This is a vast Gedenktuin now in a desolate industrial area adjacent to a railway line, in summertime littered with rampant grasses and other vegetation. ‘The names of the dead’ area is the focal point, dominating the Gedenktuin because of their immense number. This was a camp whose population was decimated by epidemics. It has a formal covered entrance and perimeter fence; internal walls are likely to hold the actual remains of the dead; and bas relief images of nappies and babies’ booties are on their sides. Standing in front of ‘the names of the dead’ monument is a tall memorial, dedicated in 1936, which has etched onto it the draped shape of an earlier memorial. This palimpsest is one of the mothers’ memorials dedicated immediately post-1902, and which was later demolished to make way for this nationalist memorial.
View Kroonstad gallery here