Elizabeth Cecilia van Zyl (22 April 1894 – 9 May 1901) was a South African child inmate of the British-operated Bloemfontein Concentration Camp who died from typhoid fever during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Lizzie and her mother (Elizabeth Cecilia van Zyl) were deported to the Bloemfontein Concentration Camp on 28 November 1900. They were labelled as 'undesirables' and placed on the lowest food rations because her father, Hermanus Eg(e)bert Pieter van Zyl (Cape Colony, 21 March 1859 – Bothaville, Orange Free State, 31 January 1921), had refused to surrender. In December 1900 or January 1901, Lizzie was separated from her mother and sent to the infirmary barracks in the concentration camp, as she was starving and had typhoid fever.
She died on 9 May 1901, from typhoid fever and starvation. At the time of her death, she was seven years old and weighed about 6.8 kilograms (15 lb).
This became a huge scandal in Britain when it came out. The government ended up creating an all women commission who were able to drastically bring down the mortality rate and improve conditions, but that wasn’t exactly a comfort to those who had already died.
One Long Night -- A Global History of Concentration Camps covers this. It's depressing to see that this horrific institution is unbroken from Cuba in the late 1800s until today. We never learn, and we almost never seem to stop it in time.
CherryAntAttack on September 4th, 2025 at 14:27 UTC »
Elizabeth Cecilia van Zyl (22 April 1894 – 9 May 1901) was a South African child inmate of the British-operated Bloemfontein Concentration Camp who died from typhoid fever during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Lizzie and her mother (Elizabeth Cecilia van Zyl) were deported to the Bloemfontein Concentration Camp on 28 November 1900. They were labelled as 'undesirables' and placed on the lowest food rations because her father, Hermanus Eg(e)bert Pieter van Zyl (Cape Colony, 21 March 1859 – Bothaville, Orange Free State, 31 January 1921), had refused to surrender. In December 1900 or January 1901, Lizzie was separated from her mother and sent to the infirmary barracks in the concentration camp, as she was starving and had typhoid fever.
She died on 9 May 1901, from typhoid fever and starvation. At the time of her death, she was seven years old and weighed about 6.8 kilograms (15 lb).
GuyLookingForPorn on September 4th, 2025 at 14:56 UTC »
This became a huge scandal in Britain when it came out. The government ended up creating an all women commission who were able to drastically bring down the mortality rate and improve conditions, but that wasn’t exactly a comfort to those who had already died.
DinsyEjotuz on September 4th, 2025 at 15:20 UTC »
One Long Night -- A Global History of Concentration Camps covers this. It's depressing to see that this horrific institution is unbroken from Cuba in the late 1800s until today. We never learn, and we almost never seem to stop it in time.