the YMCA.
Library Ref B115/77q
Bill-Jentzsch, Anna
Internment of Women on the Isle of Man
Privately printed from manuscript, 3rd ed. 2000, 38pp
The author, a German born nurse interned at Port Erin, describes her experiences.
Library Ref B115/26c
Brinson, Charmian
In the Exile of Internment or Von Versuchen,
aus einer Not eine Tugend zu machen:
German Speaking Women Interned by the British during the Second World War
In Politics and Culture in Twentieth-Century Germany edited by William Niven and James Jordan,
pp.63-87
Woodbridge: Camden House, 2003
ISBN 1-57113-223-6
Includes women interned in Rushen camp.
Library Ref B115/76
Brinson, Charmian
Keine verlorene Zeit: Musik im britischen Fraueninternierungslager Rushen
[Music in the Rushen Women's Internment Camp]
Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag
Paper given at a conference Echolos. Klangwelten verfolger Musikerinnen in der NS-Zeit, November 2002. Published version in German with typescript English translation.
Library Ref B115/81
Cannell, H
Hardships caused by the Internment Camps in the IOM during the 1939-45 war
Typescript account (1996) about the compulsory requisitioning of properties, the lack of help and
consideration given to displaced residents and the damage and losses that resulted.
Archive Ref MS 09555
Cesarani, David and Kushner, Tony
The Internment of Aliens in Twentieth Century Britain
London: Frank Cass, 1993.
ISBN 0-7146-3466-2
Women’s experience of internment pp 152-165.
Italian internees pp 182-183.
Visual Art Behind the Wire (Hutchinson Camp)
pp 188-207
Articles with numerous IOM references which contradict the image of tolerance of strangers that Britain tried to cultivate.
Library Ref B115/18
Chappell, Connery
Island of Barbed Wire
London: Robert Hale, 2005
ISBN 0-7090-7754-8
An account of the Manx camps 1940-45, with illustrations and a location map of the Douglas camps.
Library Ref B115/10/1A
Cuthbert, C.R.
Papers of the Commandant of Rushen Women’s and Married Internees Camp 1941- 1945
Detective Inspector Cuthbert of New Scotland Yard succeeded Dame Joanna Cruickshank as Commandant. This small deposit contains two volumes of UK and IOM newspaper cuttings relating to internment as well as letters and greeting cards from internees.
Archive Ref MS 11196
Cuthbert, C.R.
The Internment of Women, Children and Married Couples 1940-1945.
A photocopy of the original typescript held in London at the National Archives [Ref HO 213/1053].
This fascinating, illustrated 63 page report assesses the administration of Rushen Camp in detail, including appendices covering diet, education and internees initiatives. It does not cover internment policy, alien tribunals or the circumstances that led to internment.
Archive Ref MS 11235
Gillman, Peter and Leni
Collar the Lot: How Britain interned and expelled its wartime refugees
London: Quartet Books, 1980.
ISBN 0-7043-2244-7.
Various IOM references.
Library Ref B115/9
Giovannelli, L.N.
Paper Hero: At his Majesty’s Pleasure.
Douglas: Island Development Co., 1971
Personal experiences of an Italian internee and later Manx resident in the Metropole camp 1940-1944.
Library Ref B115
Hess, Willi Leopold
Memoir of life in Onchan camp 1940 - 1941
A handwritten English translation of the experiences of a German emigre who subsequently joined the Pioneer Corps.
Archive Ref MS 11038
Home Office Orders for Internment Camps
Revised issue including all Amendments up to 30.06.1943.
M.P. - 25492/200 July 1943
63 page printed booklet containing administrative procedures and an enclosure with a schedule of the numbers of military and civilian personnel working at Onchan Internment Camp in July 1941.
Archive Ref MS 11293
Hutchinson Square 'P' Camp, Douglas c. 1942
A detailed illustrated 19 page typescript account of the routine, facilities and administration of the camp. Unfortunately it lacks the final page(s). Probably written by an internee.
