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The Dunera Boys
Susannah Helman tells the story of the Dunera Boys, the
‘enemy aliens’ who sailed on the Dunera from Britain and
who were interned in Australia in the early 1940s
I
n darkness, without sufficient around the country, whether they were opposite
Ludwig Hirschfeld-mack
food or light … we made a little ‘refugees from Nazi oppression’ or not. (1893–1965)
voyage of 8 weeks … The ship was The British Government asked its dominions Merry Christmas (detail) 1941
vastly overcrowded. hygienic conditions to take a proportion of these internees. Canada woodcut, printed in black ink
9.5 x 7.7 cm
were simply apalling. no toothbrushes, and Australia agreed. Four ships were sent Collection of Chris bell
nor toothpaste, no soap & soft water for a to Canada, one being the arandora star, in (grandson)
great part of the journey. The suitcases were which hundreds perished when it was sunk
opened forcefully by soldiers. Many things, by a German torpedo attack. One ship, the below
sometimes everything were taken out, put dunera, sailed for Australia. The internees Henry Talbot (1920–1999)
During Filming of The Dunera
into the pocket or thrown overboard. were disembarked at Port Melbourne, Victoria, boys, November 1984
and at Pyrmont, Sydney, and made their way gelatin silver print
20.3 x 25.4 cm
This was how many of the over 2500 by train to rural camps at Tatura in Victoria, Pictures Collection
passengers, like the diarist Ernst Fröhlich, and at Hay in New South Wales. nla.pic-vn4668311
would have experienced the notorious voyage In the wake of the arandora star and the
of HMT dunera from Britain to Australia, dunera voyages, the British Government
between July and September 1940. The reassessed its internment policies. Internees
world was at war and most of the dunera’s still in Britain were mostly freed and a
passengers were ‘enemy aliens’—German, Home Office liaison officer, Major Julian
Austrian and Italian men and boys who had Layton, was despatched to Australia to liaise
found themselves in Great Britain at the
beginning of the Second World War. They
ranged in age from 16 to over 60. Many of
them were of Jewish heritage and had escaped
from Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
By May 1940 in Britain, there was a fear
that, if the country were invaded, large
numbers of these enemy aliens would lead
to a ‘fifth column’, a home-grown enemy
powerbase. At the beginning of the war,
tribunals had assessed the threat posed by
enemy aliens and classified them into three
categories: A, B and C. Those assigned to
category A were interned immediately, while
those in B and C were generally recognised as
‘refugees from Nazi oppression’ and left free,
those in B with restrictions. By mid-1940,
policies had changed. The ‘phoney war’—the
period of non-aggression—was at an end. On
10 May 1940, Adolf Hitler launched attacks
on Western Europe. The British Government
decided to intern the vast majority of enemy
aliens, including some women, in camps
the national library magazine :: june 2010 :: 3
rabbi Leib Aisack Falk with the internees. A compensation fund early twenties in internment, later Professor
(1889–1957)
was subsequently established from which of Philosophy at The Australian National
notebook, 1940–1945
pencil and ink on notebook dunera internees could claim for the loss of University. Very simply, he says:
with transfers; 16.0 x 10.5 cm possessions on their journey to Australia.
records, 1940–1941, Hay
Internment Camp
Internment in rural Australia brought he was a very good German, my Jewish
manuscripts Collection together people of vastly different father. he could never understand hitler, it
mS 5392 backgrounds, ages and experiences. Behind all was a total mystery to him.
barbed wire, and under benign administration,
the internees organised themselves to an Heartfelt, eloquent and sometimes
astonishing degree. Roles and responsibilities complicated, each voice is distinctive, each
were assigned, cultural, educational and experience of internment different. For some,
physical activities were arranged. They humour is a way of dealing with extraordinary
produced art and music; held art exhibitions, times. Some are detached and surprisingly
musical concerts, educational classes and objective, while others project a searing,
discussion groups; and played sport, amongst pained voice.
