The Internment and Treatment of Enemy Aliens during World War Two within

Australia

Figure 1

By Jade Deveson
 Introducing Enemy Aliens and Internment from Britain to Australia
On the 10th July, 1940, in the midst of
Summer, the lives of thousands of people were
changed irrevocably. Approximately 2,500
Germans, Italians and Austrians were placed
upon the ship HMT Dunera, setting sail from
Liverpool Britain for an unknown location.i
And not out of choice. They were enemy
aliens, forcefully interned. The unfortunate
consequences of a war which would have
lasting effects and silence the rights and stories
of many.
Unbeknownst to the internees they were
setting sail for the lands down under;
Australia. They travelled in dangerous waters
which were filled with U boats and the risk of
being torpedoed and killed.
Not since the middle of the nineteenth century
had Australia received the unwanted of Britain
who were transported across the world for the
purpose of incarceration.ii This event was a
single instance of the revival which took place
at the height of Britains fight for survival
against Nazi Germany.
With the end of the so-called phony war on
the 10th May 1940, where the Germans
invaded the Low Countries, also known as the
coastal region of North Western Europe, the
British Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson
made a declaration that the government should
draw a clear distinction between enemy aliens
and refugees from Germany and Austria.iii In
response alien tribunals were set up throughout
the country and classified people into three
groups:
A Persons to be immediately interned as not
being absolutely reliable;
B Persons left at liberty, but subject to certain
of the restrictions applicable to enemy aliens
under the Aliens Order of 1920;
C Persons who should be free from all
restrictions under the Aliens Order, except
those applying to friendly aliens.iv
Initially most people were placed under
category C however, as the Low Countries
continued to be invaded panic emerged within
Britain and this led to the general internment of
all adult males of enemy nationality who are
over sixteen and under sixty years of age,
excluding the invalid and infirm.1 Some women
were also interned but a clear majority were
male.
Subsequently on the 3rd June Prime Minister
Winston Churchill wanted arrangements to be
made to deport 20, 000 internees to
Newfoundland or St Helena and on the 7th June
the Dominions secretary asked whether Canada
could take some. They agreed and as such ships
set sail on the 24th and 30th June, 3rd and 7th July.
One of these ships, the Arandora star never
reached its destination. It was torpedoed by a U-
boat a few hours outside of Liverpool. Of the
1213 internees on-board some 444 survivors
were picked up by Canadian and British
warships and re-embarked upon the HMT
Dunera.
Not long after Canada was approached to take
internees, Australia was and they accepted to
take six thousand provided they only had to
guard the internees and that there would be no
possibility of them remaining in Australia after
their release. Altogether the Dunera carried
approximately 2,732 internees.1
 The Dangerous Journey to the
Unknown
The 8 week journey to Australia was nothing
less than horrific.v The guards, whom many
internees called Soldiers of the Kings
Pardon were men who were released from
prison for the purpose of this task, the
transportation of enemy aliens.vi Robert Kahn,
a German Jewish internee recalls that he was
one of the relatively lucky ones. Hundreds
upon hundreds of others were robbed of
money, watches and other valuables
important and irreplaceable documents ...
which soldiers were contemptuously throwing
aside or overboard.vii Prisoners were also
beaten and starved.viii
The commanding officer on board the ship,
Lieutenant- colonel W. P. Scott would write to
the War office in London, giving updates on
the trip and has been noted to have said that
the guests are exercised twice daily and
forced to make use of the wash baths making
it seem like the internees were filthy in their
habits cowards subversive liars,
demanding and arrogant and [that he has]
taken steps to bring them into his line of
thought insinuating the use of violence.ix
Figure 3: Personal search and removal of
valuables on HMT Dunera 1940
Figure 2: Photograph of Guards on HMT Dunera
1940the ship arrived in Fremantle an
When
Australian officer Captain Heighway toured
the Dunera and wrote that not only had the
internees apparently faced numerous near
misses with torpedos but that the conditions on
board were atrocious and he wondered how
they survived it. They had little clothes, it was
overcrowded, barbed wire kept the internees
away from the rails, the smell was horrible due
to rotted food perishables the captain refused
to throw overboard, the ships engines broke
throughout the journey and there was rough
weather nearly all the way to Australia and no
baggage had been labelled right so it will be
impossible to give people their right kit when
they land, according to Heighway the whole
show was terrible.x
According to Arandora Star survivor, Vittorio
Tolaini, dysentery was common, people were
hungry, tempers were frayed and what made it
worse was the fear of further U-boat attacks
and the unknown.xi However, Tolaini also
recalls the look of disgust and disbelief at the
conditions [they] had to endure and that they
registered their dissaporoval with the
Commanding Officer of the guards who later
faced a court martial.xii
 Internees Arrival in Australia

