Dr. R. Walter Dunn notebook collection
Item
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Title
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Dr. R. Walter Dunn notebook collection
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Subject
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World War, 1939-1945--Australia
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Internment camps--Australia
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Diaries
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German language
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New South Wales
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Jewish families
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Voyages and travels
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Category
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4. World War II
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Author
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Dr. Rudolph Danziger (R. Walter Dunn)
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Keywords
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internment
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Hay
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Dunera
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Current holder
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Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre
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Period of reference
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September 11, 1940 – September 1941
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Item number
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RA082
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Access rights
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Digitised
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Rights
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Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre
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Country of origin
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Germany
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Language
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German
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English
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Description from source
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Extent & Medium
6 cm of textual records
Administrative/Biographical History
Dr. Rudolph Danziger (R. Walter Dunn) was born in 1915 in Leipzig, Germany. He was born to a secular Jewish family and had a younger brother, Dr. Heinz George Danziger (later Henry Dunn). The brothers moved to England in the 1930s, where Walter studied natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at some point afterwards their parents moved to the United Kingdom as well. Dunn’s parents were interned by the British government as ‘enemy aliens’ after the start of the Second World War. In September 1940, Walter and Henry were interned and deported to Camp 7 of the Hay internment and POW camps in Hay, New South Wales, Australia. They were deported on the ship HMT Dunera, on which the internees experienced severe abuse from British soldiers. The brothers were eventually released and brought back to the United Kingdom after almost a year of internment. Walter continued his medical training and emigrated to British Columbia, Canada in 1948 after brief military service; Henry followed soon after, where the brothers decided to change their last name to Dunn. Walter married, started a family, and established a specialist practice in New Westminster. Dr. R. Walter Dunn died in November 2012.
Scope & Content
Collection contains six notebooks, loose papers and a piece of correspondence written and compiled by Dr. R. Walter Dunn during and after his internment as an enemy alien in Camp 7 of the Hay internment and POW camps in Hay, New South Wales, Australia, from 1940 to 1941. The records detail Dunn’s travels to and from Australia, his experience in internment, efforts for release and correspondence. The notebooks also contain newspaper clippings and a handwritten copy of memorandum sent to the British government detailing the experiences of internees aboard the HMT Dunera.
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Physical format
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Notebook
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Correspondence