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ABSTRACT
In July 1940 the British Government erected a camp in Jamaica to house thousands of civilian evacuees from Gibraltar. Only about 1,500 Gibraltarians ended up there – mostly women, children, and elderly. The available space that remained served to intern a few hundred European Jewish refugees, as well as Enemy Aliens and Prisoners of War. About two hundred Jamaicans were employed in the camp, including the Camp Commandant. The little-known Gibraltar Camp created a rather odd encounter between people who occupied different positions within the British imperial global order, and outside of it. My main purpose in this article is to learn about the ways in which people engaged with imperial classifications as they were simultaneously placed and displaced by them. Drawing on official and non-official documents from several archives, and on newspapers, recordings of interviews, and self-published autobiographies, I argue that while the intention of the authorities in sending groups of people to Gibraltar Camp was to ‘put aside’ those who were deemed a disturbance, the constant negotiations about labels indicate that the physical placement of people in a camp did not work to wholly exclude them from the prevailing order of things.
Acknowledgements
I want to express my deep gratitude to Iris Rachamimov for her support and encouragement, and for her guidance in this research. I am also very grateful to Tamar Herzig, Michal Kravel-Tovi, and Billie Melman for invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this article. I am indebted to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. I owe a special thanks to Suzanne Francis-Brown and Diana Cooper-Clark for generously sharing insights and knowledge about Gibraltar Camp.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 “Evacuees Mark Empire Day at Camp Gibraltar,” Jamaica Gleaner, 30 May 1941, newspaperarchive.com.
2 Francis-Brown, Mona Past and Present.
3 “Construction of Camp in Mona, Jamaica, for Gibraltar Evacuees: Interim Report and Plans,” CO 91/515/12, The National Archives of the UK [hereafter TNA]; “Return of Gibraltar Evacuees,” CO 91/518/14, TNA; “Evacuation of Civil Population from Gibraltar,” CO 91/515/4, TNA; “Evacuation Sundry Papers,” 1944 1939, 1 R4 13, Gibraltar National Archives [hereafter GNA]; “Evacuation General Mechanics Of.,” 1 S4 7, GNA.
4 “Evacuation of Polish Refugees from Lisbon, Portugal to Jamaica,” CO 137/854/7, TNA; “Evacuation of Polish Refugees from Lisbon, Portugal, to Jamaica,” CO 137/854/8, TNA; “Refugee Emigration to United States.,” FO 371/29221, TNA; “Refugees 1941, Polish Jewish Refugees in Portugal,” FO 371/29233, TNA; Francis-Brown, “Gibraltar Camp, 1940–1947” (PhD diss.), 172–79; Cooper-Clark, Dreams of Re-Creation in Jamaica, 8; Newman, Nearly the New World, 207–28. I am grateful to Suzanne Francis-Brown for agreeing to share her dissertation with me.
5 “Gibraltar Camp – Cost for Erection Of,” 1944–1940, 1B/5/77/220, Jamaica Archives and Record Department [hereafter JARD].
6 Rachamimov, “The Disruptive Comforts of Drag”; Caplan, “Gender and the Concentration Camps”; Hájková, “Sexual Barter in Times of Genocide”; Forth, Barbed-Wire Imperialism; Bailkin, Unsettled; Agamben, Homo Sacer, 166–80; Stibbe, “Civilian Internment and Civilian Internees,” 49–81; Pitzer, One Long Night; Madley, “From Africa to Auschwitz,” 429–64; Hyslop, “The Invention of the Concentration Camp,” 251–76; Netz, Barbed Wire, 131–46; Malkki, “Refugees and Exile,” 498–500.
7 Forth, 651–52; Bailkin, 24.
8 Agamben, Homo Sacer, 166–80.
9 Forth, “Britain’s Archipelago of Camps,” 652.
10 While in the case of the Jewish refugees some security concerns were raised, none appear in regard to the Gibraltarians. CO 137/854/8, TNA; CO 137/854/7, TNA; see also Francis-Brown, “Gibraltar Camp, 1940–1947,” 410.
