Page 13 - Sutclifffe-APD_Censorship_PoW

Prisoner of War, Internment Camps and Gibra.1 tar Camp, Jamaica.

It appears , therefore, that there were the following groups in the Camp, or at least ,
possibly in different compounds , namely,

1 . Male civilian internees , who, by late 1940, included the males from West Africa which
included about 30 missionaries and other clerics .

2 . German, Austrian and other Jews who were later vetted and released on parole .

3 . "Civilianu merchant seamen from enemy shipping . Experience during World War I had
shown the necessity of separating the naval seamen from the merchant seamen , this was
a bigger problem during World War II having regard to the factor of Nazi Party
membership or sympathizers therewith . Although civilians , due to treaty obligations,
merchant seamen were to be treated as prisoners of war .

4. Male civilian Italian internees and the Italians from West Africa .

5 . Italian naval prisoners . Probably all the Italians were placed together, and later
rPlP.~~P.n whPn Tr.~lv r.h~nnPn ~inP~ -

6. Ardent Nazis and their sympathizers who were separately segregated i rrespective of
whether or not they were civilian or "militaryu .

7 . Enemy naval personnel, mainly from U- boats but also from surface raidrers or supply
ships and tankers.

8 . Political detainees interned to prevent disruption of normal services .
It has also been said that there were a few, very few, possibly only 6 families, of
Japanese, whose members may have been interned, but no philatelic evidence of them have
been recorded .

It is believed that the Camp a lso received prisoners from some of the other British
territories in the Caribbean and also from some of the Dutch possessions there .
By about early 1941 it is reported that the Camp consisted of about 250 Ita lians ,
350 civilian Germans and in addition there were 30 clerics of various persuasions,
mainly from West Africa.

The clerics enjoyed certain privileges not available to others, as they were allowed
to send letters by an unofficial line of communication via England to the Vatican , so
that the Catholic clergy could keep in touch with their religious head; the Vatican
forwarded letters from Lutheran clergy to Germany. Such letters were censored by the
Jamaican Postal Censorship Service, and in the first instance the letters went to an
accommodation address.

To the above figures should be added the numbers of merchant seamen so that by 1944
the final count was in excess of 1 , 000 .

As will be mentioned further in the Section on the Hanover Camp , the married men were
a llowed to visit and receive visits from their wives as well as send and receive letters
f rom them.