Rudie Rousseau and his team, who have been researching the existence of British concentration camps throughout South Africa for the last seven years, recently visited Vryheid in search of some of the final pieces of the puzzle that he has been piecing together for a series of documentaries he has been putting together.
More than 100 years after the Second Anglo Boer War, Rousseau is intent on exposing the truth of the atrocities that took place in these concentration camps where Boer women and children suffered and died at the hands of the British.
His visit to Vryheid included both museums where he discovered several interesting historical facts and information from the relevant time period to add to his archives. He and his team visited the Lucas Meijer house as well as the old courthouse and were impressed by what they found documented at both sites.
A visit to Vryheid Cemetery led to another fascinating discovery or two. They discovered a memorial site with names of people who may have been linked to the concentration camps. Some of the graves at the cemetery were unidentifiable, however, and it was not possible to establish if they were also linked.
http://vryheidherald.co.za/63995/a-concentration-camp-in-vryheid-believe-it/