Description
Object description
German Jewish refugee in GB, 1933-1939; internee in Kempton Park Racecourse and Huyton Internment Camps, GB, 6/1940-7/1940; internee aboard HMT Dunera on voyage from GB to Australia, 7/1940-9/1940; internee in Hay, Tatura and Barmera Internment Camps in Australia, 9/1940-10/1941; internee aboard SS Ceramic on voyage from Australia to GB, 10/1941-12/1941; private and NCO served with 220th Coy, Pioneer Corps in GB and North West Europe, 1941-1945; NCO served with Military Government and Allied Control Commission, Germany in Hildesheim, Germany, 1945-1947
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as refugee in GB, 1933-1940: background to emigration to GB, 1933; employment in fur trade; learning and speaking English; mother's emigration to GB on domestic service visa; father's emigration to Netherlands, 1937 and his later death in Auschwitz Concentration Camp; attending tribunal and receiving category as 'enemy alien', 12/1939; second hand story of 'enemy aliens' serving with Pioneer Corps having to attend tribunal; refugees belonging to International Friendship League; attitude of British civilians towards internment; attitude towards internment; first aid course with St John's Ambulance; question of joining Pioneer Corps. Aspects of period as internee in Kempton Park Racecourse and Huyton Internment Camps in GB, 6/1940-7/1940: internment; character of Huyton Internment Camp.
REEL 2 Continues: internees at Kempton Park Racecourse Internment Camp; arrest prior to internment. Recollections of voyage as internee aboard HMT Dunera from GB to Australia, 7/1940-9/1940: conditions on board; presence of survivors of SS Arandora Star and other internees aboard; arrangements for segregation of internees on arrival in Australia and aboard ship; treatment of internees by guards including looting of possessions; how internees hid watches and compasses and plotted route; view of Lagos, Nigeria, British West Africa from ship's toilet; unsuccessful complaints; suicides on board and attempt of disabled internee to escape at Cape Town, South Africa; activities to pass time and improve morale; food; how his suitcase was not pilfered; arrival in Perth, Australia.
REEL 3 Continues: how looted luggage passed through Australian customs. Recollections of period as internee in Hay Internment Camp in Australia, 9/1940-5/1941: relations with Australian guards on train to camp; arrival at camp; organisation of rations between sub-camps 7 and 8; election of camp spokesmen; start of camp activities; organisation of camp; his camp duties; character of huts and rashes caused by dust; introduction of camp money and nature of camp economy; provision of clothing; state of health and medical duties; refusal to have contact with German Government.
REEL 4 Continues: reads contemporary newspaper report relating to court martial of Lieutenant Colonel William Scott commanding British Army guards on board SS Dunera; writing letters; social and educational background of internees; variety of educational classes and activities in camp; memories of individual internees and their subsequent careers; psychological and physical health of internees; religion in camp; Major Julian Layton's recruitment drive for Pioneer Corps. Aspects of period as internee at Tatura Internment Camp in Australia, 5/1941-8/1941: transfer to camp; aggravating Nazis internees in adjacent camp.
REEL 5 Continues: exercise in camp; medical facilities; treatment of frostbite cases; internees' desire to aid Allied war effort; question of Britain not naturalising enemy aliens serving in uniform; attitude towards homosexuality in camp. Aspects of period as internee in Bamera Internment Camp in Australia, 9/1941-10/1941: transfer to camp; living conditions in camp; letter written from camp. Aspects of voyage aboard SS Ceramic from Australia to GB, 10/1941-12/1941: embarkation on board ship; stop-over in Wellington, New Zealand; problems getting into Panama Canal; reaction of Australian personnel on board to snow in Halifax, Canada; crossing North Atlantic; medical orderly duties and tooth extraction on board.
REEL 6 Continues: providing submarine watch on boards; purser's attempted suicide; arrival in GB; enlistment in Pioneer Corps, 12/1941. Short reel.
REEL 7 Continues: Recollections of period as private with 220th Coy, Pioneer Corps in GB, 1941-1944: deployment of Pioneer Corps companies; question of unfriendly nature of southern counties; story of 165th Coy's treatment of newly arrived sergeants who had been guards on HMT Dunera; composition of company; relations with officers and NCOs; company moves; company lectures; platoon deployment to saw mill near Farnham; opinion of treatment received for injured finger; relations with Canadian and New Zealand troops; work with Women's Land Army; unauthorised railway journey, 12/1943; anglicising name; attitude towards overseas posting, 1944.
REEL 8 Continues: reasons for delay in going overseas, 6/1944; move to Iver, 12/1943; duties camouflaging tents for invasion; obtaining overnight leave; witnessing filming of feature film 'The Way to the Stars' (1945) at Iver; inoculations and medical inspection by female medical officer; move to Tewkesbury; training in Tewkesbury; move to Lewes. Recollections of period as private and NCO with 220th Coy, Pioneer Corps in North West Europe, 1944-1945: embarkation at Newhaven; issue of self heating soup; disembarkation at Arromanches-les-Bains, Normandy; blacking of buttons; deployment to woods with Canadian Army; medical treatment for injury; life under canvas including picking mushrooms; attitude towards religion; smell of German prisoners of War.
REEL 9 Continues: under canvas, 10/1944; move from Normandy to Belgium; awareness of black-market activities in Belgium; duties as medical orderly in Belgium and use of captured German medical supplies; attachment to Royal Corps of Signals; first sexual experiences in Brussels, Belgium; move to Ardennes area, 11/1944; discovery of German hiding near camp; encounter with German Jewish horse dealer who knew his family.
REEL 10 Continues: sight of illicit signalling from school, 31/12/1944; threatening comrades with Sten Gun after getting drunk; move to Schilde, Belgium; German V1 Flying Bomb attack on Schilde, Belgium; dealing with injured NCO; prior recollection of company members who volunteered for Special Operations Executive; injury during tree felling duties, 2/1945; listening to German broadcast at American base at Namur, Belgium; attending interpreters course. Aspects of period as NCO with Military Government and Control Commission Germany in Hildesheim, Germany, 1945-1947: posting to Hildesheim; lack of VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; his commanding officer's relations with Germans; demand for list of German Jews in district; duties; reasons for their being no Jews left in city after he left role.