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Disturbance at Tatura:
Nazi Internment during World War Two
Figure 1.
On the 29th of September 1941, in Tatura Internment Camp 3, a riot broke out between Nazi
and Jewish internees. Internees grabbed whatever they could get their hands on, brooms,
spades, rocks, and even pieces of wood, to fight other internees.1 The unrest began with
the anti-Semitic chanting and singing by Nazi youth directed at Jewish internees. The ordeal
ended with the intervention of Australian soldiers who fired shots into the air from their guns.
the anxiety surrounding Nazis housed in internment camps around the country during World
War Two by fellow internees, as well as the fear that arose from the general public towards
these individuals.
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
register as an alien, regardless of how long Individuals identified as being high risk to
an individual had resided in the country.4 national security were arrested, and sent to
Commonwealth, and within this act, the This was no different for Tatura Internment
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
Figure 3.
Tatura
Internment
Camp 1
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
the songs sung by the young Nazis were Army, the riot was downplayed to a mere
and that the Nazis marched in Tackaberry saw that internees were
he had used provocative words and However, for a riot to have occurred more
gestures, including calling out Heil must have happened than just a few
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
There was a very clear us versus them under control, it was left to the Camp
internees. In a report from the Army in which such rules were enforced.21 It would
1941, official visitors to Tatura stated that seem, that as long as internees were
some internees complained that they were generally behaving, little acts of support
internees, and that they were unhappy ignored. Post the camp riot, the Australian
within the camp.18 This is especially so for Army conducted a review on the camp,
be anti-Nazi.20
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
Throughout the war, reports were printed Germany to the Nazi camp leader, who
in Australian newspaper about the threat would then administer bashings to those
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
internment camp, or was it more a fear of their own country. It was as if until now,
embarrassment at not being able to Australians had tried to pretend that Nazis
enforce rules to counter such behaviours. only existed on the other side of the world.
Thousands of people were interned in Australia during World War Two. These people came
from all over the world, and had many different cultural backgrounds. Clashes would have
been common, especially with groups so prevalent as the pro-Nazis held at Tatura.
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
Bibliography
Figure List
Figure 1: Fred Lowen, Tatura, 1942, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Oct. 2017.
Figure 2: NAA: A1336, 7597
Figure 3: Tatura, VIC. 1946-06-24. No. 1 Camp, Tatura Internment Group, showing most of
the compounds but excluding headquarters and the hospitals [image], (24 June
1946) <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C16812>, accessed 16 Oct. 2017.
Figure 4: Tatura, VIC. 1943-06-15. Internees of No. 1 Camp, Tatura Internment Group
(German), line up for one of their regular route marches [image], (15 June 1943)
<https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C16695>, accessed 16 Oct. 2017.
Figure 5: L. CPL E. McQuillan, Liverpool Prisoner of War and Internment Camp, NSW 1945-
11-21. A group of Italian Prisoners of War behind the wire perimeter fence of the
main compound [image], (21 Nov. 1945)
<https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C199169>, accessed 10 Oct. 2017.
Figure 6: Gestapo alleged in Tatura Camp, Canberra Times, 10 Jan. 1946, 2, in Trove
[online database], accessed 16 Sep. 2017.
Figure 7: Fred Lowen, Tatura Internment Camp Landscape through a barbed wire, 1942,
in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Oct. 2017.
Primary Sources
Alien Internee Inquiry at Tatura, The Canberra Times, 25 Oct. 1945, 1, in Trove [online
database], accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
Emery Barcs, His Majestys Most Loyal
Internees, Quadrant, 12/3 (1968), 70.
Gestapo in Camp for Internees, The Sun, 9 Jan. 1946, 3, in Trove [online database],
accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
Internment Camps, The South Eastern Times, 10 Dec. 1940, 4, in Trove [online database],
accessed 3 Oct 2017.
NAA: MP70/1, 36/101/45.
NAA: MP70/1, 37/101/185.
NAA: MP508/1, 255/715/143.
National Security Act 1939 (Cth) s5.
Nazi Threat, The Mercury, 25 Jan. 1940, 1, in Trove [online database], accessed 9 Oct.
2017.
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
Secondary Sources
Bashford, Alison, and Strange, Carolyn, Asylum-Seekers and National Histories of
Detention, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 48/4 (2002).
