The New Zealand occupation of German Samoa during the First World War, 1914–18

Abstract

This chapter examines New Zealand’s occupation policy in Samoa including the internment of Samoa Germans in both Samoa and New Zealand. It analyses selected aspects of internment to illustrate how the affected Samoa Germans perceived of, narrated and remembered their experiences. The chapter highlights some of the more common complaints made by the internees and explores how these relate to and often were an expression of less tangible concerns such as a more general bitterness resulting from internment and the separation from home and family. It examines how being recast as subjects of an enemy nation impacted on their perceptions of identity and how they utilised concepts of patriotism to make sense of their changed circumstances. During the First World War, around 400, 000 enemy aliens were interned in Europe alone, although internment policies and practices varied in each country. However, civilian internment was widespread during the First World War, with differing practices in each state.