The long arm of the third Reich: Internment of New Guinea Germans in tatura

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 38, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 85-108

  Winter, Christine ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61249147426     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00223340306073     Document Type: Article

References (111)

1. The German terms used for local party organisations were Ortsgruppe (local group) for larger groups and Stützpunkt (base, stronghold) for smaller entities.
2. At the outbreak of war, 473 Germans resided in the Territory, of whom 412 were employed by missions (District Censor, Brisbane to The Controller of Postal and Telegraph Censorship, Melbourne, 6 Dec. 1941, Melbourne, National Archives of Australia (hereinafter NAA Melbourne), MP 508/1, 52/701/154). The first group interned were 26 German men, of whom 16 were members of the Lutheran Mission Finschhafen. All but four of the missionaries had been on the Finschhafen stronghold list, but most were not actually party members. The NSDAP banned membership for ordained clergy. Of the other 10 Germans, only two, Rundnagel and Uechtritz, had - to my knowledge - been in New Guinea in 1936. Three are certain to have arrived between 1938 and 1939. The other five probably also came to New Guinea after the consul's visit and the initial founding of the strongholds. In addition to the strongholds lists, information from government officials and local residents was used by the Administration. None sof the many women members of the stronghold were interned.
3. Margaret Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire: internment in Australia during World War II (St Lucia 1993), 47.
4. The mass internment of missionaries came as a shock to New Guinea Germans. During World War I, most Germans were deported and interned, the majority never to return, but missionaries were allowed to stay. Of the Lutheran Mission Finschhafen, then called Neuendettelsauer Mission in New Guinea, only three missionaries were removed and interned in Australia. See G.W.L. Townsend, District Officer: from untamed New Guinea to Lake Success, 1921-1946 (Sydney 1968), 27-9;
5. Georg Pilhofer, Die Geschichte der Neuendettelsauer Mission in Neu Guinea Vol. 2 (Neuendettelsau 1963), 18-21;
6. Gerhard Fischer, Enemy Aliens: internment and the homefront experience in Australia, 1914-1920 (St Lucia 1989).
7. The internment policy adopted until June 1940 was not to intern all enemy aliens, but to follow a narrow selection policy with NSDAP membership one of the central criteria. See e.g. Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire, 13.
8. In November 1942, shortly before a large group of Germans from New Guinea were transferred to the family camp Tatura 3, 67 Germans from New Guinea were reported to be in Tatura 1. See Report about Visit to Tatura 1, 24 and 25 Nov. 1942, Berne, Swiss Federal Archives (hereinafter SFA), E2001/-02/-16 vol. 24. After an inspection visit to New Guinea in Nov. 1941 Brisbane's District Censor reported that 66 Germans from New Guinea had been interned. District Censor, Brisbane to The Controller of Postal and Telegraph Censorship, 6 Dec. 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 52/701/154.
9. See Barbara Winter, Stalag Australia, German prisoners of war in Australia (Sydney 1986), 26 and 187.
10. See also Wilhelm Fugmann, Laß dein Brot übers Wasser fahren ... Chronik einer wunderbaren Reise (Treuchtlingen 1996), 78.
11. Although research has been done on internment of civilians in Australia, not much has focused on the problem of National Socialism within the camps. Aspects of this problem have been discussed by Kay Saunders, e.g. in her article '"Discovering" the subversive and the saboteur: the disjuncture between official records of internment policy and practice and the remembered experiences of internees in Australia in the Second World War', Oral History Association of Australia Journal, 13 (1991), 1-11;
12. and K. Saunders and R. Daniels (eds), Alien Justice: wartime internment in Australia and North America (St Lucia 2000)
13. Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire, Konrad Kwiet, 'Be patient and reasonable', The Australian Journal of Politics and History (1985), 61-77
14. and Paul Bartrop, 'Incompatible with security: enemy alien internees from Singapore in Australia, 1940-45', The Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, 12 (1993), 149-69. In his history of the Templar Society Paul Sauer includes pre-war involvement of this group with National Socialism in Palestine and Germany, as well as aspects of National Socialist activities in the internment camps.
