SA Union: Second World War Koffiefontein Internment Camp Badge

Form:

Pressed or cast medal. Edge follows design

By:

Date:

1946 to 1948

Ref:

Laidlaw: 1101;

Variations:

Size	Metal	Mass	Value
27 mm (width)	White Metal (Lapel Back)		$110
26.5 mm (width)	Copper (Lapel Back)	2.5 gm	$110
26,5 mm (width) 22 mm (Pin)	White Metal (Pin Back)	5.3 gm	$110
25.0 mm (width)	White Metal (Brooch)	5.3 gm	$110

Edge:

Plain.

Obverse:

Barbwire strand.

Reverse:

Fitting for wear

Notes:

Barbwire badges were worn by those South Africans who, during the Second World War, has been detained at the Koffiefontein Internment Camp in the Free State. The camp mainly house Italian and German POWs but some 800 South Africans suspected of endangering the war effort were interned there in a separate part of the camp. Most were members of the Ossewabrandwag (oxwagon sentinel), a far-right group of Afrikaner Nationalists, unreconciled to a South Africa loyal to Britain. The group had about 50,000 members but those interned belonged to the Stormjaers, the para-military wing responsible for acts of sabotage. The other South Africans interned were the mainly English-speaking members of the anti-Semitic South African Nazi Party known as the 'Grey Shirts' suspected of espionage.

The barbwire badges here were worn by the Grey Shirts after the war.

The members of the Ossewabrandwag produced a different style of barbwire badge (Laidlaw 1138)