Dunera News No. 86 

DECember 2012

A publication for Former Refugees from Nazi and Fascist persecution (mistakenly shipped to and interned in Australia at Hay and Tatura, many later serving with the A llied F orces ), their R elatives and their F riends .

Dunera Reunion Melbourne 13 November 2012 Back row: Left to right Ernst Wolf, Walter Benedikt, Harry Unger, Bern Brent, Erwin Lamm, Henry Hirsch Front row: Left to right Herbert Baer, Mike Sondheim, Mike Klein, Martin Moore, Werner Philipp, Albert Meyer

Messages from facebook To join this facebook group and get connected to Dunera Boys and their families and friends worldwide, search for Friends of the Dunera Boys on facebook.

Foundation Editor: The late Henry Lippmann OAM Editorial responsibility: The Committee of the Dunera Association

Write to us!

Letters and articles for publication are welcome. Please remember to supply your name and contact details with your story.

Email: [email protected] Next material closing date: 1 Feb, 2013 All correspondence to: The Secretary – Dunera Association PO Box 72. South Melbourne Delivery Centre VIC 3205 Email: [email protected] Dunera Association on facebook – Friends of the Dunera Boys

Contents From the President

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New exhibition at The Duldig Studio

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DUNERA CELEBRATIONS – Melbourne Reunion and Lunch – 72nd Anniversary of Sydney Arrival – 72nd Anniversary Reunion, Hay

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Remembering the Dunera by Ken Inglis 8th Employment Company by Mike Sondheim

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In Memory – Nora Huppert – Michael Brent – AW Freud

From: Frankie Blei 24 October On 18 May this year the Dunera Assocation made a post in The Age about the passing of Heinz Breslau, aged 90. Can someone please tell me where he is buried? His first cousin Inge in New York has only just discovered his death and I would like to help her get some details. Heinz lost all the rest of his family in the Shoah. Thank you. From: Julian Rowland 13 August Subject: Kurt Roth, Dunera Boy My father, Kurt Roth, was on the Dunera. Over the last couple of years I have tried several times to to have a request for information about him to be placed in the Dunera News, but unfortunately I have not been successful. Editor’s note: Anyone with any information about Kurt Roth, please contact Julian through facebook. From: Steven Guttmann 22 September If anyone is interested, I posted a short autobiographical movie of my father’s life (86 years in 22 minutes), which I made in 2005, on YouTube. My father was a Dunera Boy, and the Dunera “chapter” occupies about 9 of the 22 minutes. You can find the movie, Karl Guttmann, A Dunera Boy’s Story at www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Aw9Wn1-NI

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In the News15 Many thanks to all the contributors.

Obituaries: Fred Schoenbach April 2012 Fred Rose 2012 Nora Huppert August 2012 Michael Brent August 2012 Alfred Wachs September 2012 Rudi Laqueur October 2012 Max Bruch November 2012 Our very sincerest sympathies to their families and friends.

From: Karin Laqueur 14 October Rudi Laqueur, born in Breslau, Germany 1922 died peacefully 12 October, 2012 near Melbourne. He was a talented musician and a most wonderfully loving father to two daughters and opa to 4 grandchildren.

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From the President Hi everyone

Committee members 2012–13

Welcome to 86th newsletter of the association. Our theme is the Dunera Family. The aims of the Dunera Association are, as they were from its beginning, to maintain friendships, circulate news and transmit the collective memory of members. It has become clear over the last year that we have added some aims that are relevant to the situation today. These include cherishing the Dunera Boys who are still with us, honouring the memories of those who have passed, facilitating research by descendants and historians, as well supporting museum collections of Dunera material. Sadly, we have a number of tributes to Dunera Boys and Dunera wives who have passed away in recent times. We extend our sympathies to all their families. The elements that live on are the many remarkable and considerable achievements of these Dunera family members, whose memories we now blessedly cherish. In this edition we report on the very successful 72nd anniversary reunions in Hay, Sydney and Melbourne. The events were well attended, interesting and meaningful occasions where we also welcomed some family members, grandchildren and friends who joined us for the first time. Please save the date 17 March 2013 (if you are in Australia) for an event at Tatura. Visiting the sites of the internment camps at Tatura is not to be missed. It is pleasing to see that interest in the Dunera story is increasing as time goes by. In this edition we let you know about publications – historical, biographical and fictional that are available or in the pipeline. Thank you to our contributors, members and friends and happy reading!

Rebecca Silk – President [email protected]

Peter Felder – Vice President [email protected]

Selma Seknow – Secretary [email protected] Ron Reichwald – Treasurer [email protected]

Michelle Frenkel – Member [email protected]

Martie Lowenstein – Member [email protected]

Peter Arnott – Sydney contact John Ebert – Sydney contact Mike Sondheim – Ex officio [email protected]

Rebecca Silk President

NEW EXHIBITION AT THE DULDIG STUDIO

A Malayan Bungalow JULY 2012 – JUNE 2013

Guest Curator: Jhana Pfeiffer-Hunt Artists Karl Duldig and Slawa Duldig (née Horowitz) fled Vienna in 1938 with their baby daughter, Eva. They found brief refuge in Singapore – a haven which inspired new perspectives in their art and dramatically changed their lives.

From monumental sculptures to intimate sketches of Singapore’s bustling street life, A Malayan Bungalow offers a unique insight into a world which was soon to disappear forever. The exhibition includes drawings, sculptures, photographs and a collection of remarkable historic documents that trace the artists’ lives in Singapore before their eventual deportation in 1940 to internment in Australia. An incredible story of survival, resilience and inspiration in pre-war Singapore.