11 Forth, “Britain’s Archipelago of Camps,” 652.
12 Cohn, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge, 3.
13 Forth, “Britain’s Archipelago of Camps,” 561.
14 1 R4 13, GNA; 1 S4 7, GNA; CO 91/515/4, TNA; “Evacuation of Civil Population from Gibraltar: Financial Arrangements,” CO 91/515/6, TNA; CO 91/515/12, TNA; “Re-Evacuation of Gibraltar Evacuees in England to West Indies,” CO 91/516/8; TNA; CO 91/518/14, TNA. Gibraltarians were also later evacuated to Scotland and North Ireland.
15 From the American Joint Distribution Committee to the British Embassy in Lisbon confirming the guarantee of maintenance, January 5, 1942, in: FO 371/32656, TNA; FO 371/29221, TNA; FO 371/29233, TNA; “Poland: Subject Matter, Polish Refugees in Jamaica, 1941–1942,” 884, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives [hereafter JDC Archives]; “Holland: Subject Matter, Emigration,” 704, JDC Archives. ‘Obligating private charities to feed and shelter destitute refugees was common practice in most European countries’, according to: Ludi, “More and Less Deserving Refugees,” 592; See also Frankl, “Prejudiced Asylum,” 547. On Jewish refugees in Lisbon, see: Kaplan, Hitler’s Jewish Refugees; London, Whitehall and the Jews, 1933–1948, 180.
16 Stanton, Escape from the Inferno of Europe, (self-pub.), 201.
17 The first Gibraltarians arrived in Jamaica in October 1940. “Copy of telegram received from Governor of Jamaica addressed to Governor Gibraltar dated 26.10.40,” in: 1 S4 7, GNA.
18 Enclosed article from the Catholic Herlad, August 15, 1941, in: 1 S4 7, GNA.
19 “Report on the organization of Gibraltar Camp as at 30th September, 1941,” in: 1B/5/77/220, JARD; Report by a representative of the JDC of his trip to Gibraltar Camp, 17 December 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives.
20 Netz, Barbed Wire, 149–54.
21 Bailkin, Unsettled, 31–39; Agamben, Homo Sacer, 171.
22 From the governor of Jamaica to the secretary of state for the colonies, London, 13 October 1942, in: “Polish Jewish Refugees in Jamaica,” CO 323/1846/6, TNA.
23 United States of America National Censorship, comment on a letter “Polish Refugees in Jamaica”, and “extract from a letter regarding conditions of Czechoslovakian nationals in Jamaica,” undated, in: “Polish and Allied Technicians in Unoccupied France,” FO 371/32657, TNA; “Translation from ‘Polish Jew’ (monthly journal) dated October–November, 1942: Polish Jews on the Island of Jamaica”, and letter to the American Federation for Polish Jews from Leavitt, JDC, 2 October 1942, and letter from a refugee in camp, 25 September 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives; petition to the colonial secretary, Gibraltar, from the Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights in Gibraltar, 5 June 1944, in: “Repatriation to Gibraltar from Jamaica,” 1 R5 7, GNA; “Dictatoritis, Fun With The Mechanics,” Jamaica Gleaner, 17 January 1941; “Critical of ‘Verboten’s’ Now in Force,” Jamaica Gleaner, 24 February 1941.
24 To JDC from Refugee Leon Mayer, 7 May 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives. Also petition to the colonial secretary, Gibraltar, from the Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights in Gibraltar, 5 June 1944, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
25 Agamben, Homo Sacer, 174.
26 Netz, Barbed Wire, 54; Bailkin, Unsettled, 34–35.
27 FO 371/29233, TNA; CO 137/854/7, TNA; 884, JDC Archives; “Repatriation of Evacuees,” 1B/5/77/270, JARD.
28 Francis-Brown, “Gibraltar Camp, 1940–1947: Isolation and Interaction in Colonial Jamaica,” 277–81.
29 Francis-Brown, “Gibraltar Camp, 1940–1947,” 291, 327–52.
30 “Camp Gibraltar – Evacuee’s Complaint as to Conditions,” Jamaica Gleaner, 21 January 1941.