15. See his The Holy Land Called: the story of the Temple Society (Melbourne 1991), trans. by Gunhild Henley of Uns rief das Heilige Land - Die Templergesellschaft im Wandel der Zeit (Stuttgart 1985).
16. For a discussion of the history of the Templars under National Socialism see also the circular of the Temple Society, Templar Record, 571 (Mar. 1996) and 576 (Aug. 1996).
17. The archivists in Berne informed me that, to their knowledge, I was the first to consult these records, and apologised in case the files of the section dealing with Germans abroad, including Australia, were disorganised due to the immense workload during World War II. The files were not only diligently kept, but together with the records held in the archives of the foreign office in Bonn, Germany, allow a shift away from national histories of internment, which put the interning nation as the central reference point, to transnational histories. This paper focuses on one Australian camp with side glances to New Zealand and Canada in an attempt to begin an analysis of the policies and bureaucratic procedures of the respective German and Swiss departments, and their interactions with governments, military authorities, internees and POWs in various countries.
18. The resulting polarisation often forced those who were neither for nor against the Third Reich into making a decision. In India internees were, e.g., asked whether they would prefer to be detained in the Nazi or non-Nazi compound. I would like to thank Theodor Ahrens for this information.
19. Eidgenössisches Politisches Department, Abteilung für fremde Interessen to Deutsche Gesandtschaft, Berne, 12 Nov. 1940, SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 9. This translation, and all following translations if not specified otherwise, are by me.
20. Consul General H. Hedinger looked after internees and POWs in New South Wales, consular agent Schaub visited those in Queensland, and consul J.A. Pietzcker (from 1942 to the end of the war with the support of Ernst Brack and Karl Ritter) was responsible for camps in Victoria. Kwiet, 'Be patient and reasonable', 64, refers to the 'great zeal' with which the Swiss looked after German interests, and comments on 'gestures and phrases, which could leave no doubt about their pro-German and anti-Jewish sentiments'. This impression is stronger in the archives in Bonn than in the archives in Berne. Working in Berne I was surprised to find a department concerned with pragmatism and efficiency, which was less interested in principles and values of their own than in keeping their German 'client' content and complaint-free, and amended their reports and language to fit German expectations.
21. Tatura 1 was referred to as the central internment camp and the Aryan camp. See SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 24. In this file are also various reports about the transfer or requests for transfer of loyal Germans in Gaythorne, Orange, Hay and other camps. While it is not clear whether Schaub, who was visiting Gaythorne, checked with the respective internees that they were happy with a transfer to Tatura, Consul Hedinger seems to have done this. See Consul H. Hedinger to Swiss Legation, Special Division, London, 15 Apr. 1941, p. 2
22. and Eidgenössisches Politisches Department, Abteilung für fremde Interessen, Berne to Deutsche Gesandtschaft, Berne, 1 Feb. 1943, SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 24.
23. Official Visitor's report, 15 May 1940, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/715/94.
24. and Kwiet, 'Be patient and reasonable', 61-77.
25. Secretary Military Board to Secretary Dept of the Army, Jan. 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/715/140.
26. See also Sauer, The Holy Land Called, 244.
27. Report on Internment Camp in Paliatua, 17 Nov. 1943, p. 13, SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 26.
28. H.J. Thompson, Army Headquarters, New Zealand Military Forces, Wellington to Consul of Switzerland, Wellington, 9 Feb. 1944, SFA, E2001/-02/-17 vol. 56.
29. The Germans made many complaints in regard to German POWs in America being guarded by 'negroes'.
30. See e.g. Eidgenössisches Politisches Department, Abteilung für fremde Interessen, Berne to Schweizerische Gesandtschaft, London, 6 Dec. 1939, SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 24. Reports on visits to the camps were sent by the Swiss consuls in Australia in five copies via London to Switzerland, and handed over to the German representative in Berne. Schaub's reports especially were intitially re-written by the Swiss department.
