6 commentsThe fascinating life of Fritz Joubert Duquesne
Last week, I stumbled upon the name Fritz Joubert Duquesne. His wikipedia page describes his life as a Boer in the Second Boer War through his work as a German spy in the US during World War II. He was captured along with 32 other German spies in the Duquesne spy ring in 1941 (one of the most important espionage cases in US history).
Much of Duquesne’s life reads like an adventure novel: he travels the world, fighting for one country or another, gets captured and charms his way out of prison, becomes a spy and holds lifelong vendettas. In the process of learning about this story, I read a lot about the Second Boer War, which was quite interesting. The difference in fighting styles between the British and Boers made for tactical asymmetries in both directions. I’d like to learn more about it in the future.
One thing that struck me was this:
While Duquesne was in the British army, they passed through his parent’s farm in Nylstroom which he found destroyed under Kitchener’s scorched earth policy. He also learned that his sister was murdered and his mother was dying in a British concentration camp. Duquesne was horrified and outraged, and made it his life’s work to take revenge on Kitchener and the British.
The fact that mistreatment of Boers at the turn of the century lead him to sabotage British ships in WWI and spy for the Germans in WWII shows how significant the effect was. It seems that there are some easy comparisons to make with western countries’ actions in the Middle East, too.
I didn’t know about the concentration camps used by the British in the Boer War. That was the first time the word “concentration camp” was used, though it’s not the first time something has fit the definition. From what I’ve read, they were nothing compared to the Nazi ones, though. Ha, what a weak compliment!
6 comments
Hi Matt
I am from South Africa and I am Afrikaans, I have been brought up my whole life on the things that the British had done to us as a nation (Afrikaans only, but we do know what they did to the Zulu’s and the Xhosa’s and many other culture groups in South Africa) and although the Concentration camps where a lot less severe the damage was the same. Percentage wise the same amount of people was lost to the Afrikaner nation. The concentration camps where created to kill and not to detain and the scorched earth policy destroyed thousands of farms, livestock and lives. Im not posting this with intention to convince, spew anger or any such reasons, just to maybe help you in your quest to understand the evnts better. Fritz wasnt seen as an Afrikaans hero yet he killed one of the most hated figures in our history. His life is one of tradgedy filled with hate for the British. The second Anglo-Boer war might not have been the same in scale as as others yet Generals like Christiaan de Wet was second in costing the British Crown the most pounds in war ever (as a single person though
The true nature of the war has become blurry in many cases (Afrikaner propagande writings during Apartheid and English retaliation writing) but it is a rich part of our history and gives great insight to world politics of the time.
hope my rant makes sense
I am British but lived amongst the Stellenbosch Afrikaners and went to school in Wellie (Wellington). There was a lot of (understandable) hatred towards the Brits then, but I managed to carve out my own space and always preferred the Afrikaners to the more arrogant and loudmouth souties – or so they seemed to me.
The Brits were guilty of a lot of things in the past, but it does no good burying yourself in hatred. I prefer to “move on”. If I can sock it to an enemy because he has got too near, I will, and enjoy it. But if it means taking a few steps in his direction, I honestly couldn’t be bothered.
Life is too short. I am seventy, and have just started a local community newspaper. The secret is to keep occupied, the hatred disipates then.
My favourite quotation is from a General Joubert who died at the beginning of the second Boer War. I’ll see if I can find it – hang on a sec…
Ah! Google Desktop triumphs again…
Petrus “Piet” Jacobus Joubert (January 20, 1834 – March 28, 1900), was Commandant-General of the South African Republic from 1880 to 1900. He once wrote:
“I bear no hatred against England; I hate no one; everyone is welcome in our country, whether he be a Frenchman, or German, or American or Englishman, I am always ready to offer him the hand of friendship. But let the entire world come and try to tread on me and try to put its foot on my neck, and try to take away the freedom of my country and my nation then, with a guard of twenty burghers, I shall fight, yes, against the whole world, until I am either free or dead.”
Sod the twenty burghers, I’d go it alone, but this is the best saying that I can identify with
Andrew Ampers Taylor.
Hi Matt
I am English speaking S. African who had relatives in politics and in the military during the Boer war. I enjoy reading anything about the Boer war and the later wars of the 20th century.
As can be seen from the first two posts there is still a lot of (not unjustified) ill feeling regarding that war and in particular the concentration camps amongst the Afrikaners. I have a lot of Afrikaans friends now and this subject almost always brings out a negative reaction when the subject gets raised. One of the things that I think historians tend to overlook is the aftermath of the Boer War. The farm burning policy impoverished a huge number of people and those people moved to the urban areas after the war. Those urbanised boers formed the mainstay of the National party which brought with it the Apartheid policy amongst other things. My point being: The boer war has affected the politics of this country to this day.
I recommend Thomas Packenhams books on the Boer war. Though he is a British historian, he deals sensitively with both sides of the war. I know that General Constant Viljoen (Afrikaans speaking) reads his books as well as at least one of my Afrikaans speaking friends.
I believe it was Kitchener who set up the Concentration Camps and Roberts who initiated the scorched earth policy. But there is another English writer who is sensitive to both sides and that is Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. I am busy reading his “The Great Boer War” available free on the “Project Gutenbuerg”.
Here is the first paragraph in Chapter One – I have made it into sub paragraphs for easse of reading.
“TAKE a community of Dutchmen of the type of those who defended themselves for fifty years against all the power of Spain at a time when Spain was the greatest power in the world.
“Intermix with them a strain of those inflexible French Huguenots who gave up home and fortune and left their country for ever at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The product must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon earth.
“Take this formidable people and train them for seven generations in constant warfare against savage men and ferocious beasts, in circumstances under which no weakling could survive, place them so that they acquire exceptional skill with weapons and in horsemanship, give them a country which is eminently suited to the tactics of the huntsman, the marksman, and the rider.
“Then, finally, put a finer temper upon their military qualities by a dour fatalistic Old Testament religion and an ardent and consuming patriotism. Combine all these qualities and all these impulses in one individual, and you have the modern Boer-the most formidable antagonist who ever crossed the path of Imperial Britain.
“Our military history has largely consisted in our conflicts with France, but Napoleon and all his veterans have never treated us so roughly as these bard-bitten farmers with their ancient theology and their inconveniently modern rifles.”
When you read this you may begin to understand the fear which rose amongst the blacks recently when Bok van Blerk recorded “De la Rey”.
I would like to see a web based newspaper (no distribution problems) for all the Afrikaners scattered in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina (4000 from 1902) Britain, Holland, Belgium, and all over Africa (South of the Sahara).It would take a little organisation but surely someone younger than myself could do it.
You could start off with four to six pages a month, advertise for contributions and grow each month as more people came on board. This is how I am starting my local newspaper in Finchley http://www.finchleyarrow.co.uk – nobody, including me, earns a penny from it so more people are coming forward to help.
I would help with marketing.
Andrew Ampers Taylor
Many thanks for all of your contributions here. As I mentioned, I knew almost nothing of this topic until recently, and you’ve helped me understand the effects of these conflicts a bit better. I hope to read some of the books you’ve recommended sometime, but I’m way behind on my reading as it is
I’ll write a followup post about your comments, since I think other people will be interested in reading them too.
P.S. Andrew- nice quote from Joubert. It reminds me of things I’ve read from the American revolutionary era.
[...] may not recall, but a while ago, I wrote a post about the life of Fritz Joubert Duquesne (Boer War fighter, German spy, etc). Since posting that, several South Africans (both Afrikaans and [...]
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