1-153-575 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Boer women and children in a British concentration camp in the Transvaal, Boer War, 1901. This represented the first use of the internment of civilians in camps in wartime. The objective of the British was to hamper the Boer insurgents by removing civilians from the land, thereby restricting the fighters' food supplies. Diet and sanitary conditions in the camps were poor and some 28,000 internees died from disease and malnutrition. From Le Petit Journal, Paris, 13 October 1901.