Archive Ref MS 10739
Internee statistical returns
Summary of weekly returns of internees held in the Douglas, Onchan, Peel and Ramsey internment camps (it does not include the women’s camp at Rushen.)
Archive Ref MD 354
Internment Camp Magazines:
The Camp: Hutchinson Square Journal
Issues 1-13/14, September to December 1940
Issues 1-6, 8-16, & 20, January to November 1941 (Includes as issue 13/14 Camp Almanac for 1941)
Library Ref L6/CAMf
Onchan Pioneer
Nos 1-47, 27 July 1940 to 20 July 1941.
Sefton Review
Nos 2-7, 25 Nov 1940-3 Feb 1941.
Camp magazines in German and English, with illustrations, giving a view of life in the camps.
Library Ref Microfilm MIC 126
Sursum Corda
Issues 1 & 4, November to December 1941
Italian language journal produced at Onchan Camp, these are the only issues in the MNH Library’s collection.
Library Ref B115/91
Internment Camps.
Miscellaneous collection in scrapbook of tickets, programmes and leaflets mainly in German. Includes newspaper and journal extracts.
Library Ref B115/1x
Itoh, Keiko
The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain from Integration to Disintegration
Richmond: Curzon Press, 2001
ISBN 0-7007-1487-1
Often overlooked is the experience of a small number of Japanese internees. This book explains the background and details of some of those interned.
Library Ref B.115/96
Johnson, Harry
Personal Papers:
relating to his involvement with Rushen Internment Camp 1940 - 1945, whilst serving as a Methodist minister in Port St Mary.Correspondence; notices in German for Methodist Church services, lists of individual women noting their respective faiths (Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish); newspaper cuttings; photographs; drawings by children; and miscellaneous items
Archive Ref MS 09378
Johnson, Joan (daughter of Harry Johnson)
My memories of life in Rushen Internment Camp, May 29th 1940 to August 31st 1941:
a personal experience. Recalls pastoral work with internees and the effects of internment on the women involved.
Archive Ref MS 08866
Kapp, Yvonne; Mynatt, Margaret
British Policy and the Refugees, 1933-41
London: Frank Cass, 1997
ISBN 0-7146-4797-7
An account written in 1940 at the same time as that by Lafitte (see below) but not published at the time.
Library Ref B115/85
Kochan, Miriam
Britain’s Internees in the Second World War
London: Macmillan, 1983
ISBN 0-333-28995-1
Chapter 9, Luxurious Idleness, Port Erin & Port St Mary. pp 46-55.
Chapter 13, The Isle of Man (1) pp 76-83.
Chapter 20, The Isle of Men (2) Hutchinson Camp. pp 157-162.
Chapter 23, Holy Wedlock pp 157-162.
Based on interviews with ex internees.
Library Ref B115/11
Kochan, Miriam
Prisoners of England
London: Macmillan, 1980
ISBN 0-333-27434-2
Companion volume to Britain’s Internees in the Second World War. Background information on the treatment of prisoners.
Library Ref B115/12
Lafitte, Francois
The Internment of Aliens
London: Libris, 1988
ISBN 1-870352-55-6
IOM Camps pp 113-117. Education pp 119-120.
A contemporary account of the effects of the internment of thousands of refugees and emigres to Britain in 1940, republished with a modern foreword.
Library Ref B115/14
Laurent, Livia
A Tale of Internment
London: George Allen & Unwin, 1942
The experience of internment written on release.
Library Ref - B115/97
Living with the Wire: Civilian Internment in the Isle of Man during the two World Wars.
Douglas: Manx National Heritage, 1994
ISBN 0-901106-35-6
Chapters 9-14, World War 2.
Library Ref B115/22
Malet, Marion & Grenville, Anthony
Changing Countries: The Experience and Achievement of German-Speaking Exiles from Hitler in Britain from 1933 to today
Amsterdam: Libris, 2002 ISBN 1-8730352-61-0
Based on interviews with 34 refugess who fled to Britain between 1933-40 with IOM references.
