From The Leader (Wrexham): "The hidden history of horror, brutality and injustice at Warth Mills WWII prison camp "HIDDEN away behind the walls of an unsuspecting mill lies a history of horror, brutality and injustice. "Sitting between Bury and Radcliffe on banks of the Irwell, and now an office space, during the Second Word War Warth Mills became home to a notorious internment camp housing thousands of falsely imprisoned Italians and German Jews in deplorable conditions. "The previously untold story, one of Bury and the UK's darkest chapters, is now being brought to life as part of project, with an exhibition which opened on Monday. "As the Nazi strangle hold on Europe tightened and Britain became consumed by the war effort, a paranoid xenophobia permeated the nation. "In the uneasy atmosphere Winston Churchill ordered the internment of all Germans, Italians and Austrians in Britain, telling officials to 'Collar the lot'. "Identified as 'Enemy Aliens' thousands of men including artists, ice cream sellers and factory staff, many of whom had lived across Britain for decades or escaped the Nazi deathcamps, were arbitrarily rounded up and put to tribunals before being sent to camps like Warth Mills...." "Built as cotton mill by Mellor Ltd in 1891, Warth Mills is recorded as having 46,000 spindles and employing 500 staff from Radcliffe and Bury by 1911...." Full story and pictures at <http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/16309866.Hidden_horrors__brutality_and_injustice_of_Bury_WWII_prison_camp/?ref=ar> or <https://tinyurl.com/ybxerpp5>. Lynne

I don't think it is a fair description. The UK was at war and there was a great shortage of resources both physical and manpower. The civil and military police, SB, MI5, FSP were all stretched as they had far more places to protect and thousands of enemy aliens to investigate as potential spies or saboteurs - the Germans had a lot of use of Third Columnists as they occupied the rest of Europe. My interest is radio, a large organisation had been put together to monitor initially for enemy agents operating beacons for bombers then also for them communicating with their masters of the continent - this of course expanded to the whole code breaking operation. It should be remembered that SOE later used many people who had lived or lived in occupied Europe, had dual nationality, were married to foreigners etc. i.e. a similar type of person to those interned in the UK. I am sure at the time if the public were asked if they wanted resources used to house Allied servicemen in reasonable comfort or enemy aliens then they would have said it was more important to provide decent accommodation for our own servicemen. There were sabotage attacks or attempted attacks but they came mainly from Irish republicans working for the Germans and the Irish were never interned! Martin Briscoe Fort William Ancestry DNA, FTDNA (B68554), GEDMatch (A374507) -----Original Message----- From: Lynne [mailto:lklein@mindspring.com] Sent: Saturday, August 4, 2018 9:49 PM To: Undisclosed recipients: Subject: [LAN] Warth Mills WWII prison camp From The Leader (Wrexham): "The hidden history of horror, brutality and injustice at Warth Mills WWII prison camp

I must admit that I did react to the phrase "thousands of falsely imprisoned ..." No. You can make a case for saying "unjustly imprisoned", but not, so far as I know, "falsely" - that would imply it was against the formal rules as decided by the government, or they weren't aliens, etc. Words matter - as I'm sure we all agree as we pour over what it says in the will (say) we're trying to understand! Adrian