The story of the ‘Dunera Boys’ links the horrors of the rise of the Nazi Party and the Holocaust to Hay in the Australian Riverina during the Second World War and to modern, multicultural Australia.
As the Nazis tightened their grip on Germany and intensified their measures against Jews, Rom (Gypsies), homosexuals and other ‘undesirables’, those who could sought refuge in other countries. The need to assist their escape intensified after Kristallnacht, the violent anti-Jewish pogroms in November 1938. Most dramatic was the rescue of 10,000 children by the Kindertransport.
When the Second World War was declared, the refugees who had settled in Britain were classified as ‘Enemy Aliens’ but relegated to a lower category. Following the loss of France and the occupation of most of western Europe, the British authorities succumbed to public panic and decided that adult male enemy aliens should be removed with three shiploads destined for Canada and one for Australia. One, the Arandora Star, was torpedoed in the Atlantic with 805 drowned.
HMT Dunera was a troopship that had taken New Zealand soldiers to the Middle East. Assigned to the task of removing enemy aliens, the Dunera took 2,542 detainees at Liverpool on 10 July 1940. They included some rescued from the Arandora Star and predominantly consisted of Jewish refugees among the 2,036 anti-Nazis along with some 500 Italian and German prisoners of war and Nazi sympathisers. Together with the ship’s crew, 309 British guards and seven officers, the total was almost twice the Dunera’s troop carrier capacity of 1,600.
It was a hellish 57 day voyage made under the risk of enemy attack, including two torpedo attacks. Severely overcrowded and sailing through the tropics, most internees were kept below decks throughout the voyage, except for daily 10-minute periods of exercise on deck under heavy guard. Latrines overflowed, water was rationed and no changes of clothing were allowed.
The guards, some of whom had been released from prison to help in the war effort, were brutal. Internees were frequently abused, beaten, and robbed by the guards who rifled their possessions, stealing their few reminders of family and home and throwing their cases into the Indian Ocean. Even sergeants gave beatings and a guard was said to have smashed beer bottles on the deck so that the internees would have to exercise barefoot on the shards.
Arriving in Melbourne, 344 internees disembarked and were taken to Tatura; the remainder continued to Sydney from where they were transported 750 kilometres by train to the Hay. Their treatment was completely different: they were given food and fruit and the Australian soldiers guarding them offered cigarettes. Arrival at the siding in Hay was a shock as the accommodation wasn’t ready and the flat plain was stark. But the guards were kindly. There is a story of a soldier asking one of the internees to hold his rifle while he lit his cigarette.
Intense criticism of the deportation and incarceration in Britain and Australia resulted in the British Government expressing regret for the incident as early as October 1940. Charges were laid against three of the Dunera guards including their commander, and compensation payments were allocated to the deportees. Despite bureaucratic delays, the internees were all eventually released. Some 900 elected to remain in Australia, a substantial number serving with the Australian defence forces. Almost all of the remainder made their way back to Britain, many joining the forces.
Alex Byrne Printmaker 