Der kamerad

Der Kamerad: Wochenschrift der Kriegsgefangenen [translates as The comrade: weekly of the prisoners of war] was a handwritten and illustrated periodical issued by Germans interned on Torrens Island during World War I. This is edition number 2 (19 June 1915).

Over 350 'enemy aliens' were interned at the Torrens Island Concentration Camp which opened on 9 October 1914. Internment in Australia was regulated by the War Precautions Act 1914. Internees were mainly of German or Austro-Hungarian background, including some who were naturalised British citizens. Some internees were crew members of enemy nationality who were taken from ships in Australian ports. In South Australia, a relatively high percentage of migrants were of German background, and so the 'enemy alien' concept had a significant effect. Not all were held as internees in camps; some were required to report to local police on a regular basis.

Torrens Island Internment Camp '... had by far the worst reputation of all internment camps in the Commonwealth' (Fischer, p. 194) with primitive living conditions and harsh ill-treatment of prisoners. The third issue of Der Kamerad reported that captured escapees had been flogged. After the findings of a court of enquiry into this treatment of internees was submitted, the Defence Department closed the camp on 16 August 1915. The federal government had also decided to close regional camps that had been set up in the early years of the war. Many prisoners, including South Australian internees, were transferred to Holdsworthy camp near Liverpool in New South Wales.