New on dunera.de November 9, 2026

Who were these men, and what connected them? It is remarkable to note that, with one exception, all of these men spent their first period in British exile at the Kitchener Camp transit camp. Some members of this group, such as Heinz Dehn, likely arrived in England in August 1939. Heinz had worked alongside one of the 15 in the camp’s road construction crew.

The approximately 2,000 internees from both camps were transferred to camps near Tatura (Victoria) in the spring of 1941. Until 1946, Hay housed first Italian and then Japanese prisoners of war.

This new article presents biographical notes on these 15 comrades of Heinz Dehn and examines the history of Camps 7 and 8 near Hay and the British Kitchener Camp near Sandwich (County of Kent).

The internees marching from Hay Station (in the background) to the camp. Reproduced from: “Haywire” (Hay Historical Society 2006, p. 53).

Valuable camp currency

An auctioneer in Sydney is currently offering a two-shilling note from the “Camp 7 Bank” of the Hay Internment Camps. The minimum bid is listed at 13,500 AUD, and the auction target is set at up to 17,500 AUD!

The note (and the one-shilling-and-six-pence note) were designed by the Viennese graphic artist Georg Teltscher; he created the surrounding barbed-wire motif with the text “WE ARE HERE BECAUSE WE ARE HERE …”. Richard Stahl, a bank employee from Munich, signed the note as “Manager.”