New edition of one of our most popular books now with 96 pages of full colour illustrations. Edited by Yvonne M. Cresswell.

Internment is a weapon used in wartime by governments to protect their own citizens against resident foreigners of enemy nationality.

In both World Wars fenced-off camps in the Isle of Man served as secure detention centres. From 1914 to 1919 twenty nine thousand German and Austrian men were held here, and from 1940 tens of thousands of Germans, Austrians, Italians, Hungarians, Finns and Japanese found themselves behind barbed wire stockades. A small number of women (over 4000 including children) were billeted in two sea-side towns.

This book shows how quickly the human spirit and ingenuity asserted themselves and left tangible testimonies in music, literature, crafts and particularly the visual arts. Paradoxically, German Art, proscribed in Germany, flourished in internment camps on the Isle of Man.