THE ENEMY WITHIN
“enemy aliens”
• non-naturalised residents of Australia who
had been born in countries that were now
the enemy.
• With the outbreak of war in 1914 a government
proclamation (issued on 10 August) required
German subjects in Australia (soon extended to
include Austrians as well) to report to their nearest
police station. By 1916 the War Precautions
(Alien Restriction) Regulations required all aliens
(that is, non-British subjects) aged fifteen and over
to register
• The 1911 census showed that there were 33,381 Germanborn residents in Australia, most of whom lived in South
Australia and Queensland. These German citizens had to
register at local police stations.
• During the First World War 6,890 Germans were interned,
of whom 4,500 were Australian residents before 1914; the
rest were sailors from German navy ships or merchant
ships who were arrested while in Australian ports when the
war broke out, or German citizens living in British
territories in South-East Asia and transported to Australia
at the request of the British Government.
Pointing the Finger
• Since it was impossible to intern all enemy aliens
resident in Australia, the Government pursued a
policy of selective internment. They targeted the
leaders of the German Australian community —
including honorary consuls and pastors of the
Lutheran Church, businessmen and the destitute.
Some internees had been accused of being disloyal
by neighbours or had come to the attention of the
police by accident
Internment Camps
Torrens Island, SA, 1914
HOW MANY AND WHERE?
Enoggera, Queensland (suburban Brisbane)
137
Holdsworthy, NSW (south-east of
Liverpool)
1342
Langwarrin, Victoria (south-east of
Melbourne)
420
Torrens Island, S.A. (in the harbour of Port
Adelaide)
355
Rottnest Island, W.A. (Indian Ocean, near
Fremantle)
628
Bruny Island, Tasmania (south of Hobart)
58
TOTAL
2940
Internment Camp, Holdsworthy,
NSW
Life in an Internment Camp
• In the camps the internees arranged their own
entertainment and many cultural and sporting events. They
formed choirs and orchestras, and had theatrical
productions. Dr Maximilian Herz directed many successful
productions at Trial Bay. At Berrima the sailor prisoners
built many different model boats and had regattas and boat
exhibitions on the Wingecarribee River. At one exhibition
early in 1918 the local public were surprised to see a
Venetian gondola, a scale model of the sailor-training ship
Preußen, a Chinese junk and a submarine. The Berrima
prisoners were also allowed to work for money on local
farms
Internees in one of the camp
kitchens at the Holsworthy during
World War I,
• The Holsworthy camp at Liverpool in western Sydney was the largest
and longest running internment camp. At its peak it housed 6000 men,
both internees and prisoners of war. A range of nationalities was
represented in the camp: Japanese, Italians, Slavs and Germans as well
as naturalised British subjects and Australians of German descent.
• The camp grew from a collection of tents to a small town of huts
complete with theatres, restaurants and cafes, other small businesses,
an orchestra and sporting and educational activities. Physical
conditions in the camp were difficult. Living conditions were
overcrowded and sanitary facilities were basic. There were also reports
of corrupt or brutal guards working in the camp.
• Holsworthy camp remained open until the last internees and prisoners
of war were repatriated in 1920.
Holdsworthy Guards with machine gun c.1916
• Of all the camps
Holdsworthy was the
harshest and resembled a
prison in the true sense of
the word. A strict regime
of control was enforced by
the camp authorities and a
prisoner was killed during
an attempted breakout
Holdsworthy Internees working in
the quarry c.1916.
Roll Call at Berrima
The internees lived in the stone gaol cells and additional barracks, but were allowed to move
freely within a two-mile radius of the gaol during the day. This allowed them to build small
huts and grow flowers and vegetables on the banks of the nearby Wingecarribee River. The
river also provided a popular recreation area.
The Berrima camp was closed in 1919 after the end of World War I
Trial Bay
Life at Trial Bay
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The Trial Bay camp was situated in an old gaol near the entrance to the
Macleay River in northern New South Wales. The camp housed internees and
prisoners of war of wealth and social standing, such as consular and military
officers, physicians, businessmen and other professionals. Most were Germans
or Austrians brought to Australia from the Pacific, China and South-East Asia.
