Discover how several thousand Germans and Austrians came to be living in Britain during the 1910s and 1930s and how they were then labelled as 'enemy aliens' (and potential spies) during the First and Second World Wars. This course will look at the part played by the Isle of Man as the main centre of civilian internment in the British Isles during both the First and Second World Wars.
During the First World War, discover how more than 20,000 Germans and Austrians were ‘living with the wire’ at Douglas Camp (a requisitioned holiday camp) and Knockaloe Camp (a large purpose-built camp) . Find out more about who the internees were, what their lives were like in the camps and how their tackled one of their main enemies – boredom – and how they tried to keep themselves occupied.
During the Second World War, discover during the summer of 1940, as the rest of Britain prepared itself for invasion, the Isle of Man became the centre for several civilian internment camps. Discover more about how Jewish and political refugees fleeing Nazi persecution found themselves arrested as ‘enemy aliens’ and then interned behind barbed wire on the Isle of Man. Find out who the internees were, what life was like for them and how they occupied themselves ‘living with the wire’ in requisitioned boarding houses & hotels in camps around the Island. Tutor: Y Cresswell.
