Karen Horn

Karen Horn is a historian and an author. Her first book, In Enemy Hands: South Africa’s POWs in WWII, was nominated for the Alan Paton Sunday Times non-fiction award in 2016. Horn is a research fellow at the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State. In her work, she investigates individuals’ experiences on the home front and the battlefront, looking for humanity in the fog of war. In her spare time, she observes her husband’s gastronomic skills and has long conversations with her two collies. She lives in Somerset West.

Author's books

In Enemy Hands

South Africa’s prisoners of war during World War II, their experiences and recollections, are largely forgotten. That is until now. Historian Karen Horn painstakingly tracked down a number of former POWs. Together with written memoirs and archival documents, their interviews reveal rich narratives of hardship, endurance, humour, longing and self-discovery.

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Prisoners of Jan Smuts

Equally skilled in different trades than in the art of love, the Italian prisoners-of-war (POWs) who were incarcerated in South Africa during the Second World War are a source of great fascination to this day. Prisoners of Jan Smuts recounts the stories of survival and shenanigans of the Italian POWs in the Union through the eyes of five prisoners who had documented their experiences in memoirs and letters.