| Jodensavanne internment camp | |
|---|---|
 The site of the Jodensavanne camp in 1947 | |
  Location within Suriname | |
| General information | |
| Town or city | Redi Doti, Para District |
| Country |  Suriname |
| Coordinates | 5°25′35″N 54°59′01″W / 5.4263°N 54.9835°W |
Jodensavanne (Dutch: Kamp Jodensavanne) was a Dutch internment camp for political prisoners from the Dutch East Indies operated in Surinam during World War II (from 1942 to 1946).[1][2] The camp was named after a nearby, long-abandoned Jewish colony, Jodensavanne.
Although the camp was intended to imprison so-called "irreconcilable" German sympathizers from the Dutch East Indies, including supporters of the Dutch NSB and the Nazi Party, roughly a quarter of the prisoners apparently were not supporters of those parties; these included Indonesian nationalists and others.[2][3] Among the most famous prisoners of the camp were Ernest Douwes Dekker, an Indonesian nationalist, L. J. A. Schoonheyt, a government doctor in the Indies who had become a NSB supporter, and Lo Hartog van Banda, a Dutch cartoonist who had been a Conscientious objector.
Eight people died in the camp during its existence, including two who were shot to death by marines while in handcuffs, which led to a government investigation in 1949–50.[4]
- ^ van der Horst, Liesbeth (2004). Wereldoorlog in de West : Suriname, de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba, 1940–1945 (in Dutch). Hilversum: Verloren. pp. 75–9. ISBN 9789065507945.
- ^ a b Captain, Esther; Jones, Guno (2010). "De interneringen in Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen". Oorlogserfgoed overzee: de erfenis van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Aruba, Curaçao, Indonesië en Suriname (ebook) (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Bakker. ISBN 9789035135840.
- ^ De Graaf, Jan (December 5, 1986). "Hugo Pos rekent af met zijn demonen". Het Parool.
- ^ "Strafkolonie Jodensavanne". Werkgroup Caraïbische Letteren (in Dutch).