Port Elizabeth of Yore: Concentration Camps & Refugees during the Boer War

During the latter stages of the Boer War and the defeat of the conventional Boer forces, the fighting devolved into a guerrilla war with the open veldt and the scattered Boer farmhouses providing the logistics system. In order to sever this supply line, the farm houses were torched, and the animals slaughtered, in terms of the Scorched Earth policy, while the wives and children were placed in concentration camps. Without this sustenance, all the Boer forces apart from the bitter einders opted to surrender.

Main picture: Memorial at the North End Cemetery to those who died at PE’s Concentration Camp

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