Beaumont, Joan, Introduction: Internment in Australia 1939-45 in Joan Beaumont, Ilma
Martinuzzi OBrien, and Mathew Trinica (eds.), in Under Suspicion: Citizenship and
Internment in Australia during the Second World War (Canberra: National Museum
of Australia, 2013).
Koehne, S. P., Disturbance in D Compound: The Question of Control in Australian
Internment Camps during World War II, Melbourne Historical Journal, 34 (2006).
Seitz, Anne and Foster, Lois, German Nationals in Australia 1939-1947: Internment, forced
migration and/or social control?, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 10/1 (1989).
Spizzica, Mia, Italian Civilian Internment in South Australia Revisited, Journal of the
Historical Society of South Australia, 41 (2013).
Wartime internment camps in Australia, National Achieves of Australia [website],
<http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/snapshots/internment-camps/index.aspx>.
Winter, Christine The Long Arm of the Third Reich: Interment of New Guinea Germans in
Tatura, The Journal of Pacific History, 38/1 (2003).
1
S. P. Koehne, Disturbance in D Compound: The Question of Control in Australian Internment Camps during
World War II, Melbourne Historical Journal, 34 (2006), 71.
2
Wartime internment camps in Australia, National Achieves of Australia [website],
<http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/snapshots/internment-camps/index.aspx>.
3
Joan Beaumont, Introduction: Internment in Australia 1939-45 in Joan Beaumont, Ilma Martinuzzi OBrien,
and Mathew Trinica (eds.), in Under Suspicion: Citizenship and Internment in Australia during the Second World
War (Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 2013), 5.
4
Alison Bashford and Carolyn Strange, Asylum-Seekers and National Histories of Detention, Australian
Journal of Politics and History, 48/4 (2002), 518.
5
National Security Act 1939 (Cth) s5.
6
Mia Spizzica, Italian Civilian Internment in South Australia Revisited, Journal of the Historical Society of South
Australia, 41 (2013), 66.
7
Internment Camps, The South Eastern Times, 10 Dec. 1940, 4, in Trove [online database], accessed 3 Oct
2017.
8
NAA: MP70/1, 37/101/185.
9
S. P. Koehne, Disturbance in D Compound: The Question of Control in Australian Internment Camps during
World War II, Melbourne Historical Journal, 34 (2006), 74.
10
NAA: MP70/1, 36/101/45.
11
S. P. Koehne, Disturbance in D Compound: The Question of Control in Australian Internment Camps during
World War II, Melbourne Historical Journal, 34 (2006), 71.
12
NAA: MP70/1, 36/101/45.
13
Anne Seitz and Lois Foster, German Nationals in Australia 1939-1947: Internment, forced migration and/or
social control?, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 10/1 (1989), 15.
14
S. P. Koehne, Disturbance in D Compound: The Question of Control in Australian Internment Camps during
World War II, Melbourne Historical Journal, 34 (2006), 75.
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Disturbance at Tatura, by Jennifer Rix
15
Christine Winter, The Long Arm of the Third Reich: Interment of New Guinea Germans in Tatura, The
Journal of Pacific History, 38/1 (2003), 98.
16
S. P. Koehne, Disturbance in D Compound: The Question of Control in Australian Internment Camps during
World War II, Melbourne Historical Journal, 34 (2006), 75.
17
Christine Winter, The Long Arm of the Third Reich: Interment of New Guinea Germans in Tatura, The
Journal of Pacific History, 38/1 (2003,) 100.
18
NAA: MP508/1, 255/715/143.
19
NAA: MP70/1, 37/101/185.
20
Emery Barcs, His Majestys Most Loyal Internees, Quadrant, 12/3 (1968), 70.
21
Christine Winter, The Long Arm of the Third Reich: Interment of New Guinea Germans in Tatura, The
Journal of Pacific History, 38/1 (2003), 99.
22
S. P. Koehne, Disturbance in D Compound: The Question of Control in Australian Internment Camps during
World War II, Melbourne Historical Journal, 34 (2006), 72.
23
Nazi Threat, The Mercury, 25 Jan. 1940, 1, in Trove [online database], accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
24
Alien Internee Inquiry at Tatura, The Canberra Times, 25 Oct. 1945, 1, in Trove [online database], accessed
9 Oct. 2017.
25
Gestapo in Camp for Internees, The Sun, 9 Jan. 1946, 3, in Trove [online database], accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
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