At its peak, the Trial Bay camp held 580 men.
Internees were housed either in the stone gaol cells or, for those with higher
ranks, in huts outside the gaol itself. The men made an effort to make
themselves comfortable in the camp. They made their own furniture, held
regular concerts and theatrical performances, read in the extensive gaol library
and studied a variety of subjects.
The camp was located on a peninsula, separated from the mainland by a
boundary fence. Inside the boundary internees were free to swim, fish,
sunbathe or play tennis on the courts they had constructed. They were allowed
to leave the camp to collect wood for the kitchen or bring water from the well
on the hill behind the camp.
A Sense of Isolation
• The shock of life in gaol cells created a new
identity for men who had been removed
from their families and communities. Most
of the internees experienced feelings of
isolation, and suffered because of the
monotony and lack of privacy.
• “Causes for friction are popping up everywhere
and you have to pull yourself together all the time
in order to avoid confrontations. Things get easily
out of dimension and people become irritable and
touchy due to the long imprisonment. You just
can’t avoid it. Some days the mood is following
the course of the war, one day there’s high tension
and then again one is doomed to wait and wait.”
•
- W. Daehne, diary entry, Sunday 21 April 1918,
ML
• The most difficult problem of camp life for
internees was sexual frustration, engendered by
being confined in an all male environment for
years on end. The enforced celibacy led to a
number of psychological problems. Many
internees experienced the symptoms of depression
and anxiety disorders. Dr Max Hertz, one of the
prominent internees at Trial Bay, who was also
camp doctor and an internationally renowned
orthopaedic surgeon from Sydney, reported on
‘self abuse’
A weekly, handwritten and illustrated
periodical issued by Germans interned
on Torrens Island, during World War
One. Three issues are held by the
State Library: No.1 (12 June 1915),
No.2 (19 June 1915) and No.3 (26
June 1915). Torrens Island is located
at the mouth of Adelaide's Port River,
in South Australia
Handling the Alien Threat
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People with German sounding names were targeted regardless of whether they
were actually German or of German descent.
German businesses were boycotted.
Many place names were Anglicised such as Germantown Hill became Vimy
Ridge and Grunthal became Verdun.
German shepherd dogs were called Alsatians.
German sausage (Berliner) became known as Devon.
German language schools and German church schools were closed.
The Department of Education ordered that no German speaking teachers or
those with a German background be employed for fear of propagandising the
students.
Elected officials with German backgrounds or surnames were forced to resign.
Trade with Germany ceased and the traders went out of business and this had
the immediate effect of increasing Australian beer sales.
Business Competitors & Union
Troublemakers
• In World War I the Australian Government wanted to stop companies
run by businessmen of German descent from competing with "British"
companies, in case companies run by German-Australians could
somehow help the German war effort in Europe. An easy way to do
this was to intern the directors and managers of such companies, even
if they were naturalised British subjects.
Examples:
•
Franz Wallach and Walter Schmidt of the Australian Metal Company
(subsidiary of a German company) in Melbourne;
• Oskar Plate of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamship Company in
Sydney;
• Edmund Resch, the Sydney brewer (who had been in Australia for 50
years)
• Australian workers and self-employed smallbusinesspeople needed to feel that they were also
contributing something to the Empire's war effort by recommending to the government that a
German-Australian be interned they were being
patriotic, but naturally they were especially keen
to do so if that eliminated one of their competitors
in business
•
Anti German Leagues
• The Victorian Anti German League began in November
1915. Members signed the following;
• “I hereby sincerely and conscientiously promise a) not to
knowingly purchase, use or consume German or Austrian
goods of any kind
• b) Not to employ a German for either domestic or
commercial purposes
• c) Not to place contracts with any German owned or
controlled company or to send goods or travel in German
ships
• d) To boycott and assist boycotting of any trader who
persists in stocking Austrian or German goods.
At the end of the war, 6150
Germans and other enemy alien
nationals were deported.