enforced holiday camp. This was prison. Conditions at the Fort were cramped and unhygienic. The male political detainees were housed in a double-storey block of cells that led onto a hall, which doubled as a dining room. Leading off from this was a concrete exercise yard with high walls. On arrival the cells were indescribably dirty, containing a straw mattress, a few blankets and a sanitation bucket.
After protests and the diarrhoea outbreak, both the living conditions and the food improved to some extent. To the warders, the men were an enigma: clean, tidy and well-educated, and utterly unlike the awaiting-trial prisoners who were their usual charges.
However bad conditions were for the white detainees, they were far worse for the black and other detainees. Worst of all were the conditions of convicted prisoners.
Sunday, 10 April
Lights out at eight leaves one plenty of time for lying in bed and thinking. Whether you fall asleep early, in which case you wake at 3 or 4 am and can lie and think until the morning bell goes at 6:30 am, or else you do it at night before getting to sleep. Others have young children, too, but we do not discuss it, we each nurse our own sorrows. We all have our own individual worries. To me, Molly’s (Fischer) is the worst of all.
Memorandum of conditions of hygiene and medical attention.
The Fischers youngest child, Paul, suffered from cystic fibrosis and was chronically unwell, needing a lot of care.
As soon as I think of Keith or Frances, or someone mentions them, tears rush up. Frances was due back from her holiday today. Who met her and told her? How will poor Fuzzy cope with shop, home and all the children? Will relatives assist financially? And how long will it last?
Cover image of my mother’s gaol poetry collection.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
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