to read the story click here
COMMENTARY NOVEMBER 15, 2015
or several months now I have been thinking about how to remember and commemorate one hundred .years since the deportation of the German nationals from British India. I became aware of this event in reading the diary of my great great grandmother, Doris Hahn. I had been aware of the internment of Germans during World War II, which is described in such books as "Seven Years in Tibet" I had never known that my ancestors were part of that story a century ago in British India.
When World War I broke out the British were not quite sure what to do with the Germans within their empire. Several thousand Germans were on the South Asian subcontinent. A larger number of German speakers were also working and living in India that were Americans and Swiss (some Norwegians and Danes as well). They were protected from any prejudices. But the German Nationals posed a problem, in the eyes of some a real threat to British interests. Regardless of their occupation or orientation most Germans (along with Austrians and Belgiums) were typically nationalistic. They were seen as Enemies of the State. Their actions, even for those who had worked in full cooperation with the British Raj, were immediately suspect. German missionaries, in particular, already had a reputation of encouraging native Indians to seek self-determination and independence. Rumors lingered that some Indians were open to a transfer of power from the British Raj to a Kaiser-Hind. If such sentiments were actually held by any Indians it had an insignificant impact on the internal politics of India.
[Ironically there was an award the British gave for those who had contributed something important to the understanding of India. It was called the Kaiser-ki-Hind. Both Ferdinand Hahn (Doris' son) and Paul Wagner (Doris' son-in-law) had been awarded this award. Paul received it in 1914, a year later he was in an internment camp.]
The main focus of the German Question for the British was their hope to use the German nationals as pawns in the game of war. By the end of 1914 they began to gather all the Germans into internment camps. By July 1915 the final internment of all Germans in South Asia was complete. All the work was taken from the German missionaries. Some were given to Anglican missions while the native churches, at least in the region around Ranchi, known as Chotanagpur, were left to manage on their own.
A few women, for health reasons, were not interned. They were permitted to stay in house arrest in territory headquarters. My Great Great Grandmother, Doris, was one of those women. She and another old missionary woman, Caroline Uffman were permitted to stay in a house on the mission compound in Ranchi. Her two youngest daughters were permitted to stay and care for the old women. In truth, they were in their early sixties, but both had recently seriously suffered several bouts of cholera.
The British only discovered that Bismark was not interested in protecting German Nationals beyond Europe and their hopes for brokering some kind of deal. The decision to deport all Germans was made. But they didn't want to spend much money on the project. A deal was brokered with the Ship the Golconda. It first took a ship full from Bombay. The second was meant to return to Madras for another ship load and the third trip would pick up the final group from Calcutta. If the war should last so long. The Golconda returned to India but because the seas had become so dangerous, and ocean travel had to go around Africa, the Golconda agreed to do only one more trip. 950 souls were crowded onto a ship built for 500.
Doris records the internment and deportation in her diary. It is a remarkable first witness telling. Doris writes mournfully about what it felt like to have one's life work and home stripped from you. German missionaries had been in India since the 1700s. The Gossner Mission that sponsored the Hahn family had been in Chotanagpur since the 1830s.
All the 12 Hahn children had been born in India. Two children died in childhood. In the end Doris is a widow under house arrest in British India, her two youngest daughters with her. These two, Dore and Libele, lived all their lives in India, but for three visits to Germany. In the internment camp was a daughter, two sons-in-laws and two grandchildren. Her two eldest daughters left India just before the war began. Mietze returned to Germany to live out her years in a sanatorium in the Hartz mountains. And Louise, upon recognizing that the war would prevent a return to India, went on to America where four other siblings live. The one son who remained in Germany, has been estranged to her for years (but that is yet another story).
In reading the information Doris presents in her Diary I could understand the complexity of her emotion. She loved India but she also loved Germany. She perhaps had never felt complete in either place. But Dore and Libele, now in their early twenties, only knew British India as their home. So I began to explore how they might have felt.
This latest chapter was drafted from these musings. This is my offering to honor their memory and experience of a century ago. Go to story click here
When World War I broke out the British were not quite sure what to do with the Germans within their empire. Several thousand Germans were on the South Asian subcontinent. A larger number of German speakers were also working and living in India that were Americans and Swiss (some Norwegians and Danes as well). They were protected from any prejudices. But the German Nationals posed a problem, in the eyes of some a real threat to British interests. Regardless of their occupation or orientation most Germans (along with Austrians and Belgiums) were typically nationalistic. They were seen as Enemies of the State. Their actions, even for those who had worked in full cooperation with the British Raj, were immediately suspect. German missionaries, in particular, already had a reputation of encouraging native Indians to seek self-determination and independence. Rumors lingered that some Indians were open to a transfer of power from the British Raj to a Kaiser-Hind. If such sentiments were actually held by any Indians it had an insignificant impact on the internal politics of India.
[Ironically there was an award the British gave for those who had contributed something important to the understanding of India. It was called the Kaiser-ki-Hind. Both Ferdinand Hahn (Doris' son) and Paul Wagner (Doris' son-in-law) had been awarded this award. Paul received it in 1914, a year later he was in an internment camp.]
The main focus of the German Question for the British was their hope to use the German nationals as pawns in the game of war. By the end of 1914 they began to gather all the Germans into internment camps. By July 1915 the final internment of all Germans in South Asia was complete. All the work was taken from the German missionaries. Some were given to Anglican missions while the native churches, at least in the region around Ranchi, known as Chotanagpur, were left to manage on their own.
A few women, for health reasons, were not interned. They were permitted to stay in house arrest in territory headquarters. My Great Great Grandmother, Doris, was one of those women. She and another old missionary woman, Caroline Uffman were permitted to stay in a house on the mission compound in Ranchi. Her two youngest daughters were permitted to stay and care for the old women. In truth, they were in their early sixties, but both had recently seriously suffered several bouts of cholera.
The British only discovered that Bismark was not interested in protecting German Nationals beyond Europe and their hopes for brokering some kind of deal. The decision to deport all Germans was made. But they didn't want to spend much money on the project. A deal was brokered with the Ship the Golconda. It first took a ship full from Bombay. The second was meant to return to Madras for another ship load and the third trip would pick up the final group from Calcutta. If the war should last so long. The Golconda returned to India but because the seas had become so dangerous, and ocean travel had to go around Africa, the Golconda agreed to do only one more trip. 950 souls were crowded onto a ship built for 500.
Doris records the internment and deportation in her diary. It is a remarkable first witness telling. Doris writes mournfully about what it felt like to have one's life work and home stripped from you. German missionaries had been in India since the 1700s. The Gossner Mission that sponsored the Hahn family had been in Chotanagpur since the 1830s.
All the 12 Hahn children had been born in India. Two children died in childhood. In the end Doris is a widow under house arrest in British India, her two youngest daughters with her. These two, Dore and Libele, lived all their lives in India, but for three visits to Germany. In the internment camp was a daughter, two sons-in-laws and two grandchildren. Her two eldest daughters left India just before the war began. Mietze returned to Germany to live out her years in a sanatorium in the Hartz mountains. And Louise, upon recognizing that the war would prevent a return to India, went on to America where four other siblings live. The one son who remained in Germany, has been estranged to her for years (but that is yet another story).
In reading the information Doris presents in her Diary I could understand the complexity of her emotion. She loved India but she also loved Germany. She perhaps had never felt complete in either place. But Dore and Libele, now in their early twenties, only knew British India as their home. So I began to explore how they might have felt.
This latest chapter was drafted from these musings. This is my offering to honor their memory and experience of a century ago. Go to story click here