31 “An article on the Gibraltar Evacuee Camp”, the Information Officer, undated, in: “Gibraltar Evacuation Camp in Jamaica: Publicity,” CO 91/516/4, TNA. According to Forth, camps were “geometric responses to heightened chaos and dislocation.” Forth, Barbed-Wire Imperialism, 7.
32 “An article on the Gibraltar Evacuee Camp,” CO 91/516/4, TNA.
33 To the Governor of Gibraltar from Secretary of State, 12 September 1940, in: 1 S4 7, GNA.
34 1 R4 13, GNA; “Evacuees: Complaints about Food and Accommodation,” CO 91/516/6, TNA; CO 91/515/4, TNA.
35 Francis-Brown, “Gibraltar Camp, 1940–1947,” 6–7, 82, 359, 362, 413–17.
36 FO 371/29221, TNA; CO 137/854/7, TNA; CO 137/854/8, TNA; “Evacuation from Iberian Peninsula,” FO 371/29231, TNA; “Evacuation of Polish and Yugoslav Refugees from Portugal.,” FO 371/32656, TNA; FO 371/29233, TNA. The British, French, and American governments contemplated similar plans for resettlement of refugees ‘somewhere’ in the empire or elsewhere, but hardly any were executed. Frank, “The Myth of ‘Vacant Places’”; Maga, “Closing the Door,” 430; Burgess, Refuge in the Land of Liberty, 203–4; London, Whitehall and the Jews, 1933–1948, 95, 101.
37 FO 371/29233, TNA; CO 137/854/7, TNA.
38 Minutes, 10 December 1941, in: FO 371/29233, TNA.
39 To the Governor of Jamaica from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 22 December 1941, in: CO 137/854/7, TNA.
40 Newman, Nearly the New World. This was true to other European states as well. See Maga, “Closing the Door”; Frank and Reinisch, “Introduction: Refugees and the Nation-State,” 482; Ludi, “More and Less Deserving Refugees”; Frankl, “Prejudiced Asylum.”
41 Forth, Barbed-Wire Imperialism, 6–7. It should be pointed out, however, that Newman also notes that at some point British officials answered inquiries about available space in Gibraltar Camp for the purpose of housing refugees with misrepresentations of the camp’s vacancy, claiming it was full to capacity when in fact it was far from it. Newman, Nearly the New World, 14, 223.
42 O’Neill and Dua, “A Forum on Captivity,” 4.
43 See Malkki, “Refugees and Exile,” 512; Forth, Barbed-Wire Imperialism, 7.
44 Agamben, Homo Sacer, 171. For a critique of Agamben’s notion that the camp dweller epitomises ‘bare life’, see O’Neill and Dua, “A Forum on Captivity,” 4.
45 In a list of demands some Jewish refugees sent to the Joint from Gibraltar Camp (undated), they listed as an “absolute necessity at least one Coca Cola daily”. In: 884, JDC Archives.
46 Scott, Seeing like a State, 1–52.
47 Stoler, Along the Archival Grain, 1.
48 Netz, Barbed Wire, 158.
49 ‘Critical of “Verboten’s” Now in Force.’ The speaker was Mr. John Soulette. The article was as much, probably more, about local politics than it was about the Gibraltarians.
50 ‘1 R5 7, GNA.’
51 Letter from a Bishop to Mr. Macdonald, 28 August 1940, in: 1 R4 13, GNA.
52 Copy of a letter which appeared in the Daily Gleaner, 14 October 1941, in: CO 91/515/12, TNA.
53 “Extract from a letter regarding conditions of Czechoslovakian nationals in Jamaica,” undated, in: FO 371/32657, TNA.