Library Ref B115/65
Oba, S. (Translator)
Memoirs of a Japanese detainee, with English abstract.
London: Bulletin of the Nippon Club, 1965.
A short account of the experiences of a Japanese internee in Douglas.
Archive Ref MD 1019
Ogbe, Hilda
The Crumbs off the Wife’s Table
Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd., 2001
ISBN 978-029 317-5
The author, a German Jew, was interned in 1940 after escaping to England in July 1939. Pages 15-25 recount her experiences in the Isle of Man.
Library Ref B115/71
Palace Internment Camp
List of Internees 1940
This camp, situated on the Promenade in Douglas, held Italians and this alphabetical list includes their home address when arrested.
Archive Ref MS 10147
Parman, Frej Alexej
Letters from Finnish internee (Mooragh camp, Ramsey) to his wife Gunhild with background notes, transcriptions and translations. There were a number of Finns interned at Ramsey.
Archive Ref MS 11087
Peel Internment Camp
Collection of cuttings from British Newspapers relating to riot by British fascist internees
(Section 18B) in 1941.
Library Ref B115/1xf
Peveril Guardsman
Newsletter of the Peel International Camp Guards. A view from the other side of the wire published 1941-45.
Library Ref L6Pf
Photographs:
Prisoners of War - WW2.
Hutchinson Square and sea-front, Douglas; Mooragh, Ramsey; Onchan and Peel Camps.
A small selection of general views.
Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies Yearbooks.
Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi B.V.
Between 1999 and 2005 seven volumes have been published in a mixture of German & English and they include much useful background for anyone studying German speaking exiles.
Of particular note are:
Vol 3 Thunecke, Jorg - Die Isle of Man-Lagerzeitungen ‘The Camp’ und ‘The Onchan Pioneer’: Kultur im Ausnahmezustand pp. 41-58. The article attempts an analysis of the two Isle of Man camp newsletters.
Vol. 6 Behr, S. - Klaus E. Hinrichsen: The Art Historian behind 'Visual Art behind the Wire' pp. 17-41;
Muller-Harlin, Anna - Fred Uhlman's
Internment Drawings pp. 135-163.
Vol 7 Cresswell, Yvonne - Behind the Wire: the material culture of civilian internment on the Isle of Man in the First World War pp. 45-61;
Hansen, Jutta Raab - Die Bedeutung der Musik fur 26,000 internierte Zivilisten wahrend des ersten Weltkreigs auf der Isle of Man pp. 63-81;
Brinson, Charmian - Loyal to the Reich: National Socialists and Others in the Rushen Women's Internment Camp pp.101-119;
Dove, Richard - Wer sie nicht erlebt hat, der begreift sie nie The Internment Camp Revue 'What a Life' pp. 121-137;
Taylor, Jennifer - Something to make people laugh? Political content in Isle of Man Internment Camp Journals July-October 1940 pp. 139-152;
Sponza, Lucio - The Internment of Italians 1940-1945 pp. 153-163;
Ritchie, J.M. - Exile, Interment and Deportation in Norbert Gstrein's Die Englischen Jahre pp. 193-203.
Library Ref B.115/64Sargeaunt, B.E.
A Military History of the Isle of Man
Arbroath: T. Buncle and Co., 1947.
Chapter 8, The 1939-45 War. pp 69-79
Brief details on internment.