ABOUT THE DULDIG STUDIO The Duldig Studio is an historic house museum located in East Malvern. Here, sculptures, paintings and decorative arts are displayed in the original rooms of the house, the artists’ studio and a sculpture garden. A temporary exhibition program features changing displays that draw on the museum’s extensive collection of artworks and historic archives. The Duldig Studio is a not-for-profit public museum and art gallery. HOW TO VISIT Bookings essential. For enquiries contact: Donna Cooper 03 9521 0525 / 0407 002 834 [email protected] The Duldig Studio 61 3 9885 3358 [email protected] www.duldig.org.au

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Dunera Melbourne Reunion and Lunch 13 November 2012

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n the usual second Tuesday of November, 75 people gathered at Kimberley Gardens in Melbourne for the customary reunion. The theme turned out to be the Dunera Family. Amongst the many families and friends there we were delighted to have in attendance 12 Dunera Boys: Herbert Baer, Walter Benedikt, Bern Brent, Henry Hirsch, Mike Klein, Erwin Lamm, Albert Meyer, Martin Moore, Werner Philip, Mike Sondheim, Harry Unger, Ernst Wolf And apologies from Bernard Rothschild. We heard that Dunera Boys – Max Bruch and Steve Arnott were not well and sent best wishes to them and their families. (Sadly, as of time of publication, Max Bruch has passed away.) There were a variety of speakers who kept the audience interested and entertained in between much renewing of friendships and schmoozing. Elisabeth Lebensaft, a historian and writer from Vienna spoke about her project – to research the internment and later experiences of the 667 Dunera internees from Austria. Elisabeth is spending three months in Australia, during which time she will travel to Hay, Tatura and Sydney. She welcomes contact from Austrian Dunera Boys and descendants, and is looking forward to adding some missing links to the Dunera story in Austria. Felicity Renowden spoke about her work on Dunera Boy Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. In collaboration with Resi Schwarzbauer she is compiling a biography of HirschfeldMack. He was one of the oldest Dunera Boys on arrival here and was a Bauhaus trained artist before his escape from Europe and subsequent internment. He left a legacy of art works in many media including print, painting, sculpture, and greatly influenced art education in Victoria. To complete the speakers who are working on

publications, Ken Inglis spoke about his ongoing work on the story of Dunera Boys especially those associated with the University of Melbourne. He reported on a talk he gave to the Australian Jewish Historical society entitled the Dunera Boys in History and Memory. Ken also drew attention to some books, both historical and fictional that are being written and published by family members of Dunera Boys. Families of Dunera Boys, he said are becoming more, not less interested in the Dunera story. Taking up some new themes Yossi Aron, the guest speaker, gave a most interesting account of the history of Dunera Boys who were Orthodox Jews. Right from boarding the Dunera this group worked to maintain their traditions and also placed enormous value on establishing classes and later schools to educate the young. Yossi gave many examples of Dunera Boys and their wives and families who worked tirelessly to establish places of education for the Jewish community in Sydney and Melbourne. Last, but not least, David Houston from Hay updated us on the proposed renovation of a third railway carriage as part of the Dunera Museum in Hay. He reported that the Hay Historical Society intends to apply for government funding and that they are now more confident of support from the local council. As always, David encouraged people to make a visit to Hay at any time, but especially in September when the anniversary is celebrated. He also reminded people that 2015 will be the 75th anniversary and special celebrations will be arranged at that time. And so after a delicious lunch, lots of catching up, plenty of ‘what’s happenings’ the Melbourne gathering of the Dunera family reluctantly dispersed. We look forward to seeing everyone again in 2013.

Herbert Baer

Walter Benedikt

Bern Brent

Henry Hirsch

Mike Klein

Erwin Lamm

Albert Meyer

Martin Moore

Werner Philip

Mike Sondheim

Harry Unger

Ernst Wolf

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Dunera Melbourne Reunion and Lunch

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72nd Anniversary of Dunera Arrival, Sydney 6 September 2012

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n 6 September, 35 people gathered at Jones Bay Wharf in the heritage room for the annual event to commemorate the arrival of the Dunera at Sydney. Two Dunera Boys, Henry James and Walter Travers were there. Henry spoke about the kindness of the Australians – the guards at the camp and the local people; and the good times he experienced in the 8th Employment Company. Walter spoke about the passing of his friend Ilse Huber, the sister of Dunera Boy Henry Vorgang. John Ebert reminded the group of some interesting statistics. As we know there were 2542 on the ship including 1750 Dunera Boys as well as 200 Italians and 231 Nazi Germans. On the immediate return voyage of the John Ebert Dunera there were apparently 13 internees. John wondered if anyone knew about any of these Dunera Boys. After their release, over half the Dunera Boys returned to Britain, taking up Major Layton’s offer to serve in the British army. Over 800 stayed on in Australia and 551 served in the 8th Employment Company under Captain Broughton. Members of both groups went on to make extraordinary contributions to their adopted countries. John also spoke at length about his research on Ugo Achille Bonelli who was the only survivor of the Abosso, the ship that sank en route back to Britain. Rebecca Silk welcomed people on behalf of the Dunera Association and paused to remember the passing of Michael Brent on 29 August. Rebecca spoke about the original aims of what was known as the Hay

Tatura Association which included renewing friendships; maintaining cohesion among the group; circulating relevant news; transmitting the collective memory and supporting needy members. She said that today most members are descendants, friends, Walter Travers and Henry James supporters and scholars. Now the Association aims include cherishing the Dunera Boys who are still with us; honouring the memories of those who have passed away; celebrating the many significant contributions of Dunera Boys and putting descendants in touch with one another so that the stories continue to be told. The Association also assists with information on conserving memorabilia and supporting the Dunera collections in Hay, Tatura and other museums. Rebecca encouraged those present to join facebook and communicate through our Friends of the Dunera Boys page and to become a member or continue their membership of the Association as finances are always required. At the end of the function Walter Travers led the group in singing his Rebecca Silk version of Waltzing Matilda in German!