31. See e.g. Pietzcker to Special Division, Swiss Legation, London, 16 Jan. 1941, as well as various reports on camp visits, SFA, E2001 /-02/-16 vol. 24. Thus the indirect interventions of the Third Reich probably far exceeded the direct interventions and protests; yet the written record only shows the latter. This raises the question of whether some events and changes which seem to originate with military authorities were actually suggested by the Swiss representatives.
32. Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire, 46. On 27 Feb. 1942 Tackaberry resigned and was replaced by Major V.S. Wilson.
33. Translated statement by Leader of local Italian internees, NAA Melbourne MP 70/4, 1940/693. The authors of the internal camp history also recalled the event: 'Instead of the forbidden official welcome, we sang defiant songs and played the Italian national anthem and so rid them of the uncertainty of time and feeling ... It was the beginning of the German-Italian friendship at Tatura.' Trans. of extracts from 'Record of the German internment Camp in Australia' confiscated 22 Feb. 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 529/5, 3.
34. Duffy, Official Visitor, Memo 18 June 1940, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/715/94.
35. See Fugmann, Laß dein Brot übers Wasser fahren, 78. Fugmann also points out that Junge was born in Ansbach, Franconia. The German home organisation of the Lutheran Mission Finschhafen was located nearby, and most of the missionaries were fellow Franconians. People from Franconia even today have a very strong sense of regional identity. This might explain the ease with which some Germans from New Guinea, especially the missionaries, moved into positions of power.
36. Extracts, Report Tatura, 14 Apr. 1940, NAA Melbourne MP 529/3, Tribunal 2/General.
37. Trans. of extracts from 'Record of the German internment Camp in Australia', Christmas 1940 sgn. G. Neumann and Fritz Mueller, confiscated 22 Feb. 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 529/5, 3: 'Not only were pictures of the Fuehrer, and flags, swastikas and lictors bundles taken down, torn from the walls and confiscated, but even harmless memento plaques and stones which bore the Hoheitszeichen [national insignia or colours] '. See also Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire, 47f.
38. Haslinger to the Commandant, Internment Camp, Tatura, 28 Oct. 1940, Bonn, Archiv des Auswärtigan Amtes (hereinafter AA), R41775. Haslinger also informed Germany via the Swiss consul Pietzcker (Pietzcker via Berne to Foreign Office, 16 Jan. 1941, Bonn R41775). Both documents also in SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 24.
39. In German called Marsch auf die Feldherrnhalle.
40. This was despite an order forbidding them to march, in response to German authorities, who had not allowed Belgians to celebrate Armistice Day.
41. Junge was camp leader from February to July 1940. He was re-elected camp leader in March 1942, when Haslinger was transferred to Camp 3, and continued as such until August 1942, when he was dismissed by the Camp Commandant. His successor as camp leader from September 1942 to February 1944 was W. Schauer. See Canberra, National Archives of Australia (hereinafter NAA Canberra) A 373, 11570/156, and NAA Melbourne MP 789/1, V/38702s.
42. Letter to Haslinger by stronghold leaders WA, Finschhafen, Vic., SA, 5 Sept. 1940, NAA Canberra A 373, 9167, Tatura Weekly intelligence reports 1944/45. Intelligence Officer L.B. Rogers, who worked in Tatura from September 1944, prepared a brief resumé on National Socialism in Tatura in October 1945 for the hearings Justice Simpson was about to carry out in Tatura. He concluded that 'the camp leader and his assistants and the camp staff were under party control' (Evidence by Lieut Rogers, 13 Nov. 1945, NAA Canberra A373, 11570/156 Pt1).
43. Chief group leader of the 'Ordnungsdienst' Kaiser to Haslinger and group leaders, 5 Nov. 1940, NAA Canberra A 373, 9167, Tatura Weekly intelligence reports 1944/45. He stated that the way this election was organised demonstrated 'what a small but disciplined group can do when opposed by an unorganised leaderless mob'.