Library Ref B114/15
Seller, Maxine Schwartz
We built up our Lives: Education and Community among Jewish Refugees Interned by Britain in World War 2
Westwood Greenwood Press, 2001
ISBN 0-313-31815-8
Based on interviews with over 60 people involved with internment, it includes chapters on education in both men’s and women’s camps in the Island
Library Ref B115/59
Seyfert, Michael
Deutsche Exilliteratur in britischer Internierung. Ein unbekanntes Kapitel der Kulturgeschicte des Zweiten Weltkriegs
Das Arsenal 1984 ISBN 3-921810-51-2
Description of literature produced in the internment camps which includes the Onchan Pioneer
Library Ref B115/61
Simpson, A.W. Brian
In the Highest Degree Odious: Detention without trial in wartime Britain
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994 ISBN 0-19 825949-2
Explains the system of detention under Regulation 18B which included Fascist sympathisers such as members of Oswald Moseley’s British Union of Fascists at the Peveril Camp in Peel.
Library Ref 940.53SIM
Snowman, Daniel
The Hitler Emigres The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism
London: Chatto & Windus, 2002
ISBN 0-7011-6880-3
Many of the internees went on to become influential in post war British society including several from Hutchinson Square.
A background source.
Library Ref 940.531SNO
Stent, Ronald
A Bespattered Page
London: Andre Deutsch, 1980.
ISBN 0-233-97246-3
Chapter 10, Hutchinson Camp pp 156-179.
Chapter 12, The Women’s Camps pp 186-198.
The author was interned on the Island before release to join the Pioneer Corps.
Library Ref B115/8
Uhlman, Fred
Captivity
London: Jonathan Cape, 1946
A book of 24 black and white sketches, some produced whilst the artist was interned at Hutchinson Square Camp in Douglas during 1940. Some are records of what he has seen but most reflect obsessive emotions, hatred for the lovers of death, anxiety for the child he has never seen.
Library Ref B115/60
Underhill, Arthur C.
A Policeman's Lot
Douglas: Manx Experience, 1993
ISBN 1-873120-11-7
Chapter 3 Alien Internment Camps
The late author together with Constable Wally Curphey were the two police officers responsible for completing alien registration documentation (record cards with affixed photographs, some of which survive in the Library archives). Underhill comments on the types of individuals interned.
Library Ref G88/UND
Out of print source NOT held by the Library but worth consulting:
Bird, J.C.
Control of Enemy Alien Civilians in Great Britain 1914-1918
London: Garland Publishing, 1986
ISBN 0-8240-1910-5
Other source NOT held by the Library:
Ramsey Public Library, Isle of Man has a copy of:
Lurati, Francesco Luigi
promesse prose: Un diaro di internamento di Francesco Lurati.
[a diary of internment 11 June 1940 - 31 August 1944]
c. 300 pages which includes Cap M at Peel 13 May1941 - 29 August 1944
PLEASE NOTE:
Internees, list of: Women’s and Married Camps; Men’s Camps.
The library holds some IoM Constabulary records relating to Internees as well as other records relating to individual internees and enemy aliens during World War Two.
* For details of internees who died during World War 1 who were subsequently transferred to the German Military Cemetery at Cannock Chase, contact:
War Graves Commission
Broadhurst Green
Cannock Chase
Staffordshire
German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsch Kreigsgraberfursorge e.V) has a web site (in German) which includes details of the German Military Cemetery at Cannock Chase.
Web site: http://www.volksbund.de/
The National Archives issue a useful fact sheet:
Internees: First and Second World Wars Domestic Records Information 51 which explains the records held and is available on their web site at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
N.B: Further information about surviving records may be available from:
National Archives
Ruskin Avenue,
Kew,
Richmond,
TW9 4DU.
PLEASE NOTE:
Societies exist for those researching German and Italian Ancestry.
Websites are:
Anglo German Family History Society
Anglo Italian Family History Society
The Manx National Heritage Library holds a wealth of various and extensive source material. Staff at the library and throughout Manx National Heritage, are always pleased to hear from anyone with an interest in Manx history.
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MNH Library is a reference only facility and does not lend items through the Inter Library Loan system. However, photocopies of some material, subject to copyright and the need to preserve originals may be available on receipt of the appropriate copying fee.
Some material may also be available through Inter Library Loans from other libraries and research centres.
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Libary of Congress -
AGF rev. ed 06.06
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