The 72nd Anniversary of HMT Dunera’s Arrival in Sydney Photos by Joshua Ebert

Marianne Dacy from the Archives of Judaica University of Sydney.

Meth family, including great grandchild, descendants of Dunera Boy Max Meth.

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72nd Anniversary Reunion, Hay

Photos by SELMA seknow

1–2 September 2012

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riday afternoon 31 August saw the beginning of a 5-hour journey from Melbourne to Hay to attend my first Dunera Reunion accompanied by my husband Aubrey. The drive (via Echuca) was unremarkable, with typical Australian scenery. However, from Deniliquin to Hay we noticed a remarkable difference in that there were very few trees, and the landscape was flat and barren as far as the eye could see – not even a power line in sight. It was only then that we could begin to appreciate how isolated the town of Hay is and wondered what must have been going through the minds of the Dunera Boys as they looked out the windows of the train carriages on their 19-hour journey to Hay from Jones Bay Wharf, Sydney in September 1940. At an informal dinner organised by David Houston on the first evening we met Barney Barnett (a Dunera Boy) who had travelled from the Gold Coast with his daughter Sharon. Also present were Ron Reichwald, Dunera Association Treasurer, and Carol Bunyan, an archivist at the Australian National University in Canberra. Carol is a former resident of Hay and she was there with her mother Laura who still lives in Hay. On Saturday at 8.30am the re-enactment of the Dunera Boys’ arrival began with the sounds of a siren signaling the train’s arrival and the disembarkation from one of the carriages of the refugees (members of the

Hay Amateur Theatrical Society dressed in original attire) who walked along the platform to the strains of Guiseppe Verdi’s Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. There were also a handful of interested locals, some of whom were present in September 1940 and told us that they remembered the arrival of the Dunera Boys. We were then taken on a tour of the Hay Internment Camps where the foundations of the various buildings still exist. Then a visit to the local cemetery where, in a prominent position, is the gravestone of Menasche Bodner, the only Dunera Boy to pass away at Hay. After lunch we were shown around the archive room of the Dunera Museum where much of the work is still being done by David Houston and his committee organising and cataloging the massive amount of Dunera memorabilia. Sunday morning, prior to departing Hay, we were invited to enjoy morning tea at the homestead of Coleen and David Houston which was about 30 kilometres from Hay where we all experienced true country hospitality. After a tour of the property and the homestead, being entertained by David playing the piano and having enjoyed morning tea it was time to bid farewell to our friends in Hay to begin the journey back to Melbourne. — Selma Seknow Daughter of Dunera Boy, the late Max (Moshe) Bretler

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Dunera history The following are excerpts from a talk given by Ken Inglis, at the State Library of Victoria on 14 April 2011.

Remembering the Dunera Why have I decided to write another book on the subject? A lot of new material has come to light in the last two decades including diaries, letters, memoirs and testimonies. And I have a more personal reason for wanting to take up the story. Returning to Melbourne after 50 years away and remembering my childhood and youth in this city, I have found myself thinking of the Dunera Boys I knew. Of all the marvels awaiting a 17-year-old lad from the suburbs at the University of Melbourne in 1947 none has stayed more vividly in my mind than the presence of these exotic Europeans. Queens College where I lived had three of them and it was probably there that I first heard the word Dunera. Dr George Duerrheim, a graduate in medicine from the University of Vienna was slogging through 3 more years of study before he could be allowed to practise in this country. There was also Leonard Adam, with a doctorate in law from the University of Berlin. In the Weimar years he was a judge and lecturer in ethnological jurisprudence and primitive law. Penguin published his book Primitive Art which remained a standard work for decades. In Tatura he was vice rector of the Collegium Taturense. At Melbourne University Professor Max Crawford gave him a billet in the history department where he created a tiny museum and delivered sparsely attended lectures. He led parties of students, me among them, to fossick in sand dunes where aboriginal people had feasted long ago. George Nadel from Vienna was an undergraduate student of history. Like a number of the younger Dunera Boys he escaped to England through the agency of the Kindertransport, a bold scheme which rescued 10,000 children from Nazism between November 1938 and September 1939, having the children fostered by English families. George was 23 in 1947 and, to us younger students he seemed disconcertingly mature and learned. He later went to the USA and established his own journal History and Theory, which became essential reading for scholars in the interdisciplinary field its editor had first encountered here. Three of the Melbourne philosophers in my time, Kurt Baier, Peter Herbst and Gerd Buchdahl were Dunera Boys, as were two of their pupils, Henry Mayer and Hugo Wolfsohn. Herbst, Buchdahl and Baier all performed outstandingly in the honours school of philosophy and were on their way to academic careers in four continents. Baier from Vienna captivated students