Once the Internees arrived in Australia, approximately 500 of those on board the Dunera were
brought directly from Melbourne to the Tatura camp. The remainder continued to Sydney and camps
throughout NSW including Hay before being relocated to Tatura later on.xiii

Within Australia, there were mixed sentiments regarding the transportation and internment of enemy
aliens.

One letter a lady sent to Prime Minister Menzies says, we have enough scum here already and
shows immense displeasure at Australia taking internees.xiv Implying it is not fair internees should
come here and get food and jobs which are already in short supply.

This response indicates some of the reasons behind some concerns and protests and accentuates that
times were tough and the effects of war economically and socially were having huge effects, even in
Australia, despite their distance geographically from the war. While the newspaper article shows there
was a little bit of excitement over what these enemy aliens would be like.

Their arrival, however, was not what many Australians had expected. The passengers were
bedraggled, had little with them and were a mixed lot who showed no trace of any uniformed enemy
soldiers as the press had often implied xv

Figure 4: Headlines of Internees arrival

Camp Life in Tatura

After arriving in Melbourne and being transported

to Tatura the internees were left to their own
devices as to how the camp was run and the things
they could do whilst there, so long as they
remained orderly.xvi

The Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps

Museum contains examples of things internes
would do including carving, as seen in figure .
or writing poems.xvii Eventually the internees
began to be released from the Tatura camps for the Figure 5
purpose of fruit picking and enlistment in the
Australia Labour Company which was an army
labour corps.xviii Some people began businesses such as haircutting and tailoring, they developed
tennis courts, vegetable gardens and their own newspapers.xix

Although camps life was relatively good, there

were instances of upheaval. This was the case
in Taturas family camp, also known as camp
3, where a riot occurred on the 29th September
1941.xx People were fighting with brooms,
stones, wood, spades and led to Australian
soldiers firing shots in the air to try and regain
order.xxi

Figure 6

The Australian Army Camp Command was aware of

the politics of internees and differing views but, so
long as order existed, was unconcerned about these
and even noted breaches of camp rules were ignored
and ultimately resulted in such actions.xxii Although
discipline was a priority in many other sections of
Taturas camps, it seemed less of a concern in Camp
3.xxiii

The Tatura internment camps were closed in 1947.xxiv

Figure 7
The Consequences of War and Fear

The internment of those seen as enemy aliens in Australia during World War Two is a neglected area
in historical and sociological research and seems to be an account which remains largely unknown
within Australia.xxv It is our hidden history and yet it has had a significant impact upon immigration
and multicultural Australia.

All those that were interned within Australia and Britain suffered immensely. Not only had they been
forced to flee their homes due to the Nazi regime, but they were treated like common criminals and
forced to live in camps and places they had no say in. Their trip to Australia on board the HMT
Dunera was nothing less than horrific. Yet after numerous appeals for release from 1941, the internees
were finally freed and although some returned to England or were given permission to travel
elsewhere, many stayed in Australia and started fresh.xxvi

The Dunera Affair is a story which shows the extent to which war and fear can affect the lives of
people and allow for their mistreatment and injustice but also accentuates that we are all people and
we all want to live our lives in freedom and that all our stories are important and should be
acknowledged.
End Notes

i Paul R. Bartrop & Gabrielle Eisen (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book
(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990), p.19.
ii Paul R. Bartrop & Gabrielle Eisen (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book

