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The British government was initially reluctant to impose widespread internment in the United Kingdom during the First World War, choosing instead to restrict the activities of nationals of enemy nations residing in the UK and interning only those suspected of being a threat to national security. Public anti-German sentiment peaked with the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915, and the subsequent rioting forced the government to implement a general program of internment.
In 1914, there were up to 75,000 nationals of enemy states residing in the UK, and on the outbreak of the First World War there was concern that this community would engage in acts of espionage and sabotage. [1] [2] [3] Under the Aliens Restriction Act, passed on 5 August, all foreign nationals were required to register with the police, and by 9 September just under 67,000 German, Austrian and Hungarian nationals had done so. [4] [5] Areas important to national security, such as defence works, military bases and, by November, the whole of the east and most of the south coast were designated as prohibited; nationals of an enemy state residing in such areas were required to obtain a permit, and those who were denied permission were given four days to relocate. Enemy aliens were also required to obtain a permit to travel more than five miles from home, and they were prohibited from possessing means of communication, such as signalling apparatus and carrier pigeons, and owning photographic equipment, military maps and motorised transport. [6] A decision on 7 August by the military authorities to intern all nationals of enemy states between the ages of 17 and 42 then in the UK was quickly rescinded. [7]
The policy on internment shifted throughout the first nine months of the war, but targeted only foreigners suspected of being a threat to national security and was repeatedly suspended due to lack of facilities in which to intern them. By the end of September, over 10,500 enemy nationals were being held, but between November 1914 and April 1915 few arrests were made and thousands of internees were actually released. Government policy changed significantly when public anti-German hostility, which had been building since the previous October following reports of German atrocities in Belgium, surged after the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915. For a week, some of the most widespread rioting witnessed in 20th-century Britain occurred in towns and cities across the country, during which virtually every German-owned shop had its windows broken. Although the government believed that enemy nationals still at liberty posed no military threat, it was forced to bow to public pressure and implement a general program of internment. For their own safety as much as that of the British population, all non-naturalised enemy nationals of military age were to be interned, while those over military age were to be repatriated. [8] [9] [10] By 1917, the small number of enemy nationals still residing at liberty and the fact that no acts of sabotage had been committed since the declaration of war allowed the home army to relax its guard of vulnerable points, leaving only a small number of places of vital national interest still under protection. [11]
Anti-German sentiment is opposition to and/or fear of, hatred of, dislike of, persecution of, prejudice against, and discrimination against Germany, its inhabitants, its culture, and/or its language. Its opposite is Germanophilia.
Tatura is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia, and is situated within the City of Greater Shepparton local government area, 167 kilometres (104 mi) north of the state capital (Melbourne) and 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of the regional centre of Shepparton. At the 2021 census, Tatura had a population of 4,955.
The Ukrainian Canadian internment was part of the confinement of "enemy aliens" in Canada during and for two years after the end of the First World War. It lasted from 1914 to 1920, under the terms of the War Measures Act.
In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed. Usually, the countries are in a state of declared war.
German Australians are Australians with German ancestry. German Australians constitute one of the largest ancestry groups in Australia, and German is the fifth most identified European ancestry in Australia behind English, Irish, Scottish and Italian. German Australians are one of the largest groups within the global German diaspora.
Internment of German resident aliens and German-American citizens occurred in the United States during the periods of World War I and World War II. During World War II, the legal basis for this detention was under Presidential Proclamation 2526, made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt under the authority of the Alien Enemies Act.
The Torrens Island Internment Camp was a World War I concentration camp, located on Torrens Island in the Port River Estuary near Adelaide in South Australia. The camp opened on 9 October 1914 and held up to 400 men of German or Austro-Hungarian background, or crew members of enemy ships who had been caught in Australian ports at the beginning of the war. They were held without trial under the provisions of the War Precautions Act 1914.
The Castle Mountain Internment Camp, located in Banff National Park, Alberta, was the largest internment facility in the Canadian Rockies, housing several hundred prisoners at any one time. Established on July 13, 1915, a total of 660 enemy aliens were interned at the facility during its entire operation.
George Kenner was a German artist. He made 110 paintings and drawings during the First World War while interned as a German civilian internee in Great Britain and the Isle of Man.
Holzminden internment camp was a large World War I detention camp (Internierungslager) located to the north-east of Holzminden, Lower Saxony, Germany, which existed from 1914 to 1918. It held civilian internees from allied nations. It was the largest internment camp in Germany, and in October 1918 held 4,240 civilians.
Amherst Internment Camp was an internment camp that existed from 1914 to 1919 in Amherst, Nova Scotia. It was the largest internment camp in Canada during World War I; a maximum of 853 prisoners were housed at one time at the old Malleable Iron foundry on the corner of Hickman and Park Streets. The most famous prisoner at the camp was Leon Trotsky. There was a commemoration of the guards and prisoners for the 100th anniversary of the closing of the Amherst Internment Camp on July 2, 2019, at the Amherst Armoury. Archived 2019-06-28 at the Wayback Machine
During World War I in Queensland, Australia, enemy aliens were frequently arrested and detained. Strong anti-German sentiment resulted in many arrests and investigations. German place names in Queensland were frequently renamed with British names.
Panikos Panayi is a cultural historian known for his books on the social history of food, immigration, and inter-ethnic relations.
Holsworthy Internment Camp was the largest camp for prisoners of war in Australia during World War I. It was located at Holsworthy, near Liverpool on the outskirts of Sydney. There are varying estimates of the number of internees between 4,000 and 7,000.
During World War II, 4,058 ethnic Germans along with several hundred other Axis-nationals living in Latin America were deported to the United States and their home countries, often at the behest of the US government. Although the arrest, internment and/or deportation of belligerent country nationals was common practice in both Axis and Allied countries during both World War I and World War II, subsequent US Congressional investigations and reparations during the 1980s and 1990s, especially for Japanese Americans interned, have raised awareness of the injustice of such practices. Unlike Allied civilians held in Nazi concentration camps or those interned by the Japanese, Axis nationals interned in Allied countries did not suffer from systematic starvation and widespread mistreatment by their captors.
The history of the Jews in the Isle of Man goes back to at least the early 19th century.
The British colony of Hong Kong saw no military action during World War I (1914–1918). The biggest external threat to the colony was perceived to be the German East Asia Squadron, but the squadron was eliminated in December 1914. Nonetheless, the colony served as an important port in East Asia, including as the headquarters of the British China Station, and saw significant socioeconomical changes during the war.
An Internment Camp in Vernon, BC was established to hold enemy aliens and POWs during the First World War. Once Canada entered World War I, fears of enemy aliens on the home front began to arise. To combat this, the Canadian Government implemented the War Measures Act which gave them the authority to intern and disenfranchise enemy aliens living in Canada. Approximately 8,500 enemy aliens were interned across Canada, with majority of the 24 camps located around the Rocky Mountains and large population centres in Ontario. Vernon housed the permanent camp in British Columbia, operating from September 18, 1914, to February 20, 1920.