with his un-Australian urbanity. Herbst, dashingly handsome from Heidelberg via a posh English public school excited and bewildered students with his manner. Gerd and his younger brother Hans Buchdahl were among the first internees to leave Tatura when the authorities began late in 1941 to release them for work deemed to be of ‘national importance’. In Melbourne Buchdahl created the subject History and Philosophy, the bridging of disciplines which he would later introduce to Cambridge. I best remember Buchdahl recalling what to me seemed the most enthralling part of the Dunera story. In the long and disagreeable weeks at sea, internees found a variety of ways to pass the time. Many played cards, some played chess with chessmen made from the ship’s unpalatable and doughy bread. Orthodox men gathered around rabbis to study Torah and a cantor from Berlin formed a choir fit for a synagogue. People of more secular bent set up classes and discussion groups. Gerd Buchdahl and Peter Herbst along with a young Berliner named Peter Laske composed a constitution designed to order life in whatever place of confinement lay ahead. Buchdahl wrote it in German, on toilet paper having somehow scrounged a whole roll of that scarce commodity. The document, now among treasured relics in Melbourne’s Jewish Museum of Australia, embodied a commitment to parliamentary democracy and a determination to construct checks and balances against tyranny. It was a blueprint for a secure liberal state, like that of Britain, which would avoid the fate of the Weimar. In Hay and Tatura it’s authors would engage in debates about how best to have the occupants of each hut represented in camp wide parliaments and the powers those bodies should be given over the inmates lives. Behind barbed wire in 1940, 2500 Europeans were living in a state rather like the one philosophers have called a state of nature. Communists, social democrats, liberals, orthodox and secular Jews and mavericks collaborated and contended to devise instruments for what we might call the governance of civil society. Each camp became in Klaus Loewald’s phrase “a small working republic”. When Gerd Buchdahl was released from Tatura camp his companions gave him two woodcuts by Hirschfeld Mack. They were presented by Franz Philipp. Franz Philipp was an art history student and at Hay and Tatura he gave lectures in art history more learned than anything on offer outside the barbed wire. He combined military service with university study from 1943 to 1946 when he topped the final honours list in art history. Professor Crawford gave Philipp a tutorship and before long he moved to the newly created department of Fine Arts. The first article he ever published was a scholarly study of paintings by a young Australian artist named Arthur Boyd, whom he had met in the army. For the rest

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Dunera history

of his life, the two men engaged in a dialogue that amounted to a creative collaboration. Other Dunera Boys became collectors and admirers of Boyd’s work. My most precious memory of Franz Philipp is a moment in 1948 when I went to his study to collect an essay I had written on Machiavelli. While I did not easily follow his heavily accented English, what I clearly remember is that he encouraged me to become an academic – an ambition I had not dared to entertain. In retirement from a fulfilling academic life, I cherish that encounter. Were the Dunera Boys I knew typical? Were they all artists and intellectuals? Certainly they were more diverse than I knew. When sitting on Fler chairs and eating at Fler tables I and others were unaware the firm that made these modernist furniture items took its name from two internees, Fred Lowen and Ernest Rodeck. A survey conducted in Hay to ascertain how many internees would be of use to the war effort found 20 doctors and 21 motor mechanics; 27 lawyers and 30 leather workers; 20 journalists and 22 textile workers; 27 artists and 28 butchers. Of the 900 or so who stayed in Australia, uncounted numbers moved to new occupations, their aspirations encouraged by the openness of Australian society to talented and determined newcomers. There are celebrated cases of Dunera Boys making their way into places hitherto the preserve of an AngloCeltic establishment. Herbert Baer became the first Jew to be admitted to the Melbourne stock exchange. Gerald Cunningham (formerly Kupenheim) was elected to the committee of the Victoria Racing Club. On the other hand Douglas Boerner, motor mechanic, became a motor mechanic in Alice Springs where he hosted his camp mate Leonard Adam who was there visiting sacred sites. Many others have perhaps lived satisfying lives in relative obscurity. If it is safe to generalise from those I have known and known about, Dunera Boys don’t share, by and large, the indignation expressed by some people who have written and talked about their experience. To be sure, capture was a shock, the voyage was arduous, the army was no picnic, but the providence that submitted them to those hardships eventually gave them freedom. Compare those

hardships, as Dunera Boys did later, to the fate of relatives, neighbours and friends who were trapped in Europe, and transported in cattle trucks to gas chambers. The Dunera story attracts me for yet another reason. The questions we ask about the past always depend on where we are standing in the present. Seventy years after that boatload of refugees on the Dunera reached Australia, we as a nation are much occupied by the issue of refugees arriving by sea. In 2006 a number of Dunera Boys appeared in a film that compared the Dunera with the Tampa, that Norwegian freighter whose crew rescued hundreds of Hazara Afghans from a sinking ferry in the Indian Ocean. The film is entitled Friendly Enemy Aliens. While of course there are differences in the situations historically of the Dunera Boys and more recently arrived refugees, some Dunera descendants draw analogies. According to Stephen Castles, distinguished practitioner of multicultural studies and son of Heinz Schloesser, his father taught him that Australia should open its doors to refugees. Nicholas Gruen, son of Fred Gruen has been moved by his father’s memories to sponsor a soccer team the Hazara Tigers from Afganistan. When he met them, he was struck by how similar they were to how his father would have been. And Lord Stern, author of the momentous report on global warming and son of Adalbert Stern says ”whenever I hear people making derogatory remarks about asylum seekers, I think that’s my Dad.” The story goes on. Erwin Fabian, Dunera Boy, has just had an exhibition at Australian Galleries in Collingwood of metal sculptures and monotypes. He is 95 years old. The University of Melbourne has just finished an exhibition of works from the Leonard Adam collection on international indigenous culture, curated by Dr Robyn Sloggett who plans to collaborate with his daughter Mary Clare Adam on a biography. It’s 64 years I realise since I saw Dr Adam dining with dignity at the high table at Queens College. I hope that I can do the story of the Dunera Boys justice. Editor’s note: If you have material about a Dunera Boy connected to the University of Melbourne please feel free to contact Ken Inglis at [email protected]

