The re-enactment of a concert that took place in Hay, NSW, in April 6 1941.

On 10 July 1940, 2,546 men, ranging in age from 16 to 66, were herded aboard the Hired Military Transport Dunera at Liverpool, England and transported to Australia.  Most were German or Austrian, and most were Jewish.  Many had fled to Britain in the 1930s to escape Hitler’s Reich.

After 57 days of voyage in appalling conditions the Dunera reached Australia. It made three stops: first at Fremantle, WA, although no passengers disembarked; then at Melbourne where some internees disembarked to be sent to an internment camp in Tatura, Victoria; and finally, on September 6, 1940, the Dunera entered Sydney Harbour, where the remaining passengers disembarked and were sent to an internment camp in Hay, NSW.

Oswald von Wolkenstein, later known as ‘Ossie’ was one of the youngest of the Dunera Boys. Many years later he passed on a large folder of music written by Max-Peter Meyer specifically for the boys/men on the ship. The pieces were performed in the camp in Hay one year later. It includes a Mass, a Psalm setting and a piano quartet.

Artists

Luminescence Chamber Singers

Oriana Chorale

with narrator and three young artists