26/07/2025
So much history on The University of the West Indies Campus.
The Cisterns & Recreational Hall for Gibraltar Camp 1940-1944.
I always wondered where the Gibraltar Camp was at UWI- then known as the Mona Estate. It was a World War II refugee camp established in 1940-1944 for the Jews who fled to our shores.
Another drive to find more beckons: apparently some original buildings from the camp remain preserved within the university grounds, such as the Commandant’s House and the former Sacred Heart Church, which served the predominantly Roman Catholic refugees.
WHO CAME?
Initially it housed about 1,500 civilian evacuees—mainly women and children—from the British fortress of Gibraltar. Besides Gibraltarian civilians, the camp later accommodated Jewish refugees from Europe during the war, around 300 Polish Jews and 500 Dutch Jews, who lived in a section of the camp.
