Elizabeth Cecilia van Zyl (22 April 1894 – 9 May 1901) South African child inmate of the Bloemfontein concentration camp who died from typhoid fever during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Elizabeth Cecilia van Zyl (22 April 1894 – 9 May 1901) South African child inmate of the Bloemfontein concentration camp who died from typhoid fever during the Second Anglo-Boer War. Elizabeth Cecilia van Zyl. Emily Hobhouse tells the story of the young Lizzie van Zyl who died in the Bloemfontein concentration camp: She was a frail, weak little child in desperate need of good care. Yet, because her mother was one of the "undesirables" due to the fact that her father neither surrendered nor betrayed his people, Lizzie was placed on the lowest rations and so perished with hunger that, after a month in the camp, she was transferred to the new small hospital. Here she was treated harshly. The English disposed doctor and his nurses did not understand her language and, as she could not speak English, labeled her an idiot although she was mentally fit and normal. One day she dejectedly started calling for her mother, when a Mrs Botha walked over to her to console her. She was just telling the child that she would soon see her mother again, when she was brusquely interrupted by one of the nurses who told her not to interfere with the child as she was a nuisance". Quote from Stemme uit die Verlede ("Voices from the Past") - a collection of sworn statements by women who were detained in the concentration camps during the Second Boer War (1899-1902).
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Photo credit: © GL Archive / Alamy / Afripics
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