44. Initially a bicycle producer, the firm Wanderer built its first car in 1902. In 1932, Wanderer's automobile division was taken over by the new Auto Union, a manufacturing group comprising Audi, Horch and DKW.
45. Major Bristow was a World War I veteran who had joined the Dhurringile Guard in September 1939.
46. Haslinger, Duties of the 'Ordungsdienst', 15 Oct. 1940, NAA Canberra A 373, 9167 Tatura Weekly intelligence reports 1944/45, Supp. to No. 58 12.2.44. During the de-Nazification interviews in Nov. 1945 the former camp leader of Tatura 1, Schauer, who succeeded Haslinger and Junge, stated that he disbanded the Camp Orderly Service, as 'the tensions and the lack of discipline and order which were responsible for it being formed were not there any more ..." (Interview with W. Schauer, 20 Nov. 1945, NAA Canberra A 373, 11570/156).
47. NAA Canberra A373, 11570/156 Pt 1. This reflects other experiences in the camp, although one should be aware that Dr Becker, who made this statement in an interview with Justice W.B. Simpson which was to determine his future, had a huge interest in not being regarded as a Nazi and allowed to stay in Australia.
48. Secretary Military Board to Southern Command, Apr. 1940, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/715/94.
49. Transcripts of evidence, members of MI, 11 Jan. 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 529/3, Tribunal 2/General.
50. Haslinger to Commandant, Tatura, 15 May 1940, NAA Melbourne MP 529/5, 3. As the name of the internee is not revealed in the file, it is highly likely that he indeed was an informant. Both Fugmann, remembering Tatura 1 in his autobiography (Laß dein Brot übers Wasser fahren, 79-80) and Sauer in a brief reference to the Court of Honour in Tatura 3, which was chaired by Haslinger after his transfer to the family camp (The Holy Land Called, 245), reproduce the myth about the Court of Honour's innocent tasks.
51. Report, Compound Commandant, Tatura, 14 Mar. 1940, NAA Melbourne MP 529/3, Tribunal 2/General.
52. Weekly intelligence reports, Tatura Group No, 81, 15-22 July 1944, NAA Melbourne MP 70/1, 37/101/185. Haslinger's approach during his time as camp leader was more subtle. He and Mr Keudell, representing the Jewish internees of hut 26 and 27, negotiated a truce. 'Mr Haslingcr gave us an assurance that he would prevent his people from insulting us as much as possible, and then he said he wanted our people to take part in all the entertainments of the camp, but he promised that during all those entertainments no word should be said against Jews.' Evidence given to Alien Tribunal, 6 Feb. 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 529/5, 4.
53. Consul Pietzcker to Swiss Legation, London, Report about visit to Tatura, 19 July 1941, SFA, E 2001/-02/-16 vol. 24.
54. Swiss Legation, London to Eidgenössisches Politisches Department, Abteilung für fremde Interessen, 26 Sept. 1942, SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 24. Correspondence between the consul and the camp was also to be 'channeled through the camp leader'.
55. This was in response to the request for pocket money by one internee, Manfred von Amelunxe, who declared that he was opposed to National Socialism and a 'good' loyal German. German Consulate, Berne, to German foreign office, Berlin, 19 July 1944, AA, R42149.
56. Foreign office to German Consulate Berne, 8 Aug. 1944, AA, R42149.
57. Eidgenössisches Politisches Department, Abteilung für fremde Interessen, Berne to Schweizerische Gesandtschaft, London, 19 Nov. 1943, SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 15.
58. Deutsche Gesandtschaft Berne to Eidgenössisches Politisches Department, Abteilung für frernde Interessen Berne, 11 May 1942, SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 15. The reports and correspondence regarding the Canadian camp is kept in a sub-file entitled Vertrauensmänner. The other sub-file deals with German protests about the treatment of Germans in Mandated Territories. The placement of the file indicates that the case was handled by the Swiss as a fundamental German policy decision and directive.