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Dunera history The 8th Australian Employment Company Recollections by Mike Sondheim The Melbourne Military Police Company also heard about our employment unit here in Melbourne. A Lt. Col. Courtney got to know some Jewish people during his Middle East service had. Capt. Broughton picked me for the special assignment to become Lt. Col. Courtney’s staff car driver. I got a MP driver’s licence (I still have it). The job turned out a comfortable 8am to 5pm job, stationed in an old mansion, the MP barracks, in Dandenong Road, Caulfield. One day, the Colonel became interested in my personal life and future plans. He encouraged me to continue my engineering studies which I did the following year. I got to know his tough side as well, once he punished a poor Private by making him run with bricks in his pack until he dropped down with exhaustion. When the Colonel got transferred to New Guinea – fortunately without me – I lost the job and returned back to the 8th. Camp Pell became famous through the Leonski murders. (Private Eddie Leonski was transferred to Australia from the US and he was quartered at Camp Pell.) One of his victims, Miss Gladys Hosking was found in Gatehouse Street which runs along one side of the camp and close to our quarters. Whilst at Camp Pell, many of us looked for private rooms, sleeping out and returning to camp in time for breakfast and morning parade became the norm. My quarters in a Park Street boarding house were within 5 minutes from the camp. The guards at the gate did not bother to check your pass. Park Street was handy to the city and close to the University of Melbourne, where I studied engineering. Many of the Boys likewise boarded in Parkville while attending university. After about a one year at Camp Pell, our whole unit including the Captain and company office transferred to Broadmeadows, some 15km north of town. We worked in the huge Broadmeadows army stores. Sleeping out at our private rooms required a long tram and train journey. We never used to buy tram or train tickets and got away by producing used ones. One day the platform guards with help from the Military Police raided the Broadmeadows station. However, the train slowed down crossing Camp Road just before the station, some of us jumped off and got away but many were caught on the platform and had their names taken. The courtcase at Broadmeadows was thrown out for technical reasons, produced by our clever solicitor. Returning to Royal Park from Broadmeadows was a different challenge. Walking 10 min to the Hume Highway and flagging down any vehicle. Lifts were offered much more freely then, no fear of attack. We managed to get

back to the city quickly, have a meal and proceed to evening lectures at the Melbourne Technical College or the university. That is how many of the Boys started their academic careers, managing with minimum sleep before catching the early morning train for Broadmeadows. Catching a nap on top of stacks of cases offered a welcome refresher. Work and study had to be fitted in with the social activities, that is, not neglecting the girlfriends. Captain Edward Mehunga Renata Broughton warrants a very special mention. Broughton, a mixed blood Maori, was a Boer War as well as WWI veteran with the New Zealand Army. He was a highly intelligent and educated man, and it did not take him long to understand our very complex situation as Jews and refugees transplanted from Europe against our will to a far distant foreign continent. Broughton got to know practically everybody’s personal details and family backgrounds. He supported every effort connected with the affairs relating to our status. Our post war future had never been officially defined. He facilitated every effort for special leave, such as at examination times. He promoted every effort for release from army service and to take up a civilian career. He supported the Jewish cause, respecting the orthodox and any special holidays. He took us to “church” on Saturday mornings or rather synagogue parade. He attended private functions and many weddings. His friendships extended beyond the army time, with a small number of Dunera Boys until his final days. He suffered a severe heart attack after one of his winter swims in 1955. Dr. Schatzki, one of our Boys, was unable to save him. He was buried in an unmarked grave (reason unknown) at Fawkner Park Cemetery. We had a plaque fixed years later, and the RSL Victorian Branch arranged for a proper tombstone to be dedicated in a formal military ceremony. Eleven Dunera Boys honoured their revered CO by their presence at the grave. Broughton had faked his age when he enlisted, he was discharged from the unit after about two years and was succeeded by a number of officers with less knowledge and understanding of our problems but who tried their best to continue running a ragtime company. There were other employment companies in the Australian Army. Some in Sydney with a similar structure using refugees. Victoria had the 4th and 6th Companies which apart from many Jewish refugees, comprised a large number of resident Greek, Italian and other foreign nationalities. They were stationed at Albury and Tocumwal to service the transfer of goods due to the change of railhead gauges. After about a year of enjoying Melbourne and picking up a lot of contacts, families and friends, we started to interchange with other employment companies

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Dunera history by temporary transfers. The duties were the same but local conditions very different. Albury was quite a sizable town, the camp situated close to the station, 5 minutes from the city centre. Albury offered quite a few amenities, shops, cafes, hotels and restaurants (the famous Globe Hotel still existed), sports facilities, etc. Tocumwal, on the other hand, a small country township with just three pubs, one main street with a few shops and offices, was a much different place, and our camp was about 15 minutes out of town. Our job essentially was the same, transferring from one gauge to the other of mainly war related material, and that included driving the army vehicles from one platform to another. This got me back to driving. The Albury area included the Bandiana depots and workshops where our boys were occasionally employed. The army hospital at Bonegilla was for light cases (later a migrant facility) and provided care for some of our boys. Tocumwal was an airforce station, it had a large airfield and hangars to accommodate even heavy bombers, the US B52s. The American camp was far away, and they did not need our help. The airfield is still in use today. Driving duties in Tocumwal covered the daily postal collection and meeting the Melbourne train, occasional visits to the Barooga Airforce hospital. Our main pastime took place in camp, in the wet canteen after work to wash down the dust. In Albury and Toumwal we had American tents, larger and more comfortable than the Australian counterparts. Both places offered good opportunities for our students to study. Army education supplied all lecture notes and papers to enrol for tests and exams. Candidates obtained special leave passes to go to Melbourne. I had three stints in Tocumwal and Albury respectively, and I received my Australian Naturalisation in Albury in October 1945 which meant that the internment period was taken into full consideration. My early discharge for studying purposes also came through at Albury. I had to sit for some very easy aptitude tests at Royal Park. I left the army in January 1946 to study at Melbourne University Engineering and obtained my Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Degree two years later. These are my personal recollections of my experiences with army life. Mostly pleasant and not too hard. I think I made the best of it, and I was lucky with the many driving intervals which fitted well with my love of cars ever since I first got behind a steering wheel at the age of twelve.

