Free State, KROONSTAD, Concentration camp cemetery

Kroonstad was surely one of the most unattractive camps in the entire system. Kroonstad camp was most likely formed fairly early since General Kelly-Kenny suggested on 7 September 1900 that a camp be created there, to protect loyal farmers from the Boers. Already in 1900 a number of farms had been burnt, leading to a substantial influx of homeless families into the town. By 24 November 1900 it is clear that a camp had been formed. The village of Reitz was evacuated on 20 January 1901 and Lindley was probably emptied about the same date. By the end of March 1901 Kroonstad camp was already fairly large, with over 2,500 inmates. From the first Kroonstad lacked accommodation as Boer families poured in. Nutrition was also critical and it was months before the camp authorities admitted that the ration scale, based on military rations and scaled down for women, children and men who were not performing hard labour, was inadequate. In March 1901 the camp inmates petitioned the superintendent. They only received ½ lb of meat a day, they complained, much of which was bone. They received no fat and, given the lack of meat, ¾ lb flour a day was also insufficient. Worse still, the very old and the very young suffered from the monotonous diet, with no vegetables or rice. They received no candles nor soap and could not keep clean. Only twelve passes a day were issued so people could not get into town to buy food, clothing or do business. All these conditions ensured that infectious diseases would spread rapidly and hit hard. And epidemics struck early for many of the first arrivals were in a bad way. When Reitz was evacuated in January 1901, the British left behind ten families seriously affected by typhoid. In the winter of 1902 the problems of meat supply recurred in all the camps, including Kroonstad. It was poor, tough and inferior to the frozen meat they had been getting, the superintendent complained, and he feared that the result would be debilitation contributing to a rise in mortality. Part of the difficulty, he explained, was cultural. ‘Most of the refugees refuse to eat this meat as it is useless for roasting, and can only be used for soup, or after mincing, both ways of preparing meat which the refugees do not understand’.31 At the end of the war, when the families had to be repatriated, Kroonstad became the holding camp for the area, taking in people from Vredefort Road when that camp was closed. Relief works were set up at Strydfontein nearby to provide for destitute families with no home or work to return to. Widows and orphans were sent onto Brandfort. Nevertheless, the camp was still in existence in January 1902, possibly because two people were still in hospital. The last people were finally moved out on 4 February 1903, although the formal report stated that Kroonstad camp was closed on 12 January. (Source: https://www2.lib.uct.ac.za/mss/bccd/Histories/Kroonstad/) Cemetery information:- Album complete, all the headstones in the cemetery were photographed. eGGSA captions by: Heleen Nel & Riana le Roux The GGSA Cemetery DVD only has information on the location of the cemetery Cemetery ID: 3273 Information submitted by: Stoffel Willemse Google Earth Project Information:- GPSID: 3898 GPS: -27 40.305, 27 12.382