54 Letter from a refugee in the camp, 25 September 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives.
55 “Evacuees Buoyed by Confidence in Britain,” Jamaica Gleaner, 28 October 1940.
56 “Evacuees Buoyed by Confidence in Britain”; “Gibraltarians Enter Senior Football League,” Jamaica Gleaner, 15 September 1941; “The Gibraltar Team,” Jamaica Gleaner, 21 October 1941; “Evacuees Settling Down Nicely,” Jamaica Gleaner, 11 February 1940. In the scientific racial discourse of the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries, Europe itself was construed as composed of more than one race; the “Mediterranean race” was understood to be distinct from the white “Nordic race”. See Baum, The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race.
57 Draft of dispatch to the governor of Jamaica, 17 June 1941, in: “Evacuees: Educational Arrangements,” CO 91/515/11, TNA.
58 CO 137/854/7, TNA. About the British visa system and security procedures for refugees and immigrants, see London, Whitehall and the Jews, 1933–1948.
59 From the governor of Jamaica to the secretary of state for the colonies, 3 May 1941, in: CO 91/516/8, TNA.
60 Internal correspondence, 27 November 1941, in: CO 137/854/7, TNA.
61 Internal correspondence, 21 March 1942, in: CO 137/854/8, TNA.
62 Internal correspondence, 25 February 1942, in: FO 371/32656, TNA.
63 Internal correspondence, 10 March 1942, in: FO 371/32656, TNA. In fact, German Jews who were already in Jamaica when the war started were actually interned in an internment camp under full, not ‘semi’ internment conditions. “Jamaica,” CO 323/1797/14, TNA; “Internment Camps for Germans and Italians in Jamaica,” FO 916/71, TNA.
64 Arendt, “We Refugees,” 264–74.
65 This was true already before World War II. See Frank and Reinisch, “Introduction: Refugees and the Nation-State in Europe,” 481; Hathaway, “The Evolution of Refugee Status.”
66 Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 299.
67 Agamben, Homo Sacer, 131.
68 ‘Irreducible residue’ referred to the Jewish refugees perceived as ‘stranded’ in Lisbon, who were unable to obtain visas to leave. ‘Undesirable’ also referred to this group: one Foreign Office official recalled that they were described thus by the Passport Control Officer in Lisbon. They were also described as ‘lacking a destination’. ‘No value’ referred to refugees who were of ‘no value’ to the war effort. The return of Spanish refugees to Gibraltar was deemed by the governor as ‘highly undesirable’. The governor discussed their ‘disposal’ with the Colonial Office in London. Internal correspondence, 4 September 1941, in: FO 371/29221, TNA; Internal correspondence, 5 November 1942, in: FO 371/32657, TNA; From Lisbon to the Foreign Office, 11 November 1942, in: CO 323/1846/6, TNA; From the British Embassy, Lisbon, to the Foreign Office, 16 October 1941, in: FO 371/29233, TNA; To Chapelries London from the Governor of Gibraltar, 9 September 1944, and From Colonial Office London to Governor Gibraltar, 22 September 1944, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
69 From the Colonial Office to the Under Secretary of State, Foreign Office, 24 September 1946, in: “Resettlement of Displaced Poles.,” FO 371/56493, TNA; From the Polish Embassy to the Foreign Office, 14 November 1941, in: FO 371/29233, TNA; Draft of letter from the Colonial Office to the Foreign Office, 19 December 1942, in: “Refugees Escaping from France into Spain and Portugal,” CO 323/1846/7, TNA.
70 CO 91/516/8, TNA.
71 Oral Histories, World War II Evacuation of the Gibraltarians Audio Archive Playlist, Track 24, GNA. https://www.nationalarchives.gi/EvacAudio1.aspx. This incident was also recounted in a Jamaican newspaper (Catholic Opinion) in 1940. See Francis-Brown, “Gibraltar Camp, 1940–1947,” 147n1.
