A Great Tale of Discovery: Money from the Woman’s Internment Camp at Rushen on the Isle of Man
Presenters: Steve Feller and Ray Feller
When war broke out between Germany and the United Kingdom on September 3, 1939, England grew uncertain about what to do with thousands of “enemy aliens,” many of them Jews who had escaped Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe. There was great fear about these immigrants, exacerbated by claims about spies in the British tabloids. In a clumsy attempt to assuage these fears, the British government began rounding up and interning their immigrants. Many of them were sent to ten internment camps on the Isle of Man (IOM) in the Irish sea.
Many of the ten WWII camps are known to have issued money. Both metallic and paper internment camp money from these camps is well known and avidly collected. These coins and paper issues, until now, have all been from the various men’s camps including Onchan Camp, Metropole Camp, Palace Camp, Sefton Camp, and Peveril Camp. However, the details of the women and children’s camp at Rushen at the southern end of the IOM make for an especially interesting story. Up until now, some of the details of this story had been shared, but no examples of the unique money had been seen. In this presentation we will describe the interesting story of the use of this money, including information about the women who originated it and, at long last, will share examples of the actual tokens printed on cereal box cardboard. We will also share some original train tickets for trips that the inmates took across the island.