Letter from Paul Rothe at Holsworthy Internment Camp to his family in Germany

MLMSS 10027

fonds

17 November 1917

1001604

0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder) - manuscript

The internment camp for enemy aliens at Holsworthy, near Liverpool, was the largest in Australia during World War I. The military base functioned as an internment camp between February 1915 and 1920, housing almost 7000 men. Most of the internees were citizens of Germany or the various states of the Austro-Hungarian empire who were domiciled or working in Australia at the outbreak of war.

References:
Library correspondence file
Donald, Beverley (2014). Holdsworthy Internment Camp during World War I. The Dictionary of Sydney. http://home.dictionaryofsydney.org/ (accessed 13 February 2018)

Letter and accompanying envelope from Paul Rothe, a prisoner of war interned at Holsworthy camp near Liverpool, New South Wales, to Mr Carl Rothe and Familie, Altenberg, Germany.

The manuscript letter, in which Rothe describes the work he has been involved with at the camp, is written in cursive Kurrent, a form of German-language handwriting based on late medieval cursive writing. The letter is on official writing paper with printed letterhead: ‘Concentration Camps, Australia. Prisoner of War Letter’.

The accompanying envelope is printed: ‘Service des Prisonniers de Guerre’ and ‘Prisoner of War Letter Free’. The front of the envelope bears the blue authorising signature cachet of the censor, ‘Lieutenant-Colonel R. Holman, Concentration Camps, Liverpool, N.S.W.’ The back of the envelope is endorsed with the sender’s name, company and mess: ‘Paul Rothe, Prisoner of War, G.E.C. C.40/12, Liverpool, N.S.W.’

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