This fascinating book tells the forgotten story of four to five thousand British civilians who were interned at the Ruhleben camp near Berlin during the First World War and formed a unique community in the heart of enemy territory. The civilians included academics, musicians, businessmen, seamen and even tourists who had been in Germany for only a few days when war broke out. This book takes a fresh look at German internment policies within an international context, using Ruhleben camp as a particular example to illustrate broader themes including the background to the German decision to intern "enemy aliens," Ruhleben as a "community at war," the role of civilian internment in wartime diplomacy and propaganda, and the place of Ruhleben in British memory of the war. This study will be of interest to all scholars working on the First World War, and to all those concerned with the broader impact of modern conflicts on national identities and community formation.

The internment of 'enemy aliens' by the British government in two world wars remains largely hidden from history. British historians have treated the subject - if at all - as a mere footnote to the main narrative of Britain at war. In the 'Great War', Britain interned some 30,000 German nationals, most of whom had been long-term residents. In fact, internment brought little discernible benefit, but cruelly damaged lives and livelihoods, breaking up families and disrupting social networks. In May 1940, under the threat of imminent invasion, the British government interned some 28,000 Germans and Austrians, mainly Jewish refugees from the Third Reich. It was a measure which provoked lively criticism, not least in Parliament, where one MP called the internment of refugees 'totally un-English'. The present volume seeks to shed more light on this still submerged historical episode, adopting an inter-disciplinary approach to explore hitherto under-researched aspects, including the historiography of internment, the internment of women, deportation to Canada, and culture in internment camps, including such notable events as the internment revue What is Life!

During the First World War hundreds of thousands of Germans faced incarceration in hundreds of camps on the British mainland. This is the first book on these German prisoners, almost a century after the conflict. The book covers the three different types of internees in Britain in the form of: civilians already present in the country in August 1914; civilians brought to Britain from all over the world; and combatants. Using a vast range of contemporary British and German sources the volume traces life experiences through initial arrest and capture to life behind barbed wire to return to Germany or to the remnants of the ethnically cleansed German community in Britain. The book will prove essential reading for anyone interested in the history of prisoners of war or the First World War and will also appeal to scholars and students of twentieth-century Europe and the human consequences of war.

Examines how all four Allied powers interned alleged Nazis without trial in camps only recently liberated from Nazi control.