59. Report, Compound Commandant, Tatura, 14 Apr. 1940, NAA Melbourne MP 529/3, Tribunal 2/General.
60. See Evidence by Lieut. Rogers, 13 Nov. 1945, NAA Canberra A373, 11570/156 Pt 1. Interviews by Justice Simpson with Guth and Pilhofer, NAA Melbourne MP798/1, V/38702s.
61. See also Fugmann, Laß dein Brot übers Wasser fahren, 79-80. Intelligence Officer W. A Young was even of the opinion that the camp's two Nazi cells were the members of the Court of Honour and 'most of the New Guinea Germans'. Young to Alien Tribunal, 22 Jan. 1941, NAA MP 529/3, Tribunal 2/General, p. 32.
62. O. Soltwedel to The Commandant, Internment Camp, Tatura, 22 Jan. 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/702/1259.
63. Lieut.-General, Southern Command, Melbourne, to Secretary, Military Board, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/702/1259. Initially, it was also unclear whether internees from New Guinea should be treated as overseas internees like the families from Singapore, meaning that in the absence of the interning government agency - in the New Guinea case the Administration - no right for appeal could be granted. In the end, all New Guinea internees were classified as local internees.
64. See e.g. F.S. Joelson, Germany's Claims to Colonies (2nd edn, London 1939).
65. Dr F.J. Haslinger to The Commandant, Internment Camp, Tatura, 24 June 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/702/1259.
66. See also Deutsche Gesandtschaft, Berne to Swiss Political Department, 23 Nov. 1939, Section For Foreign Interests, SFA, E2001-02/-16 Vol. 15 Sub-file Mandate. The Protest note was given to the governments of Britain, Australia and New Zealand concerning Tanganyika, Cameroon, Togo, Palestine, Transjordania, New Guinea and Samoa.
67. See Director of Personal Services, 8 May 1941, Southern Command Memorandum S.M5199, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/702/1259. The British government, who replied also on behalf of Australia and New Zealand, had likewise rejected the German protest. Foreign Office to Swiss Legation, Special Division for the Safeguarding of German Interests, 21 Mar. 1940, SFA, E2001-02/-16 Vol. 15 Sub-file Mandate.
68. Report by Capt. Maltby on inquiry in Tatura 7 Jan. 1941, NAA Melbourne MP 70/4, 1940/693.
69. Printed leaflets about internment camps in Canada, New Zealand and Australia No 4, Dec. 1941, p. 21, AA, R41981
70. See file NAA Melbourne MP 70/4, 1940/693.
71. HQ Vic Barracks, Melbourne to Administration Tatura, 1 Feb. 1941; Group Camp Commandant Tackaberry to HQ, 5 Feb, 1941: NAA Melbourne MP 70/4, 1940/693.
72. Camp rules issued by the Group Commandant Tatura issued 1 Mar. 1941, as quoted by Dr Josephs, 'An appeal for Justice and humanity', May 1941, p. 8, NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/715/319. The rules show that camp authorities were aware that internees were pressured to comply: 'la) The holding of political meeting or meetings at which any political propaganda is used, or Nazi or Fascist principles recommended, advanced or urged is strictly forbidden ... . 15. The victimisation of any Internee or Prisoner of War holding anti-Nazi or anti-Fascist views, or for any other reason, is prohibited.'
73. In Aug. 1941, Palestine-German families brought to Tatura 3 complained about the confiscation of swastika badges and Hitler photos. Southern Command and the Dept of the Army did not mention the camp rules, but replied that the question of Nazi emblems in internment camps was 'entirely for the discretion of the Camp Commandant and this command docs not propose giving a direction relating to it' (undated, Answer to official visitors by Southern Command; Memo for Minister Dept of the Army, 18 Oct. 1941; Report Official Visitors Tatura 3, 16 Sept. 1941: NAA Melbourne MP 508/1, 255/715/304).
