WW2 Second World War Koffiefontein Internment Barbwire Camp Badge

Description

WW2 Second World War Koffiefontein Internment Barbwire Camp Badge
Size: 28.5 mm
Material: white metal
Reverse: original fitting, please see photo’s
Fine original condition

Box J_14

Barbwire badges were worn by those South Africans who, during the Second World War, had been detained at the Koffiefontein Internment Camp in the Free State. The camp mainly housed Italian and German POWs but some 800 South Africans suspected of endangering the war effort were interned there in a separate part of the camp. Most were members of the Ossewabrandwag (oxwagon sentinel), a far-right group of Afrikaner Nationalists, unreconciled to a South Africa loyal to Britain. The group had about 50,000 members but those interned belonged to the Stormjaers, the para-military wing responsible for acts of sabotage. The other South Africans interned were the mainly English-speaking members of the South African Nazi Party known as the ‘Grey Shirts’ suspected of espionage.