WOMEN INTERNEES IN BRITISH CAMPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, Page 17

WOMEN INTERNEES IN BRITISH CAMPS

LESSONS IN LANGUAGES AND MODELING

At present tribunals are meeting daily to discuss each woman's case, and where the women have husbands, they come before the tribunal at the same time. About 20 women are dealt .with each day, arid the authorities go so thoroughly into each case that, while they are doing their best to hasten the ! task, it will probably take six months to complete it. Some women are released on health grounds and others under ordinary release regulations. The larger number of the' women interned "are Jewesses, who will not claim their German or Austrian nationality, and many are refugees who have suffered from the Nazis. Some women have lived in England for some time, visiting Germany occasionally or having relatives there. Others, classified as British-born, may be partly of German parentage. The thousands of women at Port Erin and the smaller number at Port St. Mary are living in hotels and boarding-houses whose proprietors remain in: charge and receive a Government allowance per head. The islanders, including their hosts, are very good to the women, according to Dame Joanna;-and get on particularly well .with.,..the..,Jewish women, who are very amenable to advice. CAMPS' HEALTH RECORD. The camps have a wonderful health record. There has been a great improvement in the of the women, many of whom arrived as chronic cases. Those children, too, who were unhealthy when they came, many 'of them suffering badly from malnutrition, now seem to be bursting , with health and happiness. Dame Joanna declared that one would not see bonnier children anywhere. The health superintendent in each district is assisted by internee doctors and nurses. There is a clinic for adults and another for children, each attended by doctors and nurses, and during six months there has been only one death in the camps. That was a bad heart case. i • The large number of children living happily with their mothers under internment conditions are, of course, not internees. The younger children attend school, two of which have Froebel-trained teachers, while the schools for elder children are directed by German teachers. From 11 years onwards the boys are under the instruction of island teachers with a long experience of youth and highly ; recommended by their Government. Permits are given to women science students to work in the marine biological station at Port Erin, and • its hall is open daily for an lour for the older children, who listen to lectures, while younger children inspect exhibits. ■ A variety of occupations arranged for the women include lessons in languages, English being the most popular, and by experts in music, arts, handicrafts, dressmaking, cookery, and other domestic work. A talented Austrian sculptor holds clay-modelling classes, and her pupils are doing good work. There are indeed so many classes that it is difficult to accommodate them all. COUPON EXCHANGE SYSTEM. With the help of internees Dame Joanna has organised an interchange , of services between the women, many ] of them highly skilled. They make frocks for each other, dress their hair, wash or mend their clothes, and so on. Large quantities of clothes and of materials sent to the island are remodelled or made up by the internees in the. styles they prefer, under expert direction.

Payment is made by coupons, and when the worker has earned 24 she exchanges eight coupons for cash, while the rest pay for interchange of services. Since the women are being fitted for future employment their time

Life in the internment camp of ~"women on the Isle of Man is described in an interview with Dame Joanna Cruickshank, commandant of the women's camps, in the "Manchester Guardian." Dame Joanna is former matron-in-chief of the British Red Cross as well as of Princess Mary's R.A.F. Nursing Service.

is profitably spent. They also knit for the men, who in return mend their shoes or do carpentry or other jobs for them.

Dame Joanna said that, while there had been little personal quarrels between Nazi women; and some of the others, investigation had always shown them not to be serious. In six months there had never been any real trouble. When women were identified as Nazis they were put in quarters apart from the others. The Kosher Jewesses had their own house. MARRIED CAMPS PROJECTED. The Government is considering, and hopes to establish, married camps. Meantime wives meet their husbands once a month for two hours in a hall large enough to let them move about as they choose and talk in privacy. Other visitors and people from the mainland have their conversations with internees in the presence of one of Dame 'Joanna's staff.

"If you curtail , people's liberties there will always be grievances," said Dame Joanna, "but the authorities are doing their best. They haye no desire to keep anyone on the island unnecessarily,, and there are very few restrictions. The women are free to go anywhere in the wide area where the two camps are situated. They can go to the s.hops, to the cinema, and attend churches of their denominations. They are free of the beaches, and many of them enjoy bathing. Curfew varies with the season." • '