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The Bethulie concentration camp (Konsentrasiekamp) was one of the largest British-run internment camps for Boer civilians during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). Established in early 1901 near the town of Bethulie in the present-day Free State province, the camp held thousands of Afrikaner women, children, and elderly men, as well as some Black Africans who were housed in a separate section. The camp was notorious for its high mortality rate, primarily due to measles, typhoid, and malnutrition, with over 1,700 people, mostly children, dying there. The site now includes a cemetery and memorial, often referred to as the Bethulie Concentration Camp Cemetery, which serves as a tangible reminder of the human cost of the war. The town of Bethulie itself, located on the banks of the Orange River, was a strategic point during the war, and the camp was situated near the railway line that supplied British forces. The graves in this cemetery are individually marked, and the site is maintained as a heritage location, reflecting the broader national narrative of the Anglo-Boer War's civilian suffering. The exact layout of the original camp has largely disappeared, but the graveyard remains the primary physical evidence of the camp's existence.
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