Vom Kitchener Camp in australische Wüstenlager: Der Weg jüdischer Exil-Musiker über Großbritannien nach Down Under

Abstract

When, after the November pogrom, German Jews desperately searched for ways to leave their country, the Central British Fund for Germany Jewry persuaded the British government to allow the rescue of children and adult men. An old First World War base known as Kitchener Camp was rented and transformed into a transit camp. Already by the end of January 1939 the first refugees had arrived. Among the about 4,000 men, who in the end found a temporary home here, were the violinist and conductor Majer Pietruschka, born in 1901 in Russia, who had lived in Berlin; and the nineteen-year-old violinist Otmar Silberstein from Graz, Austria. They became members of the newly created Kitchener Camp Orchestra und appeared in concert. From May 1940, all Jewish refugees in Great Britain were regarded as ‘enemy aliens’. Consequently, these musicians were deported aboard the ship Dunera to Australia. The present article describes the road of life of these and other refugees, who contributed to the cultural life in internment camps in Britain and Australia.