New release: Dunera News 123

The new issue No. 123 of Dunera & Queen Mary News, the publication of the Dunera & Queen Mary Association, was published at the end of February 2026.

An article about Giovanni Baldelli (1914 –1986) promises to be an interesting read. The case of the Italian Arandora Star survivor shows that it was not only German and Austrian opponents of the Nazis who were equated with fascists and deported from Great Britain in order to exclude them from public life in the country.

Group photo of Italian internees with Giovanni Baldelli third from left in the back row. Photo: C. T. Halmarick. Source: Australian War Memorial No. 030188/06.

Australian historian Joanne Tapiolas, who has conducted extensive research on the Italian Dunera Boys, tells Baldelli’s story. He feared persecution by Mussolini’s regime because he had sung the communist song “Bandiera Rossa.” While interned at Camp Tatura 4, he became heavily involved in the camp university and the camp newspaper, among other things. He was the author of “Canzone dei 200” (Song of the 200), in which he described the sinking of the Arandora Star. After returning to England, he completed his training as a teacher. Politically, he turned to social anarchism, whose theories he studied.

The newsletter also provides information about the resignation of the association’s president Simon Chodziesner and other committee members.

Peter and Paul Dehn would like to thank the newsletter editors for including Heinz Dehn’s biography from dunera.de in their newsletter, which was completed after the publication of the fourth part in the current Dunera newsletter.

Newsletter no. 123 (download)

Dunera Association online

The newsletter provides information about events marking the 86th anniversary of the arrival of internees in Australia:

Further information can be requested by E-Mail.