The forced labour and extermination camps established in Europe during the Second World War gave the common meaning to the term ‘concentration camp’ which it has today. However, the practice of concentrating civilians in guarded camps or centres, specifically as part of a counter-guerrilla military strategy during wartime, long predated and outlasted the Second World War. Consequently, quite accurately it has long been argued that the origins of concentration camps lie in the colonial arenas of imperial powers at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Indeed, it was in the context of the British camps in South Africa (1900–2) that the term ‘concentration camp’ was first put into general currency in English.
Most of the camps …show more content…
This process never takes place unnoticed for it influences individuals and modifies them fundamentally. Decolonization could be described with the materialization of the well-known words ‘the last shall be first and the first last’. In the struggle for decolonization individualism is the first to disappear. Henceforward, the interests of one will be the interests of all, for in concrete fact everyone will be discovered by the troops, everyone will be massacred—or everyone will be saved. The atheist’s motto ‘look out for yourself’ is in this context forbidden and this is what the Polemi concentration camp case …show more content…
Therefore, it is widely believed that the living conditions in Polemi camp were exactly the same as in any other concentration camp in Cyprus such as in Kokkinotrimithia or in Pyla. However, evidences suggest that the conditions in Polemi concentration camp were more difficult than elsewhere. That is because, firstly, at the beginning the Polemi concentration camp was under Scottish responsibility and not under the responsibility of the police as it was the usual case. Secondly, the construction of the concentration camp has been very sloppy because of its temporary nature and thirdly, because of the absence of any specific regulations as it was the norm in other camps. The only regulation according to Chatzicharalambous was that the detainees were victims left defenceless in the hands of the Scottish who were in high
Most of the camps …show more content…
This process never takes place unnoticed for it influences individuals and modifies them fundamentally. Decolonization could be described with the materialization of the well-known words ‘the last shall be first and the first last’. In the struggle for decolonization individualism is the first to disappear. Henceforward, the interests of one will be the interests of all, for in concrete fact everyone will be discovered by the troops, everyone will be massacred—or everyone will be saved. The atheist’s motto ‘look out for yourself’ is in this context forbidden and this is what the Polemi concentration camp case …show more content…
Therefore, it is widely believed that the living conditions in Polemi camp were exactly the same as in any other concentration camp in Cyprus such as in Kokkinotrimithia or in Pyla. However, evidences suggest that the conditions in Polemi concentration camp were more difficult than elsewhere. That is because, firstly, at the beginning the Polemi concentration camp was under Scottish responsibility and not under the responsibility of the police as it was the usual case. Secondly, the construction of the concentration camp has been very sloppy because of its temporary nature and thirdly, because of the absence of any specific regulations as it was the norm in other camps. The only regulation according to Chatzicharalambous was that the detainees were victims left defenceless in the hands of the Scottish who were in high