Sources

Our duty

Newspaper article by the most famous Indonesian anti-colonial writer and revolutionary Ernest Douwes Dekker on the duties and loyalties of Dutch colonials. The article 'Our Duty' was published in the…

...More

Themes: Religion; Race; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: anti-British, anti-colonialism, colonial intellectual, Colonial soldiers, Dutch East Indies, loyalty, Neutrality, newspapers, pro-German, socialism, The Netherlands

'To the Netherlands'

Poem written on a postcard, in which 'a Belgian refugee' thanks the Netherlands for its hospitality.

...More

Themes: Poem; Neutrality; Captivity
Tags: Belgium, Camp, Neutrality, Poem, Refugees, The Netherlands

Frenchmen, Belgians, Senegalese Tirailleurs, Zouaves, and Turkos captured near to Ypres

The picture displays a group of prisoners of war (possibly recently captured) close to Ypres, one of the most embattled cities on the Western Front. The soldiers seem to belong to different branches…

...More

Themes: Race; Propaganda; Postcard; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-French, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, imperial strategy, Photograph, postcard, POW, Propaganda

In the Light of the Flame of War

Cover and extracts from In the Light of the Flame of War, an essay on the meaning of the war by the Dutch writer Frederik van Eeden, based on his lectures given in late 1914 and 1915 and published in…

...More

Themes: Religion; Race; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: essay, internationalism, Neutrality, Pacifism, public intellectual, The Netherlands, Van Eeden

The dangers that encircle Holland

Satirical cartoon displaying political dangers to Dutch territorial integrity

...More

Themes: Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Imperial Strategy
Tags: cartoon, Neutrality, Propaganda

Portrait Photography: Ganga Ram

Ganga Ram was one of approximately 1,000 South Asians in German prisoner-of-war camps during the First World War. Fighting at the Western Front, he was taken prisoner and brought to Germany. South…

...More

Themes: Propaganda; Photograph; Captivity
Tags: anti-British, anti-colonialism, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, Germany Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, POW, pow-camp, religion

Photograph of Indian Army Contingent in London passing along the Mall

A Victory Parade was held in London on 19 July 1919 and soldiers were brought from India to participate in the parade in a show of imperial strength and unity. In the first image, Gurkhas from the…

...More

Themes: Race; Photograph; Mobility

Indian War Journal

In 1914, a war journal titled Indian Ink: Splashes from Various Pens was launched in India, edited by Everard Digby and published and printed by Messrs Thacker, Spink and Co. in Calcutta. Published…

...More

Themes: Race; Newspapers & Magazines

Photo album, Halfmoon Camp, Wünsdorf

The album contains around 40 vintage print photographs taken by Hans Schmidt in the Halfmoon Camp in 1917. They depict daily life in the propaganda camp, such as class hours, craftmen in the workshop,…

...More

Themes: Photograph; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, Craft, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Labour, Music, Muslims, Personal Encounters, POW, pow-camp

Film as a medium of political advertising

Brochure about the political potential of film.

...More

Themes: Propaganda; Film
Tags: film propaganda

The African Zouaves in Flanders

French propaganda film showing colonial troops in Belgium http://www.filmportal.de/video/zouaves-d-afrique-dans-les-flandres-belges

...More

Themes: Race; Propaganda; Mobility; Imperial Strategy; Film
Tags: film propaganda, Neutrality, orientalism

Sketches of Indian Sepoys

Sketches by the French war artist Paul Sarrut, who was stationed at the Western Front.

...More

Theme: Race
Tags: Colonial Troops, Drawing, France, Indian Army, western front

The Memoir of a West Indian Padre, 'From the Islands of the Sea'

The published account of a padre, Alfred Horner, who served with the 9th Battalion of the British West Indies Regiment, based on his diary and articles written for the Nassau Tribune. It was published…

...More

Themes: Race; Mobility; Memoirs
Tags: Colonial, France, Great-Britain, Journey, Memory, Non-Combatant, Priest, Race, West Indies

The Legend of Saint Barbara

An Italian propaganda film depicting the Germans as vandals trying to destroy ancient Roman civilisation and whose women were ready to fight for freedom to the bitter…

...More

Themes: Propaganda; Neutrality; Imperial Strategy; Gender; Film
Tags: anti-German, film propaganda, Neutrality

Photograph of an Arab American Military Intelligence Officer

This 1919 photo of Gabriel Ilyas Ward accompanied a press release announcing his new memoir, The Syrian Soldier in Three Wars (Kitab al-Jundi al-Suri fi-Thalath Hurub in Arabic). Ward’s memoir…

...More

Themes: Photograph; Mobility

'Causeries from Java'. Review of the British propaganda film The Battle of the Somme in the Dutch East Indies

Film review by the Dutch playwright and journalist Henri van Wermeskerken published in De Sumatra Post on 21 April 1917.

...More

Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Imperial Strategy; Film
Tags: Dutch East Indies, film propaganda, German Revolutionary Program, Neutrality, newspapers, The Netherlands

Confirmation of payment to the Dutch book dealer Mensing from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The receipt is confirmation of a payment made in 1919. This was the final instalment (amounting to 7,500 fl.) of the total sum of 27,500 guilders, paid to the Dutch book dealer Bernard Mensing (whose…

...More

Themes: Propaganda; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: cultural propaganda, Dutch book market, Propaganda, The Netherlands

Sightseeing in Egypt

Wide black-and-white shot of men from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, some on foot, some on camels, with their Egyptian guides in the desert, in front of the Sphinx and one of the Pyramids.

...More

Themes: Photograph; Mobility
Tags: The Other, Tourism, Travel

Maurice Valette's identification documents

The pictures show Maurice Valette's documents as a soldier in the French army and as a prisoner of war in the German camp Rennbahn, near Münster.

...More

Themes: Photograph; Captivity
Tags: newspapers, poet, POW, pow-camp, western front

Personal information form related to sound recording no. 271

The so-called Personalbogen (personal information form) was created by the members of the Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission to assist in the process of recording the voices of POWs held in…

...More

Themes: Recording; Language; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: Colonial Troops, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Language, Mobility, POW, pow-camp

Photograph from German East African Campaign

This private photograph comes from an album of a British soldier who served in the East African campaign. It depicts a local civilian being held by an Indian sepoy for the duration of the photograph.…

...More

Themes: Race; Photograph; Mobility

English letter by Nellie Zerhusen

Letter written probably to Otto Stiehl, captain of the Halfmoon Camp in Wünsdorf. This forms part of Stiehl's photographic album and within it are complaints about English soldiers who claim to be…

...More

Themes: Letter; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-British, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Ireland, Irish, Letter, Non-Combatant, POW, pow-camp

War Diary of Peter Buck

Page from the war diary of Peter Buck, one of the few Maori officers. The selected page, written at Armentières, describes the occasion of a Maori haka and how it was received.

...More

Themes: Race; Diary
Tags: Anthropologist, Diary, France, Maori, Officer

A Maori song about the First World War

This waiata (song) is attributed to Sir Apirana Ngata, a Maori member of the New Zealand parliament. He wrote it down in this form and publicized it to inspire wartime recruitment. Ngata published it…

...More

Themes: Recording; Propaganda; Gender
Tags: Maori, Music, New Zealand, Women

Drawings of Hindu deities made by an Indian prisoner of war in the Halfmoon camp

These three drawings made by Ganga Ram Gurung in spring 1917 in the Halfmoon camp are preserved in one of the photo albums of Otto Stiehl at the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin. They depict…

...More

Themes: Religion; Propaganda; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-colonialism, Halfmoon Camp, Hindu, imperial strategy, India, painting, POW