“Enemy Aliens” and the Formation of Australia’s 8th Employment Company

Abstract

This chapter talks about “enemy alien” internees that arrived in Australia in 1940, who would be enlisted as soldiers in an Australian Army labor corps and work as noncombatants to do their part in the war against the Axis powers. It considers the story of the enemy aliens from Germany and Austria as one of the most remarkable episodes in the immigration history of twentieth-century Australia. It also highlights the account of the enemy aliens in relation to the manpower management in a country that was manpower poor. The chapter recounts the so-called Phoney War that ended on 10 May with the German invasion of the Low Countries and France, while Britain stood alone awaiting a German invasion. It refers to Sir John Anderson, who declared that the British government would draw a clear distinction between enemy aliens and refugees from Germany and Austria.