72 “1,100 Evacuees Now at Gibraltar Camp,” Jamaica Gleaner, 26 October 1940.
73 “Editorial: Back to Gibraltar”, Jamaica Daily Express, 10.02.44, in: “Evacuation,” 1 S4 2, GNA.
74 From Stransky to the JDC, January 25, 1944, in: “Poland: Subject Matter, Polish Refugees in Jamaica, 1943–1944,” 885, JDC Archives.
75 “Letter from Jamaica”, 5 July 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives.
76 Letter from a refugee, 25 September 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives.
77 Numerous references to evacuees as ‘stranded’ in: FO 371/29221, TNA; “Evacuation of Polish and Yugoslav Refugees from Portugal.,” FO 371/32655, TNA.
78 To the JDC from the Committee of the Polish Group, Gibraltar Camp, 25 May 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives.
79 Report by Charles H. Jordan, Director, JDC, 17 December 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives.
80 CO 323/1846/7, TNA; “Gibraltar Camp Estimates 1947/1948 Lodging for Remaining Refugees,” 1B/5/77/200, JARD. Many individuals in other contexts were moved between the two categories of “refugee” and “internee”: see Bailkin, Unsettled, 34.
81 “Memorandum Re: Applications for visas for persons interned in Jamaica,” 27 April 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives. For more on this matter see Newman, Nearly the New World, 221–23.
82 From Stransky to the JDC, January 25, 1944, in: 885, JDC Archives.
83 1 R5 7, GNA; “Enquiries about the Evacuation of Polish Refugees from Gibraltar to Jamaica,” CO 137/864/2, TNA.
84 CO 137/864/2, TNA; 1 R5 7, GNA; “Evacuation Miscellaneous Papers,” 1 S4 11, GNA.
85 “Information taken at Jeanne d’Arc UNRRA Refugee Camp, Nov.23,1944.” In: “1 R5 7, GNA.”
86 Application for permission to return to Gibraltar, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
87 “Information taken at Jeanne d’Arc UNRRA Refugee Camp, 23 November 1944,” in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
88 Letter to the secretary of the Resettlement Board, Gibraltar, 13 March 1945, and letter to the Colonial Secretary, Gibraltar, 14 August 1945, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
89 To the Resettlement Board, Colonial Secretariat, Gibraltar, from the American Friends Service Committee, 9 December 1944, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
90 Letter to the Resettlement Board, 15 April 1947, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
91 To the British Consulate-General, Naples, from the Lieutenant-General and Governor [Gibraltar], 26 March 1946, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
92 CO 137/854/7, TNA; FO 371/29233, TNA. In 1939 a similar classification system was established in Britain: German and Austrian nationals living in Britain were assigned categories A, B, and C designating their assessed risk. This system was, however, the inverse of the one being used in Lisbon: ‘A’ designated the highest risk. Bailkin, Unsettled, 35.
93 From the Governor of Gibraltar to the Colonial Secretary, London, 2 October 1944, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
94 From the Field Security Police, Gibraltar, to the Colonial Secretary, 21 October 1944, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
95 From the Governor of Gibraltar to the Governor of Jamaica, 30 September 1944, in: 1 S4 11, GNA.
96 Bailkin, Unsettled, 110.
97 Carson-Cardozo, Silence and Secrets, chap. 6, (self-pub.) Kindle.
98 Stanton, Escape from the Inferno of Europe, 105.
99 Fred Mann, A Drastic Turn of Destiny, chap. 2, Kindle.
100 Stanton, Escape from the Inferno of Europe; Mann, A Drastic Turn of Destiny.
101 See Rachamimov, “The Disruptive Comforts of Drag,” 367–68, 382.
102 ‘Meantime the Commandant is paying to have the sanitary ranges cleaned, as also verandas; but the refugees are cleaning the huts themselves. They are complaining about having to do this.’ A letter to the Secretary Latin American Committee, JDC, from Mr. Henriques, 25 October 1944, in: 885, JDC Archives.
