The Dunera’s Journey
Part 6

If Lieutenant Colonel Scott and Lieutenant O’Neill were the principal villains of this sombre odyssey, its hero was unquestionably Lieutenant A. Brooks, a Scottish doctor who in World War I had served with the Seaforth Highlanders, was captured in France and escaped while acting as interpreter to Allied prisoners of war.

He qualified as a doctor in Aberdeen in 1925, and after a few years in the Colonial Service with the rank of Acting-Colonel, went into general practice in Monmouthshire, Wales. At the outbreak of World War II, he rejoined the Army and was attached to a field hospital at Ormskirk, near Southport. On 9 July 1940, at the Invitation of his commanding officer, Brooks volunteered for secret service abroad, “destination undisclosed”. He was issued with a tropical kit and 24 hours later he found himself in Liverpool, about to board Dunera. He thought they might be bound for Egypt, but that night when he opened his “Q” instructions, he learned their destination was Australia.

The first thing that struck me on the wharf at Liverpool”, he says, “was a colonel – it was Scott – standing on the brig like Nelson, or some other admiral taking the salute, supervising a crowd of civilians with battered suitcases as they trooped on board. I wondered, what the hell is this!” Brooks’s wonderment increased when he saw the way the troops were treating the internees.

On board Dunera, Brooks found himself with more than 2500 internees, one assistant – an RMC sergeant – and a hundred-bed hospital, inadequately supplied. He was able to recruit three internee doctors[4] As the shift plan shows, the Jewish doctors Siegfried Cohn, Bruno Boas and Robert Schorr as well as the medical student Georg Erich Dürrheim and the Christians Gerhardt Edel and Erwin Jacobsen were among those involved. They were supported by the chemist Friedrich Eirich and the shoemaker Martin Schiessl, among others. The doctors Girolamo Manzocchi and Gaetano Zezi were involved in the care of the Italian patients. Cf. the internment files of the aforementioned in the Australian National Archives, accessed on 23 September 2023., including the distinguished heart specialist Dr. P. Schatzki, and some medical students. It is a tribute to their skill and dedication that there was only one death from natural causes throughout the appalling voyage. A 53-yeard-old Austrian judge, Hans Pferrern[5] Correct name is Hans Pfeffen. Cf. Embarkation List No.12, NAA_ItemNumber657104., died from myocardial failure, following influenza, despite strenuous efforts to save him. “We didn’t have M&B (an early antibiotic) which had just come in,” says Brooks. “The internees comprised a cross-section of all types and ages, with complaints such as dysentery that one would expect among older people, so the 100 beds were always fully occupied, and there were the operating theatre and dispensary to look after.” Captain Frederick Caffyn, a warm-hearted Cockney, accompanied Brooks aon his daily hospital rounds. Brooks fought hard to give the internees fresh air. With the co-operation of the captain, and his first officer, he was able to have a chute rigged up to force fresh air down below. As the shift schedule shows, the Jewish doctors Siegfried Cohn, Bruno Boas and Robert Schorr as well as the medical student Georg Erich Dürrheim and the Christians Gerhardt Edel and Erwin Jacobsen were among those involved. They were supported by the chemist Friedrich Eirich and the shoemaker Martin Schiessl, among others. The doctors Girolamo Manzocchi and Gaetano Zezi were involved in the care of the Italian patients.