Italo-Australians during the second world war: Some perceptions of internment (original) (raw)
Related papers
Australian Journal of Politics & History, 2020
Since the Archives Act of 1983 Australia's World War II internees have had access to their wartime files, yet little attention has focused on whether they and their families have consulted these records, or on their responses to them. From the early 2000s historians and archivists began discussing the need for combining private oral testimony with official records as part of a wider discourse on the importance of life stories for deepening knowledge about the past. This article explores the impact of a father's official internment records on his son, through the son's sharing of memories, lived experience and his reactions to official documents, in order to provide a more complete story of his father's internment and life than either the public record or the oral testimony alone can produce. We argue that Sam Ragonesi's oral testimony, especially concerning his encounter with Salvatore Ragonesi's official records, contributes to a greater shared understanding of experiences of war on the home front by integrating social, cultural and family dimensions hidden from Ragonesi's public history. In this way intergenerational experiences help both to contest the collective image of internment and create a more complex picture of the War. Between 1939 and 1945 approximately 7,000 foreign-born residents were interned in Australia, including over 1,500 naturalized British Subjects. 1 The most recent figures show that 4,855 Italian civilians represented the largest 'enemy-alien' group, and over 20 per cent of the Italian-born population. 2 Since the Freedom of Information Act of 1982 and the Archives Act of 1983 it has been possible to access individuals' official internment records, which has resulted in a growing body of scholarship. 3 Such access also led to political recognition
Removing danger from the homefront in Australia, (WWII Internment)
‘Removing danger: the making of dangerous internees in Australia’, Mark J Crowley and Sandra T. Dawson (Eds.), Home Fronts: Britain and the Empire at War, 1939- 45, 2017, Boydell and Brewer, pp. 206-223., 2017
last draft, published as: ‘Removing danger: the making of dangerous internees in Australia’, Mark J Crowley and Sandra T. Dawson (Eds.), Home Fronts: Britain and the Empire at War, 1939- 45, 2017, Boydell and Brewer, pp. 206-223. This chapter analyses internment of civilians (e.g. Germans, Italians, Japanese) in Australia during WWII. It argues that ‘Danger’, real and imagined, has been an undercurrent through Australian life and culture since settlement. In this chapter I examine how themes of danger from outside and from within were an influence on the home front during WWII, and what was done through policies and government actions to remove danger through internment. What were the changing needs of the home front? What was the desired function and service done for the Empire? And when and why did danger cease?
Melbourne Historical Journal, 2006
This paper sets out to examine the Australian army attitude towards internees in Victoria during World War II, by focusing on a riot that occurred in Camp 3 Tatura, a ‘family camp’ in the network of war-time internment camps. More particularly, the study examines the differing views of internment policy that appear to have existed in the Australian army between the strategic and operational levels. It is argued that at the operational level, the major concern was that of control, so that camp rules were applied by Camp Command only intermittently, and then only against those internees who were viewed as disorderly. It is further argued that this policy was at odds with the views of the camp officers’ superiors, a disparity that was increased by the fact that internees were categorised as ‘orderly’ based partly upon prejudice.
2019
In October 2000, David Cesarani decried the internment of refugees in Britain during the Second World War on BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Behind the Wire’. In recent years, novels, exhibitions, television, and radio programmes have introduced a wider audience to this oft forgotten part of the British wartime narrative, yet not all of those who were interned remained in the British Isles—some were sent to Canada and Australia. Of the five ships that set sail, one never made it to its destination. The sinking of the Arandora Star was the greatest tragedy of internment, and several hundred internees lost their lives. Those who survived were put straight on the Dunera, this time bound for Australia, on which many abuses were committed by British soldiers. This chapter will examine the memory of the camps, and consider how and why internment has been remembered and commemorated differently across continents.
“In the Front Line”?: Internment and Citizenship Entitlements in the Second World War
Australian Journal of Politics and History, 2007
This paper analyses the experiences of Australian civilian internees of the Japanese in the Second World War and the Australian government's responses to their desires for repatriation, compensation and rehabilitation. It argues that civilian internees stood in awkward relation to understandings about sacrifice in wartime and entitlements to compensation. The dominance of the citizen-soldier in Australian narratives of war placed civilian internees in an ambiguous position. Civilian internees had not played a direct part in battle but did have direct contact with the military enemy. They had personally suffered privation at the hands of the enemy, but were not military personnel in service of their country. Civilian internees expose the tensions around citizenship and citizenship entitlement attendant upon the elevation of war service as the ultimate sacrifice for one's country.
Italian Civil Alien Corps in South Australia, the “forgotten” enemy aliens.
The period during the Second World War is remembered by the Italians in Australia as one of the hardest of their experience as migrants, owing to the restrictions that they were subjected to and to the anti-Italian sentiment that had spread throughout the nation. On the day that Australia received news that Italy had entered the war (11 June 1940) the migrants of Italian origin were no longer just “aliens” (unnaturalised foreigners) but became “enemy aliens”. A number of Italian migrants, both naturalised and unnaturalised, were arrested and interned on the basis of their political views, occupation and social standing. Those who were not arrested were given the option of volunteering for military service, otherwise, from 1942, they were obliged to serve in the Civil Alien Corps (CAC) to work on projects of a non-combatant nature such as construction works, salt production, cutting and handling of timber and scrub clearing. Although numerous studies have focused on the internment of Italians, to date there has been very little research to explore the issues related to those enemy aliens who were removed from their usual occupations and loved ones to serve in the Civil Alien Corps, and were subjected to discrimination and loss of liberties. This paper presents the findings from a study of the experiences of Italian migrants who served in the CAC in South Australia during the Second World War based on the analysis of personal files held in the Melbourne office of the National Archives of Australia. The files, which contain information on the projects migrants were employed in, documentation relating to financial, medical leave, disciplinary matters and letters sent by the aliens themselves to their families, provide insight into the experiences of a ‘forgotten’ group of migrants during an important period of South Australian history.