Civilian internment during the First World War : a European and global history, 1914-1920

This book is the first major study of civilian internment during the First World War as both a European and global phenomenon. Based on research spanning twenty-eight archives in seven countries, this study explores the connections and continuities, as well as ruptures, between different internment systems at the local, national, regional and imperial levels. Arguing that the years 1914-20 mark the essential turning point in the transnational and international history of the detention camp, this book demonstrates that wartime civilian captivity was inextricably bound up with questions of power, world order and inequalities based on class, race and gender. It also contends that engagement with internees led to new forms of international activism and generated new types of transnational knowledge in the spheres of medicine, law, citizenship and neutrality. Finally, an epilogue explains how and why First World War internment is crucial to understanding the world we live in today. Acknowledgements 5 Contents 6 Abbreviations 7 Glossary of Terms 9 Chapter 1: Introduction 10 The Historical Specificity of First World War Internment 15 Sources and the Question of Differentiation Between Civilian and Military Captivity 22 The Structure of This Book 25 Chapter 2: First World War Internment Across the Globe 40 Germans and Austro-Hungarians 44 The German and Habsburg Empires’ Response 55 Ottoman Turkey, Bulgaria and the Balkans 65 Chapter 3: Internment and War Governance in the First World War 86 France 90 Britain 98 Germany 107 Austria-Hungary 111 War Governance, Camps and the Turkish Genocide Against the Ottoman Armenians, 1915–16 121 Chapter 4: Imagining Internment: International Law, Social Order and National Community 138 International Law and Perceptions of the ‘Other’: The View of Officials 143 Reprisals and Punishments 154 Internment and Social Control 161 Internment and Ideas About ‘National Community’ 172 Chapter 5: Internment and International Activism: The Search for More Humane Alternatives 192 Pre-war Precedents: Emily Hobhouse and the South African Camps 195 The Auskunfts- und Hilfsstelle für Deutsche im Ausland und Ausländer in Deutschland 198 The Auskunfts- und Hilfsstelle and the ICRC 204 Neutral Internment in Switzerland and the Netherlands 213 Barbed-Wire Disease and the ‘Medicalisation’ of Internment 220 Chapter 6: (Not) Ending Internment: The Years 1918–20 247 Wartime Civilian Captivity in Russia from Tsar Nicholas II to Lenin 251 Germany and Austria-Hungary 259 Imperial Britain and Its Allies in Africa, Asia and the Atlantic Ocean 268 France, Italy and the ‘Little Entente’ (Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia) 276 The ‘Red Scare’: The Americas 281 Chapter 7: Conclusion and Epilogue 298 Bibliography 322 Archival Sources 322 Austria 322 Germany 322 Italy 323 Portugal 323 Switzerland 323 United Kingdom/British Isles 323 United States 323 Contemporary Government Publications 323 Red Cross, Quaker and Medical Publications 325 Eye-Witness and Documentary Accounts, Diaries, Memoirs and Other Printed Primary Sources 326 Select List of Secondary Sources 327 Unpublished Dissertations 336 Novels 337 Index 338 Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction (Matthew Stibbe)....Pages 1-30 First World War Internment Across the Globe (Matthew Stibbe)....Pages 31-76 Internment and War Governance in the First World War (Matthew Stibbe)....Pages 77-128 Imagining Internment: International Law, Social Order and National Community (Matthew Stibbe)....Pages 129-182 Internment and International Activism: The Search for More Humane Alternatives (Matthew Stibbe)....Pages 183-237 (Not) Ending Internment: The Years 1918–20 (Matthew Stibbe)....Pages 239-289 Conclusion and Epilogue (Matthew Stibbe)....Pages 291-314 Back Matter ....Pages 315-335