Boven-Digoel concentration camp

Boven-Digoel
A view of Boven-Digoel concentration camp, Dutch East Indies, 1927.
A view of Boven-Digoel concentration camp, Dutch East Indies, 1927.
Map
CountryKingdom of the Netherlands
ColonyDutch East Indies
LocationTanahmerah and other sites on the banks of the river Digul in Molukken Residency
Opened1927
Closed1947
Founded byDutch colonial government

Boven-Digoel, often simply called Digoel, was a Dutch concentration camp for political detainees operated in the Dutch East Indies from 1927 to 1947. The Dutch used it to detain thousands of Indonesians, most of whom were members of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), Indonesian nationalists, and their families. It was located in a remote area on the banks of the river Digul, in what is now Boven Digoel Regency in South Papua, Indonesia. The camp was originally opened to exiled communists after the failed 1926 uprisings in Java and Sumatra; at its largest extent in 1930 it held around 1300 internees and 700 family members.