In the last ten years our Society has received a number of enquiries about the Lofthouse Park Internment Camp and we have referred the enquirers to Professor Claudia Sternberg at the University of Leeds who led a community project in 2015-18 about the camp. A book was produced, edited by Claudia Sternberg and David Stowe: ‘Pleasure, privilege, privations: Lofthouse Park near Wakefield, 1908-1922′.
We have been contacted recently by Jörg Pfaffendorf whose great grandfather Ernst Pfaffendorf was interned at the camp. Jörg writes that he was born on August 2, 1882, in Hannover, and worked as an Oberstudienrat (a senior teacher) in Quakenbrück in the north of Germany. During the war, he served as an Oberleutnant der Reserve. He was married and had three daughters. He passed away on November 27, 1964, in Quakenbrück.
Jörg’s father saved some drawings that Ernst had made at the camp, and we are delighted that Jörg has given us permission to add the scans to this blog with a photograph of Ernst.
Coincidentally, our Society Secretary, Michael Rochford, has a letter in his own archive written in 1917 from the camp by a prisoner of war which he sent to Jörg for his interest.
Our thanks to Jörg for the information and for permitting us to share the drawings and photograph. Please note they are Jörg’s copyright and should not be downloaded, copied or reproduced without permission.
1. Ernst Pfaffendorf
2. Lofthouse Park
3. Addressed envelope
4. Layout of Camp (dated 25 July 1919)
5. Drawing ‘Let me go home’
6. Translation: “If you drive slowly you will reach your destination Lofthouse Park 1919 In memory of Paul Burich”
