A tragic bureaucratic blunder provides a rich historical treasure trove

An extensive exhibition at the State Library of New South Wales offers a rare eyewitness glimpse into a unique moment in the annals of Australia’s Jewish community.

Dunera: Stories of Internment tells the story of the transport to Australia and the subsequent internment in Victoria and New South Wales of 2,546 men and teenagers, two-thirds of them Jews.

The migrants, mostly from Germany, Austria and various other European countries, came via Great Britain in search of refuge from Nazi persecution.

In a case of massive bureaucratic bungling – and although some of the German-speaking men had been imprisoned by the Nazis at Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen – they were viewed by the British authorities as “enemy aliens”, a potential fifth column in the event of a German military invasion pose a danger to Great Britain. Thousands were arrested, interned in camps in England and deported to Canada or Australia.

In July 1940 the Dunera sailed from the British port of Liverpool and stopped in West Africa, Cape Town and Fremantle before reaching Melbourne and Sydney. Described by some as a “hellish journey”, the 57-day stay was marked by overcrowding, lack of essential goods, poor nutrition, inadequate toilets and cruel treatment by British guards. Belongings were often slashed with bayonets and confiscated, destroyed or thrown overboard. Diseases such as diarrhea were widespread. And there were also Nazi sympathizers on board.

The ship was attacked twice by a German submarine in the Irish Sea. One torpedo missed its target, while the other reportedly hit the ship’s hull but failed to explode.

The Dunera docked at Port Melbourne on 3 September 1940, where 545 internees disembarked and were sent to camps at Tatura, Victoria. These were primarily people who were considered “real Germans” or Nazi sympathizers. Three days later, the remaining internees disembarked at Pyrmont in Sydney, from where they traveled to camps in Hay, New South Wales. But in mid-1941, Hay was evacuated and the inmates were relocated to Tatura. Internee Karl John Joseph commented: “The fact that the authorities in Tatura make no distinction between us and the Nazi prisoners…makes us so humiliated.” The same rules and regulations applied to all internees.

Most were released at the end of 1942 and the camps were gradually closed, with the buildings and infrastructure sold or demolished. Some internees returned to Britain, others made their way to what was then Palestine, while some tragically took their own lives, plagued by guilt towards family members who had remained in Europe and perished in the Holocaust.

One of the notable characteristics of the so-called Dunera Boys was the exceptional level that many achieved in later life, particularly in the artistic field. They depicted the harsh environment, depressing isolation, gnarled trees and watchtowers with watercolors, chalk, charcoal, crayon, ink and even boot polish. They included Ernst Kitzinger, who became an art historian at Harvard University; Franz Philipp, who became an art scholar at the University of Melbourne; Hein Heckroth, who won an Oscar for his art direction of the film The red shoes; and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, appointed as a lecturer at the renowned Geelong Grammar School.

Intern Georg Teltscher designed a stock currency, and three banknotes – worth two shillings, one shilling and sixpence – were printed by the local newspaper Riverine Grazier. The design included a barbed wire border with messages such as “We are here because we are here because we are here.”

“I’ve always been interested in it Dunera History,” says exhibition director Louise Anemaat The Jewish Independent. “What struck me is that it was always told as a collective. But this is not a single story; There are 2546 different stories. The exhibition is only a fraction of what the library has to offer, and that is only a fraction of the whole. The internees performed an incredible feat and many of the items on display were owned by Dunera Children – in London, the USA and here in Australia.

“We wanted to tell a very human story – how this bureaucratic botch affected people’s lives. Some remained deeply traumatized. Some died by suicide after the war, unable to come to terms with the knowledge that they were in a much safer situation than those left behind. Survivor’s Guilt.

“The other notable aspect that emerges is the lifelong friendships that have been formed between many of the internees. The last Australian internee, Bern Brent, died a year ago and we believe there is one surviving internee living in France.”

The story was dramatized in Ben Lewin’s 1985 film Dunera Boys film, although Anemaat says the film is “not overly accurate and there is some mythologizing involved.”

“The claim that one of the internees was shot on the ship is false; that didn’t happen. The claim that the internees were ordered to walk barefoot over broken glass on deck is also exaggerated. However, they were treated badly.” British guards were pushed to the point where many guards were court-martialed and some internees received compensation. And the internees were pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the Australian guards.”

“The Dunera: Stories of Internment” is on view until May 4, 2025.