Dunera Lives


Book Description

The story of the 'Dunera Boys' is an intrinsic part of the history of Australia in the Second World War and in its aftermath. The injustice these 2000 men suffered through British internment in camps at Hay, Tatura and Orange is well known. Less familiar is the tale of what happened to them afterwards. This book tells that story, in two volumes, one in images, and one in life stories. The images constitute a narrative all of their own. The beauty and power of these traces of the lives of these internees speak for themselves. Once familiar with the images in the first volume, the reader will be able to embrace more fully the profiles in volume two. These are stories of struggle, sadness, transcendence, and creativity that describe the lives of these men and of the society in which they lived, first as prisoners and then as free men. A contribution to the history of Australia, to the history of migrants and migration, and to the history of human rights, these two volumes put in the public domain a story whose full dimensions and complexity have never been described.




"Totally Un-English"?


Book Description

The internment of 'enemy aliens' by the British government in two world wars remains largely hidden from history. British historians have treated the subject - if at all - as a mere footnote to the main narrative of Britain at war. In the 'Great War', Britain interned some 30,000 German nationals, most of whom had been long-term residents. In fact, internment brought little discernible benefit, but cruelly damaged lives and livelihoods, breaking up families and disrupting social networks. In May 1940, under the threat of imminent invasion, the British government interned some 28,000 Germans and Austrians, mainly Jewish refugees from the Third Reich. It was a measure which provoked lively criticism, not least in Parliament, where one MP called the internment of refugees 'totally un-English'. The present volume seeks to shed more light on this still submerged historical episode, adopting an inter-disciplinary approach to explore hitherto under-researched aspects, including the historiography of internment, the internment of women, deportation to Canada, and culture in internment camps, including such notable events as the internment revue What is Life!




The Young Survivors


Book Description

What if everyone you loved was suddenly taken away? Five siblings struggle to stay together as the tides of war threaten to tear them apart. When Germany invades France in the Second World War, the five Laskowski children lose everything: their home, their Jewish community and most devastatingly their parents who are abducted in the night. There is no safe place left for them to evade the Nazis, but they cling together, never certain when the authorities will come for what is left of them. Inspired by the poignant, true story of the author’s mother, this moving historical novel conveys the hardship, the uncertainty and the impossible choices the Laskowski children were forced to make to survive the horrors of the Holocaust. ***PRAISE FOR THE YOUNG SURVIVORS*** 'A haunting account... a devastating story of twins separated, of grandparents, parents and cousins, entire families, disappeared – a story that had to be told.' Elizabeth Fremantle 'A story that will make you weep, wonder and remember.' Tatiana de Rosnay, author of Sarah’s Key 'A poignant and gripping debut. Set against the darkest days of WWII, the novel reminds us that the bonds of family and the power of love can never be extinguished.' Alyson Richman, bestselling author of The Lost Wife 'A heartbreaking yet uplifting story of loss and love told through the eyes of children... gripping and deeply moving.' James MacManus 'A hugely impressive debut.' Michael Newman, CEO of The Association of Jewish Refugees 'A novel that is arrestingly sincere, full of touching moments and informed by careful research. The beating heart of The Young Survivors is the author’s emotional connection to her characters, which is unmistakably based on longstanding and deep engagement with her own family’s past.' Dr Toby Simpson, Director of The Wiener Holocaust Library




The Jews of Denmark in the Holocaust


Book Description

Based on never previously explored personal accounts and archival documentation, this book examines life and death in the Theresienstadt ghetto, seen through the eyes of the Jewish victims from Denmark. "How was it in Theresienstadt?" Thus asked Johan Grün rhetorically when he, in July 1945, published a short text about his experiences. The successful flight of the majority of Danish Jewry in October 1943 is a well-known episode of the Holocaust, but the experience of the 470 men, women, and children that were deported to the ghetto has seldom been the object of scholarly interest. Providing an overview of the Judenaktion in Denmark and the subsequent deportations, the book sheds light on the fate of those who were arrested. Through a micro-historical analysis of everyday life, it describes various aspects of social and daily life in proximity to death. In doing so, the volume illuminates the diversity of individual situations and conveys the deportees’ perceptions and striving for survival and ‘normality’. Offering a multi-perspective and international approach that places the case of Denmark into the broader Jewish experience during the Holocaust, this book is invaluable for researchers of Jewish studies, Holocaust and genocide studies, and the history of modern Denmark.




The Dunera Affair


Book Description




Haywire


Book Description

In 1939, 14-year-old Tom lives in Hay where his family runs the local bakery. Max Gruber is nearly fourteen-years-old. He is sent to his Uncle Ferdy in London, but is then interred and shipped to Australia aboard the Dunera. He arrives in Hay and meets Tom. The two boys become friends and find their lives and their friendship influenced by a far-away conflict in Europe.




The Uprooted


Book Description

Whiteman, who escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria with her family, is now a clinical psychologist in New York. Her impassioned, riveting study of the Jews who managed to leave Germany and Austria before Hitler implemented mass executions and death camps is based partly on interviews with 190 escapees. She tells the incredible story of the Kindertransport operation, which took 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied countries to England by train and ferry. Adolf Eichmann, then an emigration official, disdainfully approved this mass exodus. We learn of the formidable barriers escapees faced in getting out, of horrid or supportive foster homes, of the trauma and pain of being forcibly uprooted. Many escapees endured years of poverty before re-establihsing themselves. Whiteman rejects Hannah Arendt's thesis that German Jews' cultural assimilation led to their political blindness in a "fool's paradise." This is a distinctive contribution to Holocaust literature.




All for the Best


Book Description

Walter Fast was born in Vienna not long after the First World War and as a child he lived through the political turmoil of Central Europe, which culminated with Hitler's annexation of Austria. As was common at the time, his parents came from large families, so he had 25 aunts and uncles, with their children as cousins. The families and his life were decimated by the Nazi occupation and he was first exiled alone to England at the age of fifteen, then deported to Australia, before being allowed to return and join the British Army, never again seeing his mother and more than half of his aunts, uncles and cousins. His name changed to Walter Foster, he married and had children of his own, who grew up in England hearing anecdotal stories of different episodes of young Walter's life, of his family and the tumultuous political history of mid-century Europe. When his children provided him with grandchildren, he was persuaded to re-tell these anecdotes for the benefit of the younger generation and he decided to assemble them into an autobiographical book, which gives a clear picture of survival through adversity of one of many hundreds of thousands of victims of the events following the rise of Hitler to power in Europe. It was his hope that keeping such stories alive and re-telling them to successive generations would contribute to a better awareness in society of the fundamental need for decency, respect and peaceful co-existence, preventing the likelihood of any re-occurrence of events similar to the Holocaust of 1938 to 1945.




Japan Experiences - Fifty Years, One Hundred Views


Book Description

This unique volume comprising writings and memoirs covering the half century since the end of the Pacific War, offers the reader a fascinating and remarkable collection of personal experiences of Japan across a wide spectrum.




Émigré Voices


Book Description

In Émigré Voices Lewkowicz and Grenville present twelve oral history interviews with men and women who came to Britain as Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria in the late 1930s, many of whom known for their enormous contributions to British culture.