The Regional Directorate for Culture, through the Angra do Heroísmo Museum, opens the exhibition titled as "Germans Interned on the Island of Terceira," a reflection on the most direct influence of World War I in the Azores.
This exhibition will be open until January 29 at the Chapter Room of São Francisco Building. It aims to recover the memory of the more than 750 German prisoners who were interned at São João Baptista Fortress for about three years, following the German war declaration on Portugal on March 9, 1916.
Under the curatorship of Sérgio Alberto Fontes Rezendes, a historian with an in-depth knowledge of the intricacies and impact of World War I in the Azores, the exhibition is profusely illustrated with unpublished photographs by one of the prisoners, Alfred Hölzer.
It portrays the life conditions during imprisonment, the logistics underpinning the creation and maintenance of an internment camp and the impact of such a large number of prisoners on the local economy and society of that time.
The opening of the exhibition features a lecture titled as "The Great War in the Azores and the Concentration of German Prisoners on Terceira Island" by Sérgio Rezendes (Institute of Contemporary History).
The exhibition counted on the collaboration of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, which provided the printing of the catalogue booklet in German, and individuals who contributed with personal objects that belonged to relatives imprisoned on this island.
The Regional Directorate for Culture informs that this and other events may be consulted in the Cultural Agenda of CulturAçores Portal at the following address: www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt.