Free State, BETHULIE, Concentration camp memorials

Cemetery information:- Album complete, we have photographs of all the memorials at this site. Please click on a photograph for any additional information about the person concerned. Bethulie was the archetypal ‘bad’ camp, about which there is a considerable literature. Bethulie camp was formed on 22 April 1901, after the civilian administration took over the running of the camps from the military, and was created to take the overflow from Springfontein camp. At first families were housed in the little town (which had a population of hardly more that 550). Initially the camp was located on the koppies above the town, but it was moved twice. In June 1901 it was placed nearer to the river. Unfortunately the lower site meant that the camp often lay in heavy mist, the Ladies Committee observed. As disease increased and the ground became polluted, in March 1902 the camp was moved again, to a site where the ground was less fouled. The camp was unfenced and, for a long time, unguarded and the inmates were free to come and go as they wished. But, as conditions worsened, some women took advantage of the situation to ‘abscond’. As a result, by September 1901 access to the town was controlled with permits and the boundaries of the camp were guarded by camp police, drawn from the inmates. It is clear that, by the end of 1901, the authorities were desperately worried about the mounting toll of deaths. Milner telegraphed repeatedly for information and finally requested that details of the sick and dying be sent daily to head office in Bloemfontein. Inspector Cole Bowen felt that the situation in Bethulie was hopeless; a major problem was the shortage of water, so critical in a typhoid epidemic. He felt the only recourse was to move the entire camp to the coast. By February 1902 things had not improved at all. Even in its last days, Bethulie continued to suffer. In the winter of June 1902 there was a severe blizzard when most of the tents were blown down. The entire orphanage went and the children had to be housed in the medical comforts store; other inmates were put into the school, now consisting of solid buildings. Food, too, was an ongoing problem, with the meat still condemned as unfit for eating long after the war had ended and the problems of supply improved. Although the health of the camp had greatly improved, at the end of November 1902 the inmates were threatened by another epidemic, this time of scarlet fever. Slowly the inmates returned home but many Bethulie people had no farms to go back to. Numbers went to the relief works established by the authorities to provide for the poorest. Here they continued their camp life, sleeping in tents which were now old and worn. Homes had to be found for the orphaned children, as well as the ‘aged and infirm’ who had no families to care for them. Fifteen such people were sent to Springfontein camp in December 1902. The camp was eventually closed officially on 10 January 1903. (Source: https://www2.lib.uct.ac.za/mss/bccd/Histories/Bethulie/) eGGSA captions by: Heleen Nel, Lorraine Beechey & Lisa Botes. The GGSA Cemetery DVD only has information on the location of the cemetery Cemetery ID: 2849 Google Earth Project Information:- GPSID: 3414 GPS: -30 29.087, 25 59.958