Mike Sondheim’s 96th birthday Hi Rebecca Here are a few photos of a wonderful 96th birthday celebration for Dad down at Clive and Fran’s holiday home in McCrae. There were four generations of family there for the day and Dad thoroughly enjoyed being the centre of attention. We are all continually amazed at how well he manages to still do everything to enhance the lovely quality of life that he and Helga so enjoy each and every day. We are all so inspired by his discipline and positive attitude towards life in every way and it is clear that he has always maintained this approach to life and from what must have been an extremely traumatic and gruelling trip on the Dunera to this country in the middle of nowhere, it was a new beginning for him and he made the most of everything Australia had to offer. He formed very strong bonds and friendships which are ongoing to this day and with his unbelievable memory has been able to pass on to our family, stories of many of his experiences as a Dunera boy and he kept a journal of not only the trip to Australia but of life in Hay and thereafter. Each time we attend a Dunera function it is so heart warming to see all the “boys” reminisce and share their stories and there is always something new to be learnt from them. He has done a fantastic job as president of the Dunera Association for over 25 years and still loves his involvement with the committee to this day, long may he be able to continue to be an integral part of the Dunera family and we look forward to attending annual get togethers and reunions. Regards and best wishes, Jeanette Efrogan

Mike Sondheim President Ex Officio

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Mike and Helga. Below, left to right: Clive and Fran. Larry and Jeanette.

In Memory

NORA HUPPERT (widow of Peter Huppert) 17 June 1928 – 13 August 2012 Nora was born in Berlin on 17 June 1928 to parents Gunther Benjamin, a German Jewish left-wing journalist and Anita Benjamin (née Davidovitz), a linguist, of Russian Jewish background. Nora had one sibling, a younger brother Fredi. Her early life in Berlin was typical of the educated, modern “freethinking”, cultured Jewish middle class. In 1933, as Nazism was on the rise, Gunther’s newspaper Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung was closed down. Nora’s father understood the threat and sent the family to Anita’s people in Kowno, Lithuania. Here Nora experienced a multi-generational household, kosher cooking, the religious rituals of Judaism and the company of first cousins Vera and Hans. In 1937 the family sought safety in Prague, however not for long as war was closing in. On 14 March 1939 Nora was on the first Kindertransport (a plane) arranged by Nicholas Winton and his co-workers. She farewelled her mother and brother who both perished in Auschwitz. In a matter of hours Nora was catapulted into an English, Christian family. It was the pivotal event of her life. The McNair’s were kind and loving, allowing Nora to become part of their family and complete her education. In 1945 she moved to a hostel for Jewish students at 22 Holland Park while she worked for various wholesale dress manufacturers. She maintained a lifelong interest in fashion and always dressed impeccably. There she met an older refugee Peter Huppert who had escaped from Austria, been sent to Australia on the Dunera and later served in the British army. They married in 1951 after Peter completed his medical studies. Their two daughters Rebecca and Amanda were born in England. The deteriorating political situation in Europe and her husband’s desire for career advancement saw Nora and Peter deciding to emigrate to Australia. Peter had favourable memories of the Australian people from his time in internment. The family arrived in 1962 and after a couple of years in Tasmania settled in the leafy northern Sydney suburb of Beecroft. With the children at school and Peter’s psychiatry practice established, Nora entered the developing field of marriage guidance

counseling and had a career that spanned almost 30 years. Together with her husband, Nora supported many groups and worthwhile causes. In the 1970’s both were active in the anti-Vietnam war movement and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War. In the 1980’s they joined the fledgling Hay-Tatura Association at the invitation of Henry Lippmann. Nora hosted gatherings of Dunera Boys at their home and regularly attended the annual reunions in Sydney. She believed that it was healthy to renew and maintain links from the past and to tell the stories to younger generations. In 2003 Nora used her skills as a story teller to assist members of the Child Survivors of the Holocaust group in Sydney to write down their childhood memories. The compilation of these stories was an achievement in itself and was the impetus for the publication of many survivor stories. Nora’s book Home Without a Homeland was published by the Sydney Jewish Museum in February 2012. Nora thrived on company, socialising, travelling and the arts. She was also a networker par excellence, maintaining contact with literally hundreds of people from her various social circles. About her own emotional life she was intensely private, holding the belief that there was no help for the immense grief she had experienced. Her answer was simply to “get on with it” to pack as much in to living as she could and work to build bridges between people. She did this until the end of her battle with lung cancer – urging the family to look after one another and continue the work of tikkun olam, of improving the world. Nora is survived by her daughters Rebecca and Mandy, her partner Max, cousins Vera and Hans, nephews Steven, David and Patrick; and her beloved grandchildren Ben and Sarah. She will be sadly missed by many.

