Hutchinson Internment Camp was a World War II internment camp in Douglas, Isle of Man, particularly noted as "the artists' camp" due to the thriving artistic and intellectual life of its internees.
Location and structure
The camp consisted of 39 houses around Hutchinson Square close to Broadway in Douglas on the Isle of Man. Because of the large number of people interned in the relatively small number of houses, internees were required to share beds. One of these houses, Arrandale, came to be used as the camp's sick bay. Major H. O. Daniel was in command of the camp until he was promoted elsewhere. He was a popular leader and was responsible for enabling much of the creative activities of the camp.
History
Following the compulsory evictions of tenants in the properties and the erection of two barbed wire fences around the perimeter (in the manner of Mooragh Camp in Ramsey, opened in May), Hutchinson Camp opened in the second week of July 1940. It initially had only 415 internees but by the end of July this figure had risen to 1,205 internees, almost all of whom were German and Austrian.
Numbers fell from September 1940 when the internees who posed no threat to Britain began to be released. This was particularly marked in Hutchinson Camp, where there was an unusually high proportion of Jewish and anti-Nazi internees.
The camp closed during March 1944, when its 228 inmates transferred to Peveril Camp in Peel in order to clear Hutchinson Camp ready for use as a prisoner of war camp.
Camp life
A collection of 150+ photos, taken c. 1940/1 mostly by Major H. O. Daniel, preserved by Klaus Hinrichsen and now freely accessible in the Tate Archive, gives a vivid impression of the Camp facilities, Camp life and art, and of individual internees.
Duties
The houses of the camp formed separate administrative units, wherein the internees took up positions such as of leader, kitchen staff, cleaners, orderlies and cooks. Although these positions were created along military lines by the British guard in charge, Hutchinson Camp was unique on the island in rejecting the military association by replacing the proposed "Camp Captain" title with that of "Camp Leader" or "Camp Father". The role of cook was sometimes taken up by professional chefs within the camp, when available. It was then the role of the other internees only to prepare the fresh local produce ready for cooking. It was through the locally sourced produce that the internees came to enjoy the local Manx speciality of kippers, which were known by some within the camp as "Yom Kippur".
Employment
After an initial period of official mistrust at the beginning of the war, internees were permitted to apply to work outside of the camp, predominantly on local farms. In addition to this the internees carried out professional activities within the camp, taking up again their professions from prior to internment. Besides the professions such as tailors and barbers, a notable case was of a Viennese baker who made cakes to be sold in the "artists' cafe" set up in a laundry room of one of the houses. Artists also charged for their works, offering portraits and other pieces at a price.
Sport
As was the case in the other camps on the island, internees often occupied themselves through sport. There was an inter-camp football league in which Hutchinson competed, though their games were generally played at Onchan Camp, which had a pitch inside the grounds. The internees were also permitted walks under guard outside of the camp and trips to Douglas Bay in order to swim. On such trips the guard gave special attention to one of the few British-born Italian internees, who had competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics for Britain. He had brought his singlet with him to the island and wore it defiantly around the camp as a protest against his internment. Another sporting activity reported from within Hutchinson was the playing of boules on the green at the centre of the camp, although they had to use the brass balls from the camp's bedsteads for want of actual boules balls.
Morale
The internees gave a strong appearance of making the most of and even enjoying their internment in Hutchinson Camp. However, this was often just a show in order to hide their more basic sense of depression. Helmuth Weissenborn was to comment later that: "internment was a continuous torment." This feeling was created by a sense of frustration at being interned, helplessness with regards to the term of their internment and outrage at its injustice. The last of these points was particularly pointed for those internees, Jewish or otherwise, who had suffered in Nazi concentration camps before fleeing to Britain.