Behind the Wire: Exhibition: Internment during the First World War. The Global German Experience

German Historical Institute London Podcast

Talks from the Symposium at the launch event for Behind the Wire, an exhibition on Internment durinf the First World War, held at the German Historical Institute, April-June, 2023. During the First World War, German civilians were interned as ‘enemy aliens’ in British Empire locations around the world. British citizens, white and non-white, were interned in Ruhleben camp near Berlin as a retaliatory measure, bringing the global experience of internment back to the German home front as well. For civilian internees across the world, long periods of isolation caused mental health problems in the form of the ‘barbed wire disease’. Humanitarian support came from the Spanish and the Swiss governments, as well as the Red Cross.