(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990), p.19.
iii Ibid.
iv Ibid.
v Anne Seitz and Lois Foster 1989, German nationals in Australia 1939-1947: Internment, forced

migration and/or social control?, Journal of Intercultural Studies, vol. 10 (1), p.15
vi Paul R. Bartrop & Gabrielle Eisen (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book

(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990), p.21.
vii Lurline and Arthur Knee (eds.), Marched in (Tatura: Rodney Printers, 2008), p.36.
viii Paul R. Bartrop & Gabrielle Eisen (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book

(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990), p.21.
ix Ibid. pp.151-153.
x Ibid. pp.56-7.
xi Lurline and Arthur Knee (eds.), Marched in (Tatura: Rodney Printers, 2008), pp.37-8.
xii Ibid. p. 38.
xiii Extract from S. Encel, These men are Dangerous at the Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps

Museum, Tatura.
xiv
Paul R. Bartrop & Gabrielle Eisen (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book
(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990), p.36.
xv
Mario Cacciottolo 2010, The Dunera Boys 70 years on after notorious voyage, BBC [Webpage], <
http://www.bbc.com/news/10409026>, accessed 17 Oct. 2017.
xvi S. P. Koehne 2006, Disturbance in D compound: the question of control in Australian internment

camps during World War Two, Melbourne Historical Journal, vol. 34, p.75.
xvii Tatura Irrigation and Wartime camps Museum, Tatura.
xviii Paul R. Bartrop & Gabrielle Eisen (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book

(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990), p.335.
xix Tatura, National Archives of Australia [Webpage], <

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/snapshots/internment-camps/WWII/tatura.aspx>, accessed 17 Oct.

2017.
xx S. P. Koehne 2006, Disturbance in D compound: the question of control in Australian internment

camps during World War Two, Melbourne Historical Journal, vol. 34, pp.71,75.
xxi Ibid. p. 71.
xxii Ibid. p. 85.
xxiii Paul R. Bartrop & Gabrielle Eisen (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book

(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990), p.296.
xxiv Tatura, National Archives of Australia [Webpage], <

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/snapshots/internment-camps/WWII/tatura.aspx>, accessed 17 Oct.

2017.
xxv Anne Seitz and Lois Foster 1989, German nationals in Australia 1939-1947: Internment, forced

migration and/or social control?, Journal of Intercultural Studies, vol. 10 (1), pp.13.
xxvi
Paul R. Bartrop & Gabrielle Eisen (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book
(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990), p.313.
Figure List
Figure 1 The Dunera, courtesy of the Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps Museum.

Figure 2 Courtesy of P. Pearl.

Figure 3 - Personal search and removal of valuables HMT Dunera 1940. Watercolour sketch
by F. Schonbach.
th
Figure 4 - Headlines of the Daily Telegraph, September 7 1940.
Figure 5 Copyright of Jade Deveson
Figure 6 Copyright of Jade Deveson
Figure 7 Copyright of Jade Deveson

Bibliography

1940. Exciting Prison Ship Voyage, Daily Telegraph, 7 Sept.

Bartrop, Paul R. & Eisen, Gabrielle (eds.), The Dunera Affair: A documentary resource book
(Melbourne: The Jewish Museum of Australia & Schwartz & Wilkinson, 1990).

Cacciottolo Mario 2010, The Dunera Boys 70 years on after notorious voyage, BBC
[Webpage], < http://www.bbc.com/news/10409026>, accessed 17 Oct. 2017.

The Dunera Association, http://www.duneraassociation.com.

Knee, Lurline and Arthur (eds.), Marched in (Tatura: Rodney Printers, 2008).

Koehne, S. P. 2006, Disturbance in D compound: the question of control in Australian

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Tatura, National Archives of Australia [Webpage], <

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/snapshots/internment-camps/WWII/tatura.aspx> ,
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