By: By Mario Cacciottolo BBC News – 10 July 2010

I found a link in the stats on this site that came from the BBC website to a great article by Mario Cacciottolo of BBC News. You might like to read on after the excert taken from his article below….The detail will be connected to other posts already on this site, but the article is WELL worth a read..There is also a video interview there with Peter Eden and Willy Field who recall their Dunera experience

As the storm clouds of war gathered in the late 1930s, thousands of German refugees – either Jewish or politically opposed to the Nazis – fled to Britain for sanctuary.

Little did many of them know they would soon be deported to Australia in one of the more notorious incidents in British maritime history, later described by Winston Churchill as “a deplorable mistake”.

As a wave of fear over a German invasion gripped the nation at the start of World War II, thousands of foreign nationals were kicked out over fears that they might be enemy spies.

They were put on the ship HMT Dunera, which had a capacity of 1,600 including the crew. It set sail from Liverpool 70 years ago on 10 July 1940, without the passengers – later known as the Dunera Boys – knowing where they were going.

The vessel was crammed with some 2,000 mostly Jewish refugees, aged 16 to 60. Alongside them were genuine prisoners of war, 200 Italian fascists and 251 German Nazis, meaning the ship was hugely overcrowded……..MORE HERE on the BBC News UK Website

I would also like to thank you Mario for the link back to my site here. I recall you contacting me regarding this article.