many other activities. Each camp had a Theodor Engel was an experienced engineer
different flavour. Although it is hard to in his fifties when he was interned. He
generalise, it is undisputed that there was a was also an accomplished artist and sent a
huge concentration of ability at these camps— watercolour of one of Hay’s camps in flood
established and emerging artists, academics, to Rabbi Leib Aisack Falk, an army chaplain
musicians, economists, historians, writers, who first visited the camp in December 1940.
businessmen, to name but a few. Most had When Engel asked him to send art supplies—
been released from the camps by early 1942. paper and watercolours—the Rabbi jotted the
About 850 internees (roughly a third) decided request down in his notebook. Engel wrote to
to stay in Australia, making significant the Rabbi in August 1941: ‘Painting is the only
contributions in many fields. help for my depressed mind’. The watercolour,
The National Library of Australia’s current the notebook and the letter are on display.
exhibition, The dunera Boys: seventy Years The diary of twenty-something internee
on, tells the story of these men and boys. Ernst Fröhlich lays bare the mind of an
In a thematic yet personal way, it explores
how they came to be interned, how they
experienced daily life in internment, the
efforts made to help them and how the
‘Dunera Boys’ have remembered their
internment. The exhibition draws on the
Library’s growing dunera material in the
Manuscripts, Pictures, Oral History,
Music, Newspapers and the Rare Books
collections, and is supplemented by a number
of private loans.
The objects in the exhibition tell stories of
hope, remarkable talent and survival, stories
of passing the time, of what it is to be human.
Collectively, they piece together what the
Library’s collection can tell of the dunera
story. It is a tale of war and oppression, justice
and injustice, human kindness and ingenuity.
In a cacophony of voices, together they speak,
70 years on, through cursive handwriting on
aerogrammes and in exercise books, through
type on paper and through works of art.
A watercolourist, a diarist, an oral surgeon,
an English teacher, a printmaker and a student
provide some of the voices in the exhibition.
One of the most haunting voices comes
from the oral history of Peter Herbst, in his
4::
internee. It charts his ups and downs, efforts London practice. In camp, he practised his above
to keep himself busy and sane, and the profession. He compiled a list of the work Theodor Engel (1886–?)
Hay 1941
difficulties of living with such large numbers he had performed between October 1940 watercolour on paper
of people: and February 1941, writing at the bottom, in 19.7 x 29.7 cm
records, 1940–1941,
capitals: Hay Internment Camp
There is no place in this camp where one manuscripts Collection
could be alone with ones thoughts & God eVerY PossiBLe treatMents mS 5392
… The minds of each one is wandering in haVe Been GiVen to an Yone below
their land of hope sketching his future life. askinG for heLP. Watch hidden by reinhard
Waldsax on HmT Dunera,
They are preparing themselves for it as well 1920s
as they can. He had 2820 consultations during those metal and leather; 5.3 x 3.5 cm
Private Collection of ralph
months—an amazing number. Proper dental Waldsax
A persistent thread in Fröhlich’s diary is his equipment was in short supply, making it
reading, ranging from newspaper articles to harder for him to practise. Waldsax’s
Shakespeare’s Much ado about nothing, which son has generously lent the makeshift
he read one Sunday in February 1941 ‘on a tools made for his father out of
bench near the barbed wire with a view at the nails. Other objects on
green pastures with sheep & horses’. He also display include the
read François Lafitte’s The internment of aliens, watch that he hid
published in Britain by Penguin in late 1940. beneath his clothes
The book drew attention to Britain’s unjust on the dunera, and
internment policies. Fröhlich writes: ‘The a colourful study
whole story is of course very well known to us’. that one grateful,
Several items in the exhibition tell the or perhaps even
story of the internee and oral surgeon vengeful, patient made
Reinhard Waldsax, who had run a successful of him wielding huge
the national library magazine :: june 2010 :: 5
right
Hans Lindau (1895–1982)
Coathanger made at Hay
Internment Camp, 1940–1941
wood and metal
30.0 x 43.0 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an6561314
below
Ludwig Hirschfeld-mack
(1893–1965)
Merry Christmas 1941
woodcut, printed in black ink
9.5 x 7.7 cm
Collection of Chris bell
(grandson)
dental forceps in an open mouth. Waldsax’s Britannica held in the Hay camp library.
