Sources

Five Arabic war songs by the famous war volunteer Fritz Klopfer

The document contains five songs in Arabic including a translation into German. The songs were performed by Hans Stumme (alias Fritz Klopfer) on 20 January 1915 on behalf of the Red Halfmoon…

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Themes: Religion; Poem; Language; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-colonialism, Arabic, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, imperial strategy, Music, orientalism, orientalists, POW, pow-camp, Propaganda

The Great French Advancement at the Somme

French propaganda film which was screened in the Netherlands and in the Dutch East Indies. Film clipping and newspaper adverts from colonial…

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Themes: Propaganda; Neutrality; Film
Tags: film propaganda, France

Algeria – Zouave on sentry duty

The postcard depicts a Zouave soldier in full uniform, resting on his rifle and gazing into the distance. The soldier’s facial expression conveys confidence, reliability, and strength, assuring the…

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Themes: Race; Postcard; Photograph; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Algeria, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, colonies, France, imperial strategy, mobilisation, postcard

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…

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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…

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

Official Canadian photograph of wounded men examining their trophies

This photograph depicts wounded Canadian soldiers behind the Canadian advance east of Arras in September 1918. They are showing trophies to each other, including a pistol in the hand of the front and…

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Theme: Photograph

'Irish, Finns and Flemings'

In the June 1918 article 'Irish, Finns and Flemings', an anonymous journalist from the German sponsored, Dutch journal De Toekomst [The Future] criticises the lack of Dutch support for the Flemish…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Dutch, Fins, Flemish, German Revolutionary Program, Great Netherlands, imperial strategy, Irish, Language, newspapers, Pan-Germanism, Propaganda, Race, revolution

Maori troops doing a Haka dance during a sports day at a camp in Wiltshire

Black and white photograph of Maori troops from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force performing a haka at a sports day at a camp in Wiltshire. Wiltshire, specifically Salisbury Plain, was where the New…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Photograph; Mobility

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

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

Sheikh Saleh Scherif, spearhead for the liberation of Tunisia and Algeria from the French yoke

The sketch shows the profile of Salih al-Sharif al-Tunisi, a religious Tunisian-Algerian scholar and propagandist with the Ottoman Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa.

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Tags: Algeria, anti-colonialism, anti-French, colonial intellectual, cultural propaganda, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, Jihad, newspapers, Ottoman Empire, pan-Islamism, religion, western front

A New Zealand Soldier with two little children on Lemnos

An official photograph depicting a New Zealand soldier with two small children on Lemnos.

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Themes: Race; Photograph; Mobility; Gender

Newspaper article on Maori anti-war activists clash with New Zealand police

This newspaper article, published in a major New Zealand daily newspaper, describes a confrontation between a group of Maori (New Zealand’ s indigenous people) and the police officers who had been…

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Themes: Race; Newspapers & Magazines; Mobility

The Battle of Ancre and the Advancement of the Tanks, screened in the Dutch East Indies

Newspapers advertisements from Dutch colonial newspapers about the official British war documentary The Battle of Ancre and the Advancement of the Tanks (1917).

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Imperial Strategy; Film
Tags: colonies, film propaganda, Netherlands, pro-British

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

Coaling by James McBey

A watercolour painting by James McBey, a British war artist, as commissioned by Wellington House. The image was later transferred to the Department and Ministry of Information and then to the Imperial…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Mobility

'Bloodstained glasses' and artefacts of Jogen Sen

A collection of objects and papers, including a dog-tag (to identify the injured), a photograph of a young European woman, a ‘Book of Friendship’ possibly given by the same lady (signed as…

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Themes: Race; Photograph; Gender

Newspaper article detailing the experience of Maori Troops in France

An article from The Times (London) describing the experiences of Maori soldiers in France. The article describes Maori troops singing a translated version of 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary'. The…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Language
Tags: Colonial Troops, France, Maori, Music, Translation

Extract from a German report on bookstores in the Netherlands

Two pages of a German report from 1918 describing the books on offer at bookstores located within the train station in The Hague.

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

East Indies

The poem 'Oostinje' is written by the Dutch cabaret artist Jacobus Speenhoff in which he pleas for a stronger Dutch allegiance to the Dutch East Indies in times of global war. To read the original…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Poem; Neutrality; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Dutch East Indies, German Revolutionary Program, Imperial identity, imperial strategy, Japan, Java, Muslims, Poem, Race, The Netherlands

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…

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

Film as a medium of political advertising

Brochure about the political potential of film.

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Themes: Propaganda; Film
Tags: film propaganda

Song of the Greater Netherlands

In this poem, René de Clercq, one of the most popular Flemish poets of the era, celebrates his allegiance to the 'Great Netherlands'. During the war he took part in the German propaganda policy to…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Poem; Neutrality; Language; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Belgium, Flamenpolitik, Flemish, Flemish activism, Great Netherlands, Poem, South Africa, The Netherlands

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…

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Themes: Race; Newspapers & Magazines

Image of Black-American dockers in Saint-Nazaire (France) engraved by Jean-Émile Laboureur

This engraving is from a set of works made by the French artist Jean-Émile Laboureur in the harbour of Saint-Nazaire, France where he was assigned as an interpreter to the American Army in 1917. The…

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Theme: Race
Tags: Drawing, Exchange, Interpreter, Labour, United States