Sources

Halfmoon Camp in Wünsdorf-Zossen. Three-legged race

The postcard shows a group of prisoners of war and their guards in the propaganda camp in Wünsdorf. They are shown supposedly in their leisure time; some of them doing a three-legged race, others are…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Postcard; Photograph; Captivity
Tags: colonial intellectual, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Jihad, Muslims, Personal Encounters, Photograph, postcard, POW, pow-camp

From one of our Muslim prison camps. Dolce far niente in the sunshine

The photo shows a group of North African prisoners of war, two prisoners of unknown origin, and an officer, all in front of barracks. The prisoners are arranged in a way that shows them to be…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Postcard; Photograph; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-colonialism, anti-French, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, Jihad, Muslims, Personal Encounters, Photograph, postcard, Propaganda, The Other

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,…

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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

Love song performed by the Moroccan prisoner of war Kadr Ben Hamed at the Halfmoon camp in Wünsdorf

This song was recorded in the Halfmoon camp in Wünsdorf in 1918. Biographical details of the singer are in the PK-files. A translation was produced by Samir El-Moussati in 2014.

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Themes: Recording; Race; Propaganda; Captivity
Tags: Arabic, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Language, POW, pow-camp, Sound Recording

Halfmoon Camp in Wünsdorf

The sketch depicts the mosque which was erected in the Halfmoon Camp in 1915. In the foreground, human silhouettes are identifiable. They appear as if wearing traditional turbans and cloaks. Other…

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Themes: Religion; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-British, anti-colonialism, anti-French, Colonial Troops, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Jihad, painting, POW, pow-camp, Propaganda

Interned British Indian soldiers peeling potatoes in Townley Hall, The Hague

A drawing of interned British Indian soldiers with turbans and beards peeling potatoes in Townley Hall, The Hague.

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Themes: Race; Neutrality; Mobility; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: Camp, Great-Britain, India, Neutrality, POWs, Soldiers, The Netherlands

People who stayed at home and prisoners of war harvesting the hay

The picture shows a number of people helping to store the hay in a barn. On the right, an elderly man supervises. On the left, a man, presumably a French prisoner of war, holds a scythe and watches…

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Themes: Propaganda; Postcard; Captivity
Tags: Labour, painting, Personal Encounters, postcard, POW, The Other

Personal Information Form 325, Sound recording, Armenian-Georgian song

The voice of the Russian soldier Levon Altunov was recorded in a prisoner-of-war camp in Chemnitz on 16 June 1916. The recording, inventoried as PK 325, is of a song in Armenian that speaks of…

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Themes: Recording; Language; Captivity
Tags: Armenian, Colonial Troops, Folksong, imperial strategy, Mobility, POW, pow-camp, Propaganda, Race, Sound Recording

Camp of Gouda (Our Belgian Refugees in Holland)

Documentary made in 1916 showing a large group of Belgian refugees - women, men and children - in a camp in the Netherlands performing their daily activities…

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Themes: Propaganda; Neutrality; Mobility; Film; Captivity
Tags: Belgian refugees, Belgium, film propaganda, Netherlands, Neutrality

Second plan of work for Bangkok by Ernest Douwes Dekker

In this report addressed to the German Foreign Office, the anti-colonial Indonesian writer and politician Ernest Douwes Dekker (image 1) describes his secret mission to travel from Rotterdam to…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Mobility; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-British, anti-colonialism, Berlin Indian Independence Committee, colonial intellectual, Dutch East Indies, Ernest Douwes Dekker, German Revolutionary Program, Germany, Imperial identity, imperial strategy, India, Java, nationalism, Neutrality, The Netherlands

L’Echo du Camp de Rennbahn: Rennbahn-Münster’s prisoner camp newspaper

Collection of the newspaper L’Echo du camp de Rennbahn from issue 1 (10 June 1916) to the issue 85 (15 June 1918). Each issue contains 3 sheets (6 pages) with both texts and cartoons. The articles…

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Themes: Newspapers & Magazines; Captivity
Tags: English, French, newspapers, POW, pow-camp, western front

French prisoners of war

This photograph captures a rare encounter between colonial prisoners of war and the German public. A group of prisoners of war are escorted by German soldiers through the streets of Zossen-Wünsdorf,…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Postcard; Photograph; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, India, Mobility, Photograph, postcard, POW, The Other, western front

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…

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

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…

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

Letter to the captain

Letter purportedly by two Christian prisoners of war interned in the Halfmoon camp requesting permission to go to church on Christmas Day in 1917. This forms part of Otto Stiehl's photographic…

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Themes: Religion; Propaganda; Letter; Captivity
Tags: Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, Halfmoon Camp, India, Letter, religion

Shipment for prisoners of war

French parcel label addressed to Mohamed ait Menca from the 5th Algerian Tirailleurs Regiment who was imprisoned at Zossen.

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Theme: Captivity
Tags: Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Mobility, POW, pow-camp, western front

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.

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

German prisoners in Algiers

A postcard picturing German prisoners in Algiers. On the reverse are words printed in poor Dutch: 'One can see from the look of them that they have not suffered from their treatment' ('Men kan hat hem…

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Themes: Propaganda; Postcard; Neutrality; Language; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: Algeria, Camp, France, Germany, postcard, POWs, Propaganda, Soldiers

'Camp Weinberg near Zossen' and 'Zossen 1914-17'

The first picture shows the inauguration of the Tatar memorial stone in the Tatar section of the cemetery in Zehrensdorf. Prisoners from both propaganda camps attended the ceremony, as well as Ottoman…

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Themes: Religion; Propaganda; Photograph; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Jihad, mobilisation, orientalism, pan-Islamism, Photograph, postcard, POW, pow-camp, Propaganda, religion

Memoir On to Bagdad by Sisir Prasad Sarbadhikari

The above extract evokes the everyday milieu at the hospital in Aleppo where Sisir Sarbadhikari, after being taken as a POW, worked as a medical orderly in 1917. While the Turks are often described as…

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Themes: Mobility; Memoirs; Captivity

The Bayram Feast at the Muslim Internment Camps in Wünsdorf (1916)

Short German documentary showing religious celebrations at the end of Ramadan in the internment camps in Wünsdorf near Zossen. https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/2535

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Imperial Strategy; Film; Captivity
Tags: Camp, film propaganda, Germany, Muslims, The Netherlands

Letter by Tahar Chaaouche Kasi ben Mohamed to the Maskar committee

This phonetically written letter by an Algerian prisoner of war is kept in the albums of Otto Stiehl. On the left it reads 'prizonier de gér 1 Bata 1 con nr 1093 Zosén Aleman'. On the right it…

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Themes: Postcard; Letter; Language; Captivity
Tags: Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, French, Halfmoon Camp, Letter, POW, pow-camp, western front

Maurice Valette’s photo album from his time as prisoner of war during the First World War

These photographs were taken by a professional photographer who worked inside the camp Münster II. Maurice Valette bought the photographs and composed an album with scenes of daily life and portraits…

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Themes: Photograph; Language; Captivity
Tags: Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Personal Encounters, Photograph, POW, pow-camp, western front

Bei uns in Deutschland

Cover and extracts from Bei uns in Deutschland (Brussels, 1919), First World War memoirs of the Flemish author Ernest Claes, based on his time in a German POW camp in Erfurt.

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Mobility; Memoirs; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Diary; Captivity
Tags: Belgium, Camp, Flamenpolitik, Flemish, France, Germany, Memoir, Muslims, Personal Encounters, Soldiers, writer

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…

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