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A Tale of Two Treatments: The Materiality of Internment on the Isle of Man in World Wars I and II

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Archaeologies of Internment

Part of the book series: One World Archaeology ((WORLDARCH))

Abstract

The Isle of Man was used by the British government for civilian internment during both World Wars, and in both cases this greatly altered the population levels on the island. The authorities organised, housed, and controlled the internees very differently in each conflict, however. This chapter explores the different material experiences of male internees in the First World War camps at specially built Knockaloe and at a requisitioned holiday camp at Douglas. These will be contrasted with the Second World War when internees lived in camps created from adapted boarding houses at several resorts around the coast. These two internment strategies affected both locals and internees in very different ways.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Yvonne Cresswell and Jennifer Kewley Draskau for all their help and encouragement as I have begun to explore internment on the Isle of Man, and the ways in which an archaeological perspective can contribute to this subject. Both have made valuable suggestions that have improved this paper.

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Correspondence to Harold Mytum .

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Mytum, H. (2011). A Tale of Two Treatments: The Materiality of Internment on the Isle of Man in World Wars I and II. In: Myers, A., Moshenska, G. (eds) Archaeologies of Internment. One World Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9666-4_3

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