Dunera Boy' memorabilia

Werner Hirschfeld was born in 1922 in Küstrin, Germany. He was 18 years old when he sought refuge from persecution and fled to Leeds, England. When war broke out, England responded to public panic over the so-called ‘enemy within’ by interning thousands of foreign nationals. Australia agreed to assist the ‘mother country’ in this process and in July 1940, the HMT Dunera set sail from Liverpool to Sydney, carrying 2,542 male ‘enemy aliens’; among them Werner Hirschfeld. Arriving in Sydney on 6 September 1940, the ‘Dunera Boys’ were first interned in Hay and Orange in NSW. Eventually they were brought to Tatura, Victoria. Werner Hirschfeld volunteered to join the Australian Army in April 1942. He served in the 8th Employment Company. At the time of his internment his occupation was sheet metal worker and locksmith.

In 2006, aged 84, Werner gave his collection of memorabilia related to his internment in Australia to Professor Konrad Kwiet, who at the time was Patron of the Sydney Dunera Association. Professor Kwiet subsequently entrusted the collection to the Sydney Jewish Museum. The collection contains soccer memorabilia, football club awards, drawings and birthday cards. Werner turned 19 while in ‘Camp Tatura’, Victoria. Included is a card depicting a drawing of a soccer game and the scoring of a goal. It was given to Werner by Kurt Lindenberg in Hay Internment Camp, on 5 May 1941. Inside is a hand written note written on a green, ink splattered background, "For memories of good and bad hours. From your leader and good friend. Kurt Lindenberg". Soccer was a popular pastime in the Australian internment camps. The internees established a soccer team, named after the famous Italian soccer team Juventus Turin. These hand-made artefacts reflect the team spirit that helped the boys maintain morale.