While touring wineries today, I came across the small, non-descript winery of Zanddrift. In fact, if I was not specifically looking for it, I would have easily passed it (which I and my taxi driver still managed to do several times). In fact, the winery itself is closed on Sundays. However, I came for a specific purpose; this was to see the chapel built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II. According to some very preliminary research that I conducted, there were over 100,00 Italian POWs held by the British in South Africa during the war.
The British feared holding their captives in North Africa so close to where they were fighting both the Italians and Germans. It was also difficult to ship prisoners to England and/or Canada and the United States as German ships and submarines were patrolling the Atlantic Ocean. As such, the British felt that the safest route for transport of POWs was southwards down the East Coast of Africa towards South Africa. Transporting Italian POWs to South Africa was also a convenient way to keep prisoners occupied with community service projects such as the building of buildings and/or mountain passes. While the vast majority of POWs returned to Italy after the war, some eventually relocated to both Britain and to South Africa building an expatriot community. There was also somewhat of an Italian community in South Africa, prior to the war, as skilled trades people such as scupltors, builders, marble importers, masons, etc. were needed for other building projects in this British colony of the time. Indeed, several Italian companies were involved, for instance, in the building of the Voortrekker Monument, outside of Pretoria, during the 1930s.
The British feared holding their captives in North Africa so close to where they were fighting both the Italians and Germans. It was also difficult to ship prisoners to England and/or Canada and the United States as German ships and submarines were patrolling the Atlantic Ocean. As such, the British felt that the safest route for transport of POWs was southwards down the East Coast of Africa towards South Africa. Transporting Italian POWs to South Africa was also a convenient way to keep prisoners occupied with community service projects such as the building of buildings and/or mountain passes. While the vast majority of POWs returned to Italy after the war, some eventually relocated to both Britain and to South Africa building an expatriot community. There was also somewhat of an Italian community in South Africa, prior to the war, as skilled trades people such as scupltors, builders, marble importers, masons, etc. were needed for other building projects in this British colony of the time. Indeed, several Italian companies were involved, for instance, in the building of the Voortrekker Monument, outside of Pretoria, during the 1930s.
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