At Tatura 70th Anniversary celebrations, 15 May 2011

D unera N ews N o . 86 • D ecember 2012 • P age 12

In Memory

MICHAEL BRENT 23 September 1919 – 29 August 2012 Michael Brent, a Dunera Boy to the last, died peacefully at almost 93 on Wednesday, 29 August in Canberra. He was far from being the most famous of the Dunera Boys but he made a strong contribution to Australia through his work and through his passion for skiing. Michael was a public servant for almost 40 years. He was also a member of the Canberra Alpine Club (Canberra’s biggest and oldest ski club) for over fifty years, where he had a major influence on the Club and, indeed, skiing in Australia. Skiing was his passion. He served numerous terms of office in his ski club, on the ACT Ski Council and represented the ACT on the Australian Ski Federation (now Ski and Snowboard Australia). In 1980 he was the Manager of the Australian Nordic Team at The World Nordic Championships in Falun, Sweden. For many years he helped run ski events in Australia at all levels. Like most of the Dunera Boys, Michael’s experiences before and during the trip to Australia were hard. He was born as Hellmut Michael Bernstein in Berlin in 1919. His father was moderately wealthy as a sales manager in a garment business. When the Nazis eventually forced a reluctant business to dismiss him (the last Jew in their employment) the immediate outcome was actually positive. His father set up his own business, which was very successful, bringing the family greater wealth. The export income that the business brought in saw it survive a little longer than it might otherwise have done. But in the end Nazi persecution forced the family to flee. Michael left first, crossing into Switzerland in the middle of the night not long after his 18th birthday, in 1937. Here, as an 18-year-old on his own he began studying engineering. This lasted until 1939 when he could no longer renew his visa so he again took flight, heading through France and Spain, ending up in London where he was able to find work as a draftsman. Things again started to look up. His parents passed through London, headed to Chile on forged papers, and were confident that they would soon be able to organise for Michael join them. But fate, and a journey on the Dunera, intervened.

Michael saw himself as one of the lucky ones. He was 20 at the time, old enough to be confident on his own but young enough to be able to cope better than many with the privations of the trip on the Dunera. He recalls the time in Hay as a mix of interesting experiences and great frustration. He had his 21st birthday in the camp. Ultimately Michael was amongst those recruited into the Australian Army. He considered that although the journey had been hard, the result was worth the suffering. After the war, as an ex-serviceman in Australia, he felt himself to be very lucky. Michael was not able to go back to his engineering studies but did qualify as an accountant and in 1951 he joined the Australian Public Service. His varied career even took him on an Antarctic Research expedition and to New Guinea. For his 72 years in Australia he would never regret for a moment the hand that fate had dealt him. In 1948 in Melbourne he met and married Ursula who had fled to Australia from Berlin following the blockade. They were to have two sons, Peter and Ron, and to remain together for almost 60 years until Ursula’s death in 2005. Michael was a great raconteur, especially after returning from his frequent European trips, which he made regularly until just the last two years. He entertained his listeners with his wonderful sense of the ridiculous, his stories usually finishing with a humorous twist. He retired from the Australian Public Service in 1984. However, he continued skiing until he was 87, continued travelling the world until he was 91, and lived independently in his own home until immediately before he passed away. Michael was an active member of the Dunera community right to the last. Two years ago he helped launch, and spoke at, an exhibition about the Dunera that was staged at the National Library. Right to the last he was proud of the life he had built in Australia, proud of his family, and proud to tell of his small part in the Dunera story and how it had shaped his life. He is survived by his sons Peter and Ron and their families.

At Tatura 70th Anniversary celebrations, 15 May 2011

D unera N ews N o . 86 • D ecember 2012 • P age 13

In Memory The Dunera Boy who parachuted into Austria: A W Freud – By Elisabeth Lebensaft and Christoph Mentschl Anton Walter Freud was born on April 3, 1921 in Vienna, Austria. His grandfather was none other than the world famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. His cousin, the renowned painter Lucian Freud, died only last year. Anton Walter spent a protected childhood within the large Freud family and attended high school in Vienna. As he told us he was not aware of the growing anti-Semitism in Vienna, neither in school nor in his other social surroundings. So it happened that the invasion of Nazi-German troops into Austria (the so called “Anschluss”) in March 1938 took him by surprise. Freud was comparably lucky. Together with the larger part of his family he managed to escape to Great Britain where he finished school and started to study aeronautics at Loughborough College north of London. When after the invasion of France by the German troops the British government interned the Austrian and German refugees as “enemy aliens” Anton Walter was – out of his classroom – taken into custody and imprisoned in Leicester, then interned on the Isle of Man and afterwards transported to Australia on the HMT Dunera. Again he was detained in internment camps, first in Hay, then in Tatura. After about a year he was released and was shipped back to England. There he had to join the Royal Pioneer Corps and about eighteen months later in 1943 he was recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). This Secret Service had the main task to support the resistance within the countries occupied by the axis powers. Its motto was “sabotage and subversion”. The future SOE agents had to undergo very strenuous training and were sent to Special Training Schools all over Britain in preparation of their mission. After that A. W. Freud was brought to Southern Italy (already freed from the Nazi occupation) in July 1944 where he and his colleagues, also refugees from Austria and Germany, had to endure a very long frustrating waiting period before they could go into action. Just before the end of the war, in late April 1945 he and seven other agents of Austrian and German origin parachuted behind enemy lines into Styria, which is and was a province of Austria but at that time was part of the Third Reich. They had to do a “blind drop” landing in the wrong place. Freud was separated from the others and had to continue on his own. In the first days of May he succeeded to reach the Zeltweg airfield which was one of the main targets of his group. He asked the commander to surrender to him. The German officer obviously did not dare take Freud in prison, but instead sent him with an escort to the headquarters of the commander of Army

