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 As
from 11 October 1899 a state of war existed between the ZAR and OFS
on the one hand and Britain on the other, after the latter had rejected
an ultimatum of the ZAR. A commando of 700 Klerksdorp burghers had
already left for Lichtenburg on 2 October 1899 to join General P A
(Piet) Cronje, commander of the Republican army in the western districts
of the Transvaal. Due to the war, practically all activities in Klerksdorp
came to a standstill. The surrender of General Piet Cronje at Paardeberg
on 27 February 1900 was a hard blow for Klerksdorp, as the majority
of the local commando had been with him. General Andries Cronje, brother
of Piet Cronje arrived at Klerksdorp from Veertienstrome during May
1900. He received a message from Captain Lambart at Hartbeesfontein
on 7 June that he was coming to Klerksdorp that same afternoon to negotiate.
Lambart told Cronje that a British force of 20 000 men were approaching
the town and advised him to surrender. He also broke the news that
Pretoria had been occupied by the British. Cronje set up a meeting
with his officers the next day to meet Lambart and they decided to
surrender. Around 500 Boer soldiers laid down their weapons on the
9th June, after which Lambart marched into town with his total force
of 33 men.
After their victories in the Magaliesberg, General Koos de la Rey
ordered General Liebenberg and Commandant Douthwaite to move in the
direction of Potchefstroom. When they neared Klerksdorp, Lambart stationed
two divisions of the Kimberley mounted Corps on the hills in town on
25 July 1900. By early morning a group of about 150 men approached
the town from Hartbeesfontein. Lambart decided not to resist and surrendered
to General Liebenberg without a fight.
 Less
than three months later, Klerksdorp was again occupied for the British
by General Douglas on 16 November 1900 and they would occupy Klerksdorp
for the rest of the war. The British erected a concentration camp on
the site of the present-day Klerksdorp High School, where they kept
the women and children of the fighting burghers. The existence of the
concentration camp was justified by the British as a central place
to accommodate the homeless families of the fighting burghers. Actually
it was a way to win the war. Conditions were atrocious, and the graves
of the 1012 children who died in the concentration camps can still
be seen in the Old Cemetery, as well as the monument that was erected
in memory of the women and children who died in the concentration camps.
The names, sex and age of the victims of the camps are engraved on
granite slabs against the memorial wall.
There was a concentration camp for black people on the site of the
present-day residential area, Neserhof. The black people who died in
the concentration camp were buried a few hundred metres south of the
white Old Cemetery.
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