9 Mei 1901
Sterfdatum van Lizzie van Zyl
Bloemfontein
Lizzie van ZYL
Sekerlik een van die bekendste, tragiese, beskrywendste foto’s wat nog ooit gepibliseer is, is dìe van die sterwende Lizzie van Zyl.
LIZZIE VAN ZYL
Gebore 22 April 1894 te Heilbron
Gevange geneem grdurende die ABO en na Konsentrasiekamp in Bloemfontein geneem.
Hier het vrouens, kinders en bejaardes onder haglike toestande in oorvol kampe op karige rantsoene probeer oorleef.
LIZZIE VAN ZYL sterf 9 Mei 1901 op 7-jarige ouderdom agv maagkoors, verwaarlosing en verhongering
Lizzie van ZYL is waarskynlik in ñ ongemerkte graf in Bloemfontein begrawe.
LIZZIE VAN ZYL se lot is onder aandag gebring deur Emily Hobhouse toe sy van die konsentrasiekampe besoek het en geskok geveg het om die haglike toestande te probeer verbeter.
“Lizzie Van Zyl who died in the Bloemfontein concentration camp, 1902
Lizzie Van Zyl, Emily Hobhouse tells the story of the young Lizzie van Zyl who died in the Bloemfontein concentration camp: “She was a frail, weak little child in desperate need of good care. Yet, because her mother was one of the ‘undesirables’ due to the fact that her father neither surrendered nor betrayed his people, Lizzie was placed on the lowest rations and so perished with hunger that, after a month in the camp, she was transferred to the new small hospital. Here she was treated harshly. The English disposed doctor and his nurses did not understand her language and, as she could not speak English, labelled her an idiot although she was mentally fit and normal. One day she dejectedly started calling: Mother! Mother! I want to go to my mother! One Mrs Botha walked over to her to console her. She was just telling the child that she would soon see her mother again, when she was brusquely interrupted by one of the nurses who told her not to interfere with the child as she was a nuisance.” Shortly afterwards, Lizzie van Zyl died.
Image source
Anglo-Boer War Museum”
https://www.sahistory.org.za/node/51801