74. Wilhelm Hertle, one of the German Lutheran missionaries, recalled that they inquired whether, as in World War I, they would be allowed to stay in New Guinea if they gave the oath of neutrality. Learning that the only privilege they would gain was to make their way over the Owen Stanley Ranges on their own, they decided not to give the oath and travel accompanied. Only a handful of Germans remained in New Guinea during Japanese occupation.
75. See e.g. SFA, E2001/-02/-16 vol. 23.
76. See NAA Canberra A518, ED 16/2/1.
77. These statements were recorded by the Security Service in South Australia, and formed the first leaf of each woman's internment record. A separate file was only established for single women. Married women's records were kept in their husbands' files. A list prepared in 1946 for the Dept of Immigration recorded 30 women from New Guinea in Tatura Camp 3. See NAA Canberra A 437, 46/6/149.
78. A few days before the families from New Guinea moved into Tatura 3 compounds A, B and C, 199 of a total of 264 women, 220 out of 268 men, and 216 out of 309 children belonged to the Templars. See report on visit to Tatura on 28 and 29 Nov. 1942, SFA, E 2001/-02/-16 vol. 24.
79. For the description and discussion of the riot between compound 3D and compounds 3A, B and C see Bartrop, 'Incompatible with security', 159-62
80. See Fugmann, Laß dein Brot übers Wasser fahren, 86. Two non-Nazi internees in Camp 3 described Ruff, quite differently from Fugmann, as 'in fact moderate in his political views', and named Th. S. Hoffmann as 'No. 1 Nazi ... a dangerous man'. See Intelligence Report No. 112 Tatura Group Camps, 28 Feb. 1944, NAA Canberra A 373, 9167.
81. Abbreviations for Hitler Jugend and Bund Deutscher Mädchen.
82. A calendar for 1944, issued for the camp leadership by Fugmann with linoleum cuts by Alfred Stürzenhofecker, the medical doctor of the Lutheran Mission Finschhafen, marked all camp memorial and celebration days. In January, e.g., there was New Year and Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in 1933, in March Remembrance day (Heldengedenktag), and in April Easter and Führer's birthday. Calendar personal possession of Helga Griffin, whom I would like to thank for showing it to me.
83. Fugmann, Laß dein Brot übers Wasser fahren, 87.
84. See also Report by Theodor Fast to DAI Stuttgart, 15 Nov. 1943, Bonn R 42009. Fast had been interned in Tatura 3 and was exchanged and returned to Germany in 1943.
85. 'Wir hatten es satt, die Kamcradschaftsabcndc besuchen zu müssen, bei denen nach wie vor vom Endsieg geschwafelt wurde.' Fugmann, Laß dein Brot übers Wasser fahren, 87.
86. See Report of visit to Tatura 3 on 23 and 24 Aug. 1943, pp 10-18, SFA, E 2001 /-02/-16 vol. 24, and AA, R42009.
87. Memo by Alfred Stirling, Australian External Affairs Office, Offices of the War Cabinet in London to the Secretary, Dept of External Affairs, 'German and Austrian Prisoners-of War', 15 June 1944, forwarded for information by External Affairs to the Secretary, Dept of the Army, 4 Aug. 1944, NAA Melbourne MP 742/1, 255/9/621. See also Ron Robin, The Barbed- Wire College: reeducating German POWs in the United States during World War II (Princeton 1995);
88. Arthur Lee Smith, The War for the German Mind: re-educating Hitler's soldiers (Providence, R.I. 1996).
89. Stirling was quoting from a telegram sent to the British Embassy in Washington on 14 June 1944.
90. In fact, the number of POWs in Australia was close to the British figure. In Australia, there were 1,637-1,653 German POWs, including merchant seamen, who were classified as POW (see Winter, Stalag Australia, 387) compared to 133,000 German POWs in USA, 20,000 in Canada, and 2,000 in Great Britain (figures given by British Authorities in early 1944, memo attached by Sterling).
