Internment

During the fifth column scare in 1940, more than one thousand Kindertransportees over the age of sixteen, both boys