Under the Kaiser's Crescent Moon
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GERMANY: INDIGENOUS SERVICE Ritual foot washing before prayer at the Wünsdorf- Zossen camp. Bpk/ Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin, UNDER THE No. 00070116. KAISER’S CRESCENT MOON Two Indigenous Australians spent the last year of the Great War at an unlikely prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. AARON PEGRAM large wooden mosque that prison camps in Germany at the end Oppenheim’s plan came to fruition once stood 40 kilometres of the First World War. By treating in October 1914 when the Ottoman south of Berlin illustrated Muslim prisoners well and cultivating Empire entered the war as an ally to the global reach of the an appearance of religious freedom, the Germany and the Austro-Hungarian First World War. Built German authorities hoped to convince Empire. With mounting pressure from betweenA the villages of Wünsdorf and the prisoners to wage a holy war against Kaiser Wilhelm II, Sultan Mehmed V Zossen in July 1915, it was the first their oppressive colonial masters. It was appealed to the Ottoman Empire and mosque on German soil and formed an unlikely place for two Indigenous to Muslims across the world to support the centrepiece of a special prisoner- Australians captured on the Western the Ottoman war effort and its allies of-war camp that sought to destabilise Front to spend the last year of the in what he declared to be a holy war the imperial control of Britain and Great War. against the Entente. France. By 1916, the camp held more The idea behind Germany’s “jihad Oppenheim was appointed head of than 4,500 Muslim and colonial troops experiment” originated with the the newly created Intelligence Bureau from British India and Egypt, and from German diplomat, archaeologist and for the East and was involved in the French North Africa, who were granted aristocrat Max von Oppenheim, who establishment of the Halbmondlager the freedom to practise their faith in had studied Arabic and Islam in Egypt, at Wünsdorf–Zossen outside Berlin. quiet and picturesque surroundings. In travelled extensively throughout the This came about after German troops addition to the mosque, the prisoners Ottoman Empire, and had a posting at captured tens of thousands of French, were provided with spiritual texts, were the German Consulate General in Cairo Russian and British prisoners in the allowed to observe Ramadan, and had in the years before the war. When war opening engagements on both the a regular program of sermons from was declared, Oppenheim returned to Eastern and Western Fronts. Not visiting spiritual leaders. This so-called Germany as an expert on the Middle only would the camps at Wünsdorf– Halbmondlager (a “crescent moon East, whereupon he prepared a brief on Zossen and Weinberg serve to recruit camp”, referring to the Islamic symbol) revolutionising the Islamic territories volunteers for the Sultan’s jihad for French and British prisoners at of Germany’s principal enemies. To against Germany’s military enemies; Wünsdorf–Zossen, and another for do this, Germany would rely on the the Halbmondlager, with its ornate prisoners from the Russian Caucasus Ottoman Sultan to call on the world’s wooden mosque, became a special at nearby Weinberg, were the only Muslims to engage in a holy war propaganda camp to show the rest of camps of their kind among the 172 against Britain, France and Russia. the international community that 32 | WARTIME ISSUE 76 WARTIME ISSUE 76 | 33 GERMANY: INDIGENOUS SERVICE Otto Stiehl’s Germany was treating prisoners fairly to have served in the First World War, given opportunities available to few photographic and in accordance with international including at least 12 with Indigenous Indigenous Australians at the time. study of Private law. In the end, as many as 3,000 heritage known to have endured the He could recite Shakespeare and was Roland Carter, Muslim prisoners were recruited privations and uncertainty of life in a particularly good penman; he carried 51st Battalion, at Wünsdorf-Zossen in from the camps and shipped off to German captivity. Roland Carter had his foster-father’s thick Scottish brogue 1918. Bpk/ Museum Baghdad, where they went on to fight worked as a labourer in the years before and was known to play the bagpipes Europäischer on the side of the Central Powers the war and was the first Ngarrindjeri exceptionally well. Grant enlisted Kulturen, Berlin, on the Mesopotamian and Persian man to enlist in the AIF from the in the AIF in January 1916 but was No. 30029617. fronts. But plunging morale and Point McLeay Mission Station on Lake delayed from embarking as a result of revolts within their ranks suggested Alexandrina in South Australia. Sailing regulations that prevented Indigenous scepticism about a jihad against the for Egypt with a reinforcement group Australians from leaving the country western world that really applied only for the 