DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE BLANKE JEUG IN DIE TWEEDE VRYHEIDSOORLOG

Abstract

This article is a detailed description of the lives of white Youths during the Second War of Independence in South Africa. The plight of children confined in concentration camps all over the country, the high death rate due to malnutrition and the outbreak of disease in the camps are analysed and the attention is focussed on the allarming fact that whereas 6189 burghers died during this war, a total of 27, 927 men, women and children died in concentration camps during the same period. It can thus safely be said that it was much safer at the front than in a concentration camp. Examples of extraordinary valour by young children were numerous during this war and some of these are related in the article.