Group East, Major General Rendulic. On the way they met some US army units proceeding into Austria and Freud was handed over to them. He was sent back to London, arriving there on May 8, 1945. After the war he remained in His Majesty’s service within the British Army of the Rhine in occupied Germany. He was working as an investigator with the War Crimes Unit, with it’s headquartering in Bad Oeynhausen. One of his greatest successes was finding and interrogating the owner and the leading managers of “Tesch & Stabenow”. This company was responsible for supplying Zyklon B for the Concentration Camps of the Third Reich which was used there to murder millions of people in the gas chambers, mostly Jews. Bruno Tesch was found guilty and sentenced to death. In 1947 Freud was demobilized with the rank of Major. He married a Danish aristocrat and studied chemical engineering in Loughborough. He was subsequently hired by several British industrial firms and retired in 1977. Until his death he engaged himself with the history of his family and also gave an account of his war experience under the title “Before the Anticlimax”. After suffering a long illness he passed away on February 8, 2004 in his house in Oxted near London. Anton Walter Freud shares the fate of the many other Austrian Jews who were expelled by the Nazis and who after the war received no invitation to return to their homeland, let alone be appreciated for their great effort in fighting for a new independent Austria by Austrian politicians or the post-war Austrian society.

From Lord Peter Eden FHCIMA 16 May 2012 WILLY FIELD It was a cold and rainy day yesterday when we said goodbye to Willy Field, a great guy. I met Willy in July 1940 when we boarded the HMT Dunera on the way to Australia and we became great friends. After our return to England, both Willy and I joined the army and did our training in Ilfracombe and then, after some time in the Pioneer Corps, transferred to combat units with Willy going to the tanks. Once again Willy was lucky, his tank was hit in Holland, he was the only survivor and sometime later he was given the honour of driving the lead tank in the victory parade in Berlin. Willy was a lovely man, liked by everyone and a great many old friends attended his farewell. He will be sadly missed.

Peter Eden

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In the News From Francis Castles on facebook My father Heinz Schloesser (later by deed poll Heinz Castles) was a Dunera Boy. Now my daughter, Belinda Castles, has published a novel based on my mother and father’s lives. It includes accounts of my father’s internment on the Isle of Man, the trip out to Australia on the Dunera, and his time in Hay and Tatura.

Biography of Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack Two former language teachers, Resi Schwarzbauer and Felicity Renowden, have signed a contract with Macmillan Art Publishing to publish a biography of Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, pending funding. A student at the influential Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, HirschfeldMack fled the Nazis in 1936 and was deported to Australia from England aboard HMT Dunera in 1940, spending time in internment camps in Hay, Orange and Tatura. His release from detention was secured through the intercession of Sir James Darling from Geelong Grammar School who appointed Hirschfeld-Mack as the School’s Art Master (1942-57). Over 1000 of his art works, sculptures and musical instruments are housed in public galleries and museums in Eastern Australia, the largest collection to be found at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne. Hirschfeld-Mack is celebrated by Geelong Grammar School through the Hirschfeld Mack Centre, opened in 2003, and he is widely recognised for playing a significant role in the development of art education in Australia in the modern era. For expressions of interest or support for the biography project please contact Felicity Renowden. email: [email protected].

Königskinder – By Erica Fischer This novel is based on Emmerich Fischer’s voyage on the Dunera to Australia and back on the Largs Bay a year later. Upon his arrival in England on July 29, 1941, he was interned on the Isle of Man and released on 2 January, 1942. It is a mixture of material documenting the voyage, life in Camp 8, the Blitz in London and fiction. The book includes many of Erica’s parents’ letters going to and fro between England and Australia and between St. Albans and the Isle of Man. Königskinder is in German and it is available through amazon.de

Hannah & Emil – By Belinda Castles Emil and Hannah live their lives amid the turmoil of 20th-century history. Emil, a German veteran of the Great War, has returned home to a disturbed nation. Hannah, a Russian Jew in London, leaves home for Europe, travelling into a continent headed towards war. In Brussels, she meets Emil, who has just crossed the border on foot from Nazi Germany. All too briefly, they make a life before war strikes, and Emil, an enemy alien, is interned. Hannah, determined to find him, prepares herself for a dangerous journey. Belinda Castles is the author of the The River Baptists which won the 2006 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. Hannah & Emil is published by Allen & Unwin and is available at most major bookstores. Exile: The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz – By Roger Averill Like the best true life adventures, the story of Werner Pelz is stranger than fiction. Forced to flee Nazi Germany for being Jewish, he was then interned in England for being German. Shipped to Australia on the notorious HMT Dunera, he spent two years in internment camps in Hay and Tatura. After returning to Britain, his life evolved into a spiritual quest that led him to become an Anglican vicar, to author popular books, to appearances on the BBC, and to become a Guardian columnist. Decades after his wartime Australian exile, he returned to teach Sociology at La Trobe University, continuing his search for a new way of thinking, a new mythology. In the mid-1980s, a young university student, Roger Averill, was taught by this quietly charismatic man. The two developed an unlikely friendship, one that was to last until Werner’s death, after which Roger’s research unexpectedly revealed a deeper dimension and a personal life filled with familial drama, pain and poignancy. Both memoir and biography, Exile is a compelling account of a remarkable man’s life-long search for a truth unbound by orthodoxy. Exile is available at most major bookstores.

D unera N ews N o . 86 • D ecember 2012 • P age 15