An exceedingly rare Haggadah produced in Australia by German and Austrian Jewish refugees who were held as prisoners by the British under suspicion of being enemy-aliens. Hay is a remote small town in New South Wales, Australia. During World War II it was utilized as a prisoner-of-war and internment center, due in no small measure to its isolated location. The first arrivals were some two thousand Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria, many religious. These Jewish refugees, aged 16 - 45, had escaped from Nazi occupied territories. They were primarily young male professionals who had simply fled for their lives and managed to find temporary shelter in England. However, after the fall of France, men of German and Austrian origin living in Britain were rounded up as a precaution. The intention had been to segregate those who might pose a risk to security from those who were neutral or who had fled to Britain to escape from the Nazis. But in a wave of xenophobia, such distinctions were lost. In what Winston Churchill later regretted as, “a deplorable and regrettable mistake,” these men were all suspected of being German agents, potentially helping to plan the invasion of Britain, and a decision was made to deport them. Some 2,542 detainees were classified as “enemy aliens” and on 10 July 1940, the British government forcibly transported these German and Austrian Jewish refugees to Australia. After a harrowing 57 day voyage aboard the HMT Dunera, under deplorable and unsanitary conditions, the refugees arrived at Hay on September 7, 1940 and were held there under the guard of the 16th Garrison Battalion of the Australian Army. While awaiting release, this group of refugees, who became known as the Dunera Boys, developed a rich cultural and intellectual program at their internment camp, giving concerts and establishing an unofficial university. A group of strictly Orthodox Jews also managed to organize a kosher kitchen and produce this Haggadah of 6 densely written mimeographed sheets. Each of the pages was written by a different person and features slightly different Hebrew script. Few of these precious Haggadot were produced and given the difficult circumstances – almost none survived. After a period of time, the injustice of their situation was realized and these innocent refugees were permitted to return to Britain. However, many chose to stay in Australia after the war and had an enormous influence on the cultural, scientific and business developments in Australia.

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