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'File 1/A/50 I Publicity' [233r] (465/810)
The record is made up of 1 file (403 folios). It was created in 31 Jul 1939-25 Nov 1939. It was written in English and Arabic. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
B. Apparently the first day of captivity was one of indescribable
horror, since no released prisoner has been able or willing to speak
about it. It may be imagined that the prisoners, herded together
like cattle in a stockyard, were tortured by the fear of the
slaughterhouse.
4. On entering the camp every prisoner had his head shaved,
and was given a coarse linen prison suit with a “Star of David”
stamped in yellow upon it. It seems that no other clothing was
provided, even after the onset of extreme winter weather. Under
clothing could, however, be bought at the canteen at a price. Two
hundred to 800 persons were crowded together in huts originally built
for sixty to eighty persons. Some prisoners appear to have slept on
the bare boards, but most had straw. At first each person had only
one thin blanket, but now some have two. The food is of the
roughest kind, and the Jews receive only half the quantities allowed
to the Aryan prisoners. Six persons eat out of the same dish. Hot
drinks, cheese, and also butter may be bought at prohibitive prices
at the canteen. Each prisoner is allowed to receive 15 marks a week
pocket money from his family. The delay in distributing this money
was such that among those in the sixth week of confinement some
had only received their second week’s allowance.
5. The prisoners are awakened at 5 a.m. each day. They are
paraded at 6 a.m., and are often kept on parade for five or six hours
on end without being allowed to leave the ranks for any purpose.
They are made to do a great deal of marching and physical exercises,
and are kept standing to attention in their thin suits answering
repeated roll-calls. Generally speaking, prisoners are on their feet
almost continuously from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m., and being unaccustomed
to heavy military boots the majority suffer from sore and festering
feet.
6 . Accounts of brutal treatment at the hands of the guards are
too consistent to have been mere fabrications. Prisoners have been
buffeted, kicked, and even beaten and bastinadoed with steel birches.
Some guards never speak to prisoners without hitting them across the
mouth with the back of the hand. The medical attendants are
particularly callous in their disregard for prisoners requiring medical
attention. Sixty sufferers from frost-bite were dismissed without
treatment on being told that their affliction would eventually cure
itself.
7. The day of release is a veritable ordeal. The prisoners about
to be liberated are paraded in the open at 5 a.m., and are kept
standing stripped to the waist until about 10 a.m., when the chief
medical officer inspects them for evidences of ill-treatment. After the
inspection a stream of ice-cold water from a hose-pipe is turned on
them. Before leaving the camp they are addressed by the com-
imindant, who advises them to leave Germany as soon as possible,
^ce should they return to the camp they would never be released.
They are also warned that if they should spread “atrocity stories”
abroad it would not be to the advantage of their co-religionists
About this item
- Content
The file deals with the dissemination in Bahrain of publicity and propaganda material in support of the British and allied cause at the start of the Second World War (1939-45). Most of the information originated with the Ministry of Information in London. The file also contains information on the response of British officials to broadcasts in the region by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and the support given to the allied side by the Ruler and people of Bahrain.
The principal correspondents are the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (principally, Major Charles Geoffrey Prior); the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Bahrain (Hugh Weightman); the Ministry of Information (which is often referred to in the correspondence as MINIF or MINIFORM); the Information Office, Aden; the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. ; and the Government of India.
The papers cover: the selection of Bahrain as the publicity distributing centre for the Arab side of the Gulf, and the appointment of a publicity interpreter at Bahrain, who would also undertake intelligence duties (folios 2-6); India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. telegram explaining the principles adopted as the basis of British publicity abroad (folios 8-9); Arabic broadcasts by the BBC, including comments on the service, many of them critical, by the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (Prior), and the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Bahrain; discussion of the format and publication of the Arabic language Al Bahrain newspaper (e.g. folios 29-30); numerous reports from the Ministry of Information on political, military and economic developments in the war (including contradictions of German propaganda), which were then recast in Bahrain and translated for publication in the newspaper Al Bahrain ; the suggested use of loudspeakers to broadcast a daily Arabic news bulletin (e.g. folios 36-37); official reports forwarded to Bahrain by the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. (e.g. Papers concerning the Treatment of German Nationals in Germany, 1938-1939 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1939) (folios 221-238); covering letters for pamphlets of war interest sent by the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Bahrain to the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) for the use of employees of the company (e.g. folio 266); the support of the Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Hamad [Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah], for the allied cause (e.g. folios 251, 253); the assessment of public opinion on the war in Bahrain and the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. (e.g. folios 279, 281, and 348); and newspaper cuttings used for publicity purposes (folios 313-319).
The Arabic language content of the papers consists of approximately fifteen folios of publicity material and correspondence.
The date range gives the covering dates of the correspondence; the last dated additions to the file are notes on a couple of the documents dated 29 November 1939.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (403 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in chronological order from the front to the rear of the file, except where enclosures of an earlier date are filed after their relevant covering letter, and terminate in a set of notes (folios 396-404). Circled serial numbers in red crayon on certain items of correspondence refer to entries in the notes.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 405; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-395; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled, and are located in the same position as the main sequence. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
- Written in
- English and Arabic in Latin and Arabic script View the complete information for this record
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'File 1/A/50 I Publicity' [233r] (465/810), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/2/174, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100028297537.0x000042> [accessed 21 September 2024]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/R/15/2/174
- Title
- 'File 1/A/50 I Publicity'
- Pages
- 221r:238v
- Author
- Privy Council Office
- Usage terms
- Public Domain