10th Battalion in September without government approval. He later to Britain, France and Russia. As well 1915, he was transferred to the 50th sailed for England with a 13th Battalion as failing to recruit prisoners to fight a Battalion and went on to fight in France. reinforcement group and proceeded targeted holy war against their former He was wounded at Mouquet Farm and to the fighting on the Western Front. armies, Oppenheim’s experiment failed on 2 April 1917 participated in the ill- Grant joined his battalion in the line miserably in its attempt to destabilise fated assault on the village of Noreuil, near Gueudecourt and fought his the Entente’s colonial control. where he was captured along with 80 only action on the Western Front at The Halbmondlager remained other men of his battalion. Nursing Bullecourt on 11 April 1917. Wounded active for the rest of the war, although a gunshot wound to his shoulder, by grenade fragments, he was among it was not strictly a camp for Muslim Carter was treated at a German field the 1,170 Australians of the 4th Some anthropologists considered a visit to Wünsdorf-Zossen “as worthwhile as a trip around the world”. prisoners of war. By mid-1917, the camp hospital in Valenciennes, where it is Division taken prisoner that day. contained Chinese and Vietnamese said he discussed Ngarrindjeri healing Grant passed through a field hospital, who had been lumped in with French methods with German doctors. He was transported to Dülmen in the colonial prisoners – among them was transferred to the hospital at Rhineland, then assigned to a labour Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians and the prisoner-of-war camp at Zerbst camp near to Wittenberg. He was then Senegalese. Sikhs, Hindus and Punjabis on Germany’s Elbe River, and went transferred to the Halbmondlager near of the British Indian Army shared to the Halbmondlager at Wünsdorf– Berlin around January 1918. quarters with Nepalese Ghurkhas, Zossen around November 1917. Carter By the time Carter and Grant arrived Afghans and men from the British West may have crossed paths with Gordon at Wünsdorf–Zossen, the camp was Indies; they joined smaller numbers Naley, another Indigenous Australian receiving its fair share of visitors from of Canadians, Newfoundlanders and captured in France, who also passed the German scientific community. The British prisoners of war who were through Valenciennes and Zerbst. exotic mix of prisoners within a short moved there towards the end of 1917. (Naley’s story appears on page 27.) distance of Berlin’s universities gave At the time of the armistice, Wünsdorf– Douglas Grant arrived at Wünsdorf– anthropologists the rare opportunity Zossen held about 4,000 British and Zossen not long after Carter. As a to study non-Europeans on European French prisoners, many of whom were baby, Grant had been rescued by two soil. Some considered a visit to assigned to outlying labour camps to members of a collecting expedition Wünsdorf-Zossen “as worthwhile as help support the German war effort. from the Australian Museum following a trip around the world”. With support There were more than 13,400 Russians a massacre in south-west Queensland. from the German army and a variety at nearby Weinberg. He was adopted by one of the collecting of government ministries, a steady Among the 500 or so British prisoners party and raised no differently from stream of researchers, artists and at Wünsdorf–Zossen in early 1918 his white foster brother. Grant photographers visited the camp to were two dark-skinned Indigenous attended school in Sydney, trained study the ethnic diversity of the allied Australians who had the misfortune as a draughtsman and worked for prisoners of war, who represented the of being captured in the fighting on several years at the Mort’s Dock & far reaches of the British and French the Western Front. Roland Carter Engineering Company before leaving empires. One project was the Royal and Douglas Grant were among an to work as a wool classer on a sheep Prussian Phonographic Commission, estimated 1,500 Indigenous Australians station near Scone, NSW. Grant was led by philosopher and psychologist 34 | WARTIME ISSUE 76 WARTIME ISSUE 76 | 35 GERMANY: INDIGENOUS SERVICE to see the moving pictures,” Carter at the potash works at Steinförde bei Prussian Phonographic Commission. wrote. “All the Native prisoners of war Wietze throughout June and July 1918, Carter was ecstatic: “I cannot find word went.” Another Australian prisoner thanks to Grant’s efforts. good enough to tell how delighted and remembered Grant being given the After the armistice, Carter and overjoyed I was to hear of you my dear freedom of visiting Berlin, where Grant were repatriated to England friend,” he wrote in 1947. “I am going to “being black, he couldn’t get away”. and returned to Australia, where they try my hardest to come over to see you As well as visiting local museums, it were discharged from the AIF.