Camp life went on in a very democratic way, Parliament sat once a week, decisions were made, letters were written, protests, and we contacted the local Red Cross to find out about our relatives and people who were left behind in England. The Parliament was mainly concerned with how to get the government to recognise the injustice that had been done to us and recognise us as friendly aliens, not enemy aliens. We wanted to be released to join a fighting unit or do something towards the war effort.

We were treated extremely well by the guards. Working parties went out to work on farms, go fruit picking and so on.

We actually had the local newspaper in Hay print camp money for us, so everybody who did something useful towards the community was paid. The hardworking people were paid seven and six a week, the medium ones five shillings and the light ones only two and six. But it helped, and people could go to the canteen and buy cigarettes and chocolate or whatever.

Football teams were formed and we had competitions, and I started to collect Mulga wood and did a lot of wood carving. Which turned out rather nice and readily sellable to people for souvenirs, because people were already anticipating that one day, they would be released, and they will have some souvenir to take with them from camp.

In spite of the camp money, cigarettes were the main currency, and I was paid in cigarettes and in turn, could trade those in the canteen for other things, for small comforts which were very welcome.

In my hut there was a chemist by the name of Paul Kurtz, and he befriended me, and more or less, became my second father. We walked around the barbed wire every night, and talked and discussed things and he was an enormous moral support. Personally, I was probably the least unhappy person in camp because I was so happy to be here while all the others were rounded up in England, taken away from their families and they found it very hard to adjust.

In the meantime in England, in the home office, there was a lot of stirring, there was a lot of lawyers, fighting our case for us, trying to prove that we were friendly aliens and that we had no right to be interned. And after several months they actually sent out a representative from the home office, a Major Leighton, who came out to investigate what had actually happened and what can be done for us.

The nights in Hay in summer or winter were bitterly cold, and a lot of us contracted kidney infections by going to the latrines in the middle of the night. Major Leighton finally contacted the Jewish Welfare Society here, because we were in bad need of warm clothes and underwear and things like that. And in return the Jewish Welfare Society sent us 2000 toothbrushes.

There were several clerics in our community and they contacted the local groups in Melbourne and in Sydney, and a group of Quakers, and they were all of great help. They sent us books and small things of comfort and they kept in touch.

When Major Leighton returned to England, we received claim forms from the home office, to claim for the various belongings which they had lost. But I personally hadn’t lost anything. But most people claimed all sorts of various things. Whether they were true or not – God only knows. But whoever asked for anything, were paid every penny, within reason.

About ten months after our arrival, we were told that we were going to be transferred. And we had to pack up our few belongings and all went to Tatura which was near Shepparton, in Victoria. And again we were divided into camps. But this time we could communicate with each other which we couldn’t do in Hay. That was a great improvement both climate-wise and comfort-wise and we were close to Melbourne. And we got all the support from the army that we could expect. The Kosher people actually received Kosher food once a week, by truck from Melbourne, and they were the ones, that in the end, after everybody was released, didn’t want to leave camp.