papers were recently donated to the Library. As paper was scarce in wartime, sheets of
The Library also has the papers of the toilet paper were a ready alternative. Some
internee English teacher, Hans Lindau, years later, a neighbour rehoused them in
highlights of which are the notes he wrote a box. Also on display is Lindau’s make-do
on toilet paper, copied from books on botany, coathanger of timber and wire. Lindau labelled
English grammar and the encyclopaedia it ‘Made in internment at Haye in 1940/41
out of material just at hand’, cheekily adding
the words ‘there was a war on, you know’. A
Christmas card, presented to him in Tatura by
his students in December 1942, is strikingly
illustrated with portraits of the students. The
card is addressed to ‘our dear teacher and
friend in happy remembrance with every good
wish for the Season’. The artist, Ulrich Laufer,
drowned aged 20 in December 1943, only
months after his release from Tatura.
The woodcut prints of the Bauhaus-trained
artist, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, are among
the most powerful images left by dunera
internees. The Library’s print has been
generously supplemented by the loan of several
others from Hirschfeld-Mack’s grandson. The
most celebrated art school of the twentieth
century, the Bauhaus, was closed by the
Nazis in 1933. It promoted collaboration
between artists in different media, particularly
between the high and applied arts, and a
closer relationship between art and industry.
Hirschfeld-Mack encouraged this approach
in his art practice and teaching throughout
his life. He was interned at Hay and briefly
6::
at Orange, a smaller temporary camp, before disrupted life already exposed to inhumanity
being transferred to Tatura. His woodcut and oppression. For many, it was a mistake
prints speak of daily life, the environment in that proved to have positive consequences.
internment and the personal toll of it all. Although he does not have pleasant memories
While interned at Tatura late in 1941, of that time, Brent recently said:
Hirschfeld-Mack made a print that speaks
volumes. A figure stands behind barbed i think i'm very lucky to have been interned
wire, beneath the brightly-shining Southern and sent to australia ... my enforced stay
Cross and Pointer stars. The words ‘MERRY behind barbed wire for 16 months, together
CHRISTMAS 1941’ frame this bleak scene. The with hundreds of people of all ages and
print juxtaposes an internee’s solitude and the backgrounds i would not otherwise have
annual festival, when many internees’ thoughts had the chance to meet, enabled me to
would have turned to their families, so far upgrade my general education, taught me
away. It echoes his better known, larger print, much about Homo sapiens that helped me
which appears on the cover of this issue. in later life, and took me to this splendid
One of the Library’s richest dunera country in the antipodes to which, at that
collections is that of Dunera Boy, Bern Brent, time, living in wartime Britain as i did, i
who lives in Canberra, and who acted as an would not have gone voluntarily.
advisor to the exhibition. He was a teenager in
internment and was then known by his German Through this exhibition, the Library hopes
given name, Gerd. A highlight from his papers to share the voices entrusted to it, in all their
is the telegram his mother received in 1940 diversity, from this important chapter in
from the Commandant of Huyton Internment Australian history. Commandant of Huyton
Camp near Liverpool, the United Kingdom, Internment Camp, Liverpool,
telling her that he had been sent away. It merely United Kingdom
Telegram to Lola berstein,
says, ‘GERD OVERSEAS TENTH JULY’. Dr SUSANNAH HELmAN is Assistant-Curator 26th July 1940
The dunera’s ‘little voyage’ changed the lives of Exhibitions at the National Library of Australia ink on paper; 13.2 x 20.9 cm
of its passengers. It turned their worlds upside and co-curated the Library’s latest exhibition, The Papers of bern brent
manuscripts Collection
down. For many, it was the next phase in a Dunera Boys: Seventy Years On mS 8869
the national library magazine :: june 2010 :: 7