103 As one of them stated: ‘Even the efforts of the wealthier refugees did not succeed in obtaining permission to live outside the camp grounds.’ “Translation from ‘Polish Jew’ (monthly journal) dated October–November 1942: Polish Jews on the Island of Jamaica,” in: 884, JDC Archives.
104 “Minutes”, 27 April 1944, in: 1B/5/77/270, JARD.
105 To Chapelries London from the Governor of Gibraltar, 10 October 1940, and to Chapelries London from the Governor of Gibraltar, November 1940, in: 1 S4 7, GNA.
106 Rachamimov, “The Disruptive Comforts of Drag”; Bailkin, Unsettled, 111–33; see also Caplan, “Gender and the Concentration Camps.”
107 Information about the camp in Jamaica by Mr. Benunes, undated, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
108 See Bailkin, Unsettled, 120.
109 1 R4 13, GNA.
110 “Extract from the Gibraltar Chronicle of the 5/9/40” and “Extract from the Gibraltar Chronicle of the 12/9/40” in: 1 R4 13, GNA.
111 Petition addressed to the Bishop of Gibraltar asking for his intervention with the local Government, 3 September 1943, in “Repatriation,” 1 R5 1, GNA.
112 See footnote 57.
113 Cooper-Clark, Dreams of Re-Creation in Jamaica, 31–32.
114 Palmer, Freedom’s Children, 13–15, 64–86. See also Hall, Familiar Stranger.
115 A 1943 census in Jamaica identified as ‘coloured’ persons of ‘mixed African and European blood’. Palmer, 13.
116 Mann, A Drastic Turn of Destiny, chap. 5.
117 25 September 1942, in: 884, JDC Archives.
118 Swiss Legation Special Division, 17 July 1940, and The German Legation, 28 July 1940, in: CO 323/1797/14, TNA; From the Governor of Jamaica, 4 August 1940, in: CO 323/1797/14, TNA.
119 From Robinson, Foreign Office, to Major Adams, 9 April 1941, in: FO 916/71, TNA.
120 Mann, A Drastic Turn of Destiny, chap. 5.
121 Palmer, Freedom’s Children, 64–86.
122 ‘An article on the Gibraltar Evacuee Camp,’ the Information Officer, undated, in: CO 91/516/4, TNA. In 1938, as a member of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation’s Council, Rae supported a motion to censure the Mayor for his public statements against racial discrimination. Palmer, Freedom’s Children, 80.
123 “Mr. Rae Named to Chief Post at Camp Gibraltar.”
124 Mann, A Drastic Turn of Destiny, chap. 5.
125 Mann, A Drastic Turn of Destiny, chap. 6.
126 Agamben, Homo Sacer, 175.
127 Doane, “Rethinking Whiteness Studies”. See also Brodkin, How Jews Became White Folks; Roediger, Working Toward Whiteness.
128 “Census of Evacuees Taken at Gibraltar Camp,” December 1943, 1B/5/93/1–3, JARD; CO 91/515/6, TNA.
129 Draft of a letter to the Under Secretary of State, the Foreign Office, 9 August 1940, in: CO 323/1797/14, TNA.
130 From the Governor of Jamaica, 16 June 1944, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
131 To the Governor of Jamaica, 6 June 1944, in: 1 R5 7, GNA.
132 From the Governor of Jamaica, 16 June 1944, in: 1 R5 7, GNA. The Gibraltarians were repatriated from Jamaica in October of that year. 1 R5 7, GNA. One evacuee recounted how Rae told her they should stay in Jamaica because it was not safe for them to return:
Yo me acuerdo cuando Rae decía, cuando nos dijeron de que nos viniéramos, y me dice Rae dice [I remember when Rae said, when they told us about that we were going to return, and he tells me Rae, he says] you should ask your government to tell you to leave you here until the war finishes, it’s very dangerous for you to go.
133 Bailkin, Unsettled, 87.