On July 10, 1940, a group of 2,542 internees left from Liverpool on the HMT Dunera for transport to Australia. Among the internees were 200 Italian Fascists and 251 German prisoners of war. As a result of severe overcrowding, minimal hygiene facilities, barbaric treatment by the British guards, and German U-Boat attacks, the trip was a harrowing experience. The ship arrived at the Freemantle on August 26, 1940. Most of the passengers were interned at the Hay Camp in New South Wales or the Tatura Camp in Victoria. About 1,000 of the internees remained in Australia after the war. Mail to and from internees was sent through the Prisoners of War Information Bureau. After censorship, the mail would be forwarded to the camp in question where it was recensored pursuant to the rules of the particular camp.
Hay was located about 450 miles west of Sydney. Below are thumbnails of the front and back of three items. The first is a cover postmarked November 16, 1940, from Vienna to an Edwin Manzoni at the internment camp at Moorach on the Isle of Man (see Isle of Man). Manzoni had been sent to Australia on the Dunera, and the cover was forwarded to the internment camp at Hay and bears an arrival stamp at Hay dated March 24, 1941. The second is a cover sent by an internee at Hay, Hans Reich, a Dunera passenger, to a relative in Cleveland, Ohio. The cover is postmarked November 4, 1940 from Sydney. The cover bears a cachet, "Service Prisoners of War, C.S. Thane, Lt. Col. Comdt. HAY." The third item is a folded letter, dated October 14, 1940, from a Doctor Goldstaub, who was interned at a camp, Huyton, in Liverpool, addressed to his son, Werner, in c/o of the Prisoner of War Information Bureau, Melbourne, Australia. The letter was forwarded to Werner at Camp Hay. Werner was a passenger on the Dunera. The message indicates that the father knew that the ship had arrived safely in Australia and that the father was traveling from the camp that day to be with Werner's mother who apparently lived in London. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Hay" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of the front and back of a cover and folded letter from internment camps located in South Australia. The cover was sent after the war from Neuenmarket, Germany, to N.G. Howard at the No. 14 D Camp in South Australia. The folded letter is from Hans Walther, a passenger on the Dunera, at internment camp 10 in South Australia, to the American Joint Distribution Committee in New York. The letter was received on October 11, 1941, and asks if they could locate a recent immigrant, Lisl Lissak, and give her his address. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "South Australia" in the left frame to return.
Due to the poor area conditions at Hay, most of the internees remaining in the camp were transferred to Tatura, Victoria during May, 1941. Tatura was located about 100 miles north of Melbourne and consisted of four camps with a capcity of about 1,000 each. Camp 2 held German and Italian internees and German prisoners of war. The camps were closed in January, 1947.
Covers 1-3-- Below are thumbnails of the front and back of three covers pertaining to camp 2 at Tatura. The first cover is postmarked July 10, 1944, from Fahr, Germany, to an internee at Tatura, Joseph Mundshein. It was forwarded to Jewish Welfare in Ripponlea, a suburb of Melbourne. The second cover is from an internee at camp 2, Harry Jacobsohn, a Dunera passenger, to a relative in Herziliyya, Palestine. The cover bears a Sydney postmark dated September, 1940, and arrival postmark in Herzliyya, dated December 25, 1940. The third cover from an internee at Camp 2, Zacharias Sucher, a Dunera passenger, to the Zionist Federation in Melbourne. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Covers 1-3" in the left frame to return.
Covers 4-6-- Below are thumbnails of the front and back of three covers pertaining to the Tatura camp. The first is a cover sent from Chicago, postmarked March 24, 1941, to Edwin Manzoni. As discussed above, Manzoni was a passenger on the Dunera and originally interned at Hay. The cover bears a typed note that he left the camp (presumably Hay) on July 10, 1940. The cover appears to have then been sent to the internment camp at Tatura. There is a handwritten note indicating arrival on September 12, 1941. The second is a cover from M. Lehmann, a passenger on the Dunera, interned at Tatura camp 2, addressed to the Secretary of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society in Melbourne. The cover bears an approved for transmission cachet of the Camp Commandant. The third is a cover from "Camp Spokesman", interned at Tatura camp 2, addressed to the Zionist Federation in Melbourne. The cover bears an approved for transmission cachet of the Camp Commandant. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Covers 4-6" in the left frame to return.
Covers 7-10-- Below are thumbnails of the front and back of four items from the internment camp at Tatura. The first two are folded letters from Hermann Stein, a passenger on the Dunera, to his wife in Hassfurt, Germany. Both letters were returned: the first was returned on October 24, 1942; and the second was returned on December 22, 1942. According to Yad Vasehm's Central Database of Shoah Victims, a Frieda Stein from Hassfurt was deported to Lublin and presumably died there. The third is a folded letter from Lothar Stein, a passenger on the Dunera, to Frieda Stein in Hassfurt, Germany. The letter was returned on March 29, 1942. The fourth item is a cover from Theo Wagner, an internee at Camp A at Tatura, to Consul Carl Lutz in Zurich, Switzerland. The cover is postmarked May 17, 1946. During the war, Lutz was the Swiss Vice-Counsel in Budapest. In this capacity, he heroically helped over 60,000 Jews to survive through the issuance of various documents. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Covers 7-10" in the left frame to return.
Earl Kaplan, Jewish Internees in an Australian Internment Camp in World War II, The Israel Philatelist, October, 1984, P. 4418-4421
Joseph Aron, From Germany to Australia- A Philatelic Record, The Israel Philatelist, April, 1986, P. 4843-4846
Earl Kaplan, Jewish Internees at Tatura- An Australian Internment Camp, October, 1985, P. 4708-09
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/english/carlutz.htm
Gutman, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (1990), P. 924-26
Copyright © 2005 Edward Victor