German Citizens Interned in Hong Kong, September 1939
Posted: October 6th, 2015 | 1 Comment »Meant to post this in September but forgot!! Anyway, September 1939 and all Germans living in Hong Kong were interned – put in a Catholic School and surrounded with barbed-wire. The school was La Salle College on Prince Edward Road in Kowloon run by the Christian Brothers (the current site is a later building – the original, as in 1939, is far grander and shown below). The fact that the internees preferred their two squares a day in internment to being shipped back to Hitler’s Fatherland may be a bit of Brit propaganda but maybe not – sunny Hong Kong was probably preferable to Germany.
Hong Kong went on full war alert – much as the UK with Air Raid Wardens, Fire Marshals, beefing up protections around the harbour against sneak attacks and dealing with the possibility of air attack. The final battle was of course not to come until after Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and was, of course, against the Japanese rather than the Germans….
Thanks for posting this. I found with a google search as I am currently reading a memoir written by my grandfather (Hans Melchior) and he describes this event. He was freed, along with all Jews and non Nazi party members, after one month in the camp, from where he made his way to Shanghai (on a british ship). His wife and one year old child were never put in the camp.