91. For more details see Fitzgerald, The Italian Farming Soldiers.
92. See Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire, 219, 242.
93. See interviews with Justice W.B. Simpson, NAA Canberra A373, 11570/156 and NAA Melbourne MP 798/1, V/3870s.
94. Chairman, Overseas Internees Investigation Board, 22 July 1944, NAA Melbourne MP 742/1, 255/19/367.
95. See NAA Melbourne MP 70, 2/101/143.
96. Memo from C.E.M. Lloyd, LHQ to HQ Western Command, HQ Vic L of C Area 'PW & Internment groups - Nazi and Fascist influences', 26 Apr. 1945 (copies to HQ Qld, NSW, SA, Tas L of C Area), NAA Melbourne MP 742/1, 255/9/621. The camps mentioned in the memo which were thought to require consideration were: in Victoria the POW camps Murchison, Dhurringile (German officers), Myrtleford (Italian officers) and the Internment group Tatura. In Western Australia the POW camp Marrinup.
97. Memo by C.A. Clowe, Major General, G.O.C. Vic HQ L of C Area to LHQ re 26 Apr. 1945 memo, received 17 May 1945, NAA Melbourne MP 742/1, 255/9/621.
98. This conclusion falls short of the analysis of the British 1944 memo, which linked apparent homogeneity to group pressure.
99. The arguments against segregation of POWs in Durringile, Murchison and Graytown were pragmatically focused on resources and expenses. For Durringile, where a small group of 20 anti-Nazi Mercantile Marine Officers lived amongst a majority of pro-Nazi POWs, HQs concluded that as the anti-Nazis had so far remained uninfluenced by Nazism throughout their long period of captivity no segregation seemed necessary now.
100. LHQ to HQ Western Command, 21 May 1945, Qld, NSW, Vic, SA, Tas L of C Area, 21 May 1945, NAA Melbourne MP 742/1, 255/9/621.
101. Report by Major-General C.A. Clowes, G.O.C. Vic HQL of C Area to LHQ, 5 June 1945, NAA Melbourne MP 742/1, 255/9/621.
102. Tatura Internment group, War diary, 8 July 1945, Canberra, Australian War Memorial 52.
103. The story of refugees interned by Britain and sent to Australia in 1940 on board the 'hell' ship Dunera is one of the most told stories of internment in Australia during World War II. See e.g. Paul Bartrop and Gabrielle Eisen, The Dunera Affair: a documentary resource book (Melbourne 1990): 'These victims of Hitler's pre-war persecutions (most of whom were Jews), were re-victimized through internment during Britain's invasion scare of 1940, then shipped out of the country in appallingly crowded and insane conditions, as well as in the care of brutal military guards, who pilfered and destroyed their precious personal belongings. On arrival in Australia, the majority were sent to Hay, into extreme heat and to an alien, treeless landscape' (p. 1).
104. See NAA Canberra A373, 11570/156 and NAA Melbourne MP 798/1, V/38702s.
105. Some internees asked for hearings without the representative from the press, as they were still fearful of reactions of fellow internees as well as blackmail. See newspaper clippings in NAA Melbourne MP 798/1, V/38702s.
106. The Truth, 17 Nov. 1945, NAA Melbourne MP 798/1, V/38702s.
107. See e.g. interviews with Böttger, Uechtritz, Schmidt and Stehr, NAA Canberra A 373, 11570/156 Pt 1.
108. See various interviews in NAA MP 798/1, V/38702s and NAA Canberra A373, 11570/156.
109. Interview with Schamann, NAA Canberra, A373, 11570/156 Pt 1.
110. See e.g. interview with Alt, NAA Canberra, A373, 11570/156 Pt 1. Simpson stated 'I do not think he is the type who will make a good missionary from the Australian point of view if permitted to go back to New Guinea'.
111. Herald, 24 Nov. 1945, NAA Melbourne MP 798/1, V/38702s.