description
Object description
German Jewish medical student in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany, 1933-1938; inmate of Dachau, 1938-1939; refugee in GB, 1939-1940; internee in GB and aboard SS Dunera on voyage to Australia, 1940
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Berlin, Germany, 1912-1933: family circumstances; religious character of family; memories of events of 1918; education;. Recollections of period as medical student under Nazis rule, 1933-1938: attitude to rise of Nazis; reaction to Hitler becoming Chancellor; expulsion from Berlin University as a Jew in 1934; lack of contact with Zionism in 1930s; continuing his medical studies at Leipzig University.
REEL 2 Continues: discrimination experienced at Leipzig University, 1934-1935; obtaining good marks from Nazi professor, 1936; story of how absorption in his doctoral thesis prevented his getting out of Germany; professors enthusiasm when Hitler made chancellor at Berlin University, 1/1933; award of doctorate in Leipzig, 1937.
REEL 3 Continues: hospital work in Germany, 1937-1938; in hiding on Kristallnacht, 1938. Recollections of attempt to cross into Low Countries, 12/1938: using Dutch courier; escaping from taxi; arrest by Gestapo in Aachen. Aspects of period as inmate in Dachau, 12/1938- 5/1939: arrival in camp; character of regime; method of release from camp. Recollections of period as refugee in Richborough refugee camp, GB,1939-1940: character of journey to GB, 1/5/1939; prior visit to Gestapo headquarters before move to GB, 1939; life in refugee camp, 1939; type of classification for enemy aliens; monitoring German broadcasts; reaction to false alarm of German landings at Maidstone, 1940; internment at Ramsey, Isle of Man, 1940. Recollections of voyage from GB to Australia aboard Dunera, 1940: types of guards on board; robbing of internees.
REEL 4 Continues behaviour of Arandora Star survivors aboard Dunera. Various aspects of internment in Australia, 1940-1942: treatment by Australians; return to GB to work in hospitals, late 1942.