Nationaal Archief Curacao
S.A.L. (Mongui) Maduro Foundation
Nationaal Archeologisch en Antropologisch Museum
From May 1940 to February 1947 several groups from Curacao and Aruba have been interned.
Persons who were considered a “threat to peace and security" were detained during the war period. These detainments were based on the PB 1940 no. 38 law (Official Gazette) and were carried out on the orders of the Attorney General, without the intervention of a judge. From the outbreak of war in 1939, preparations were made for this singular purpose in the event that the Netherlands were to be occupied. Bonaire was chosen for the site of the internment camp. The list of people posing a threat had also been prepared well in advance.
The most important and largest camp, "Playa Pariba," just north of the capital Kralendijk on the island of Bonaire, was completed in October 1940.
However, there were more camps which served as prisoners camps. The locations were:
- Three school buildings in Bonaire from May to October 1940;
- The camp Playa Pariba in Bonaire from October 1940 to February 1947;
- Camp “Guatemala,” on the same plantation in Bonaire, from March 1941 to May 1945;
- The former quarantine building “Plantersrust” at “Mundo Nobo” in Curaçao from November 1941 to May 1945;
- A Shell barrack in “Suffisant,” Curaçao, from November 1941 to 1943;
- The police cells at “Wilhelminaplein” and “Rio Canario,” Curaçao, from May to October 1940 and from December 1941 to January 1942.
"threat to peace and security."
- All Germans and Austrians who lived in Curaçao and Aruba on 11 May 1940. This affected 202 individuals, among them were also German Jews;
- All German sailors who were in the port of Willemstad or Oranjestad aboard German ships on 11 May 1940. This totaled 220 individuals. Eventually, they were transported to an English camp in Jamaica;
- Twenty individuals labeled as Dutch “NSB-ers” (Dutch political group sympathetic to the Nazis). They were first detained in a special police cell at the Wilhelminaplein in Curaçao before they were sent to Playa Pariba;
- Six Italians. They were interned for a short time after the Dutch government had declared that it considered itself at war with Italy. From 22 December 1941 to 14 January 1942 this group was detained and locked up in the police cells at Rio Canario. After 14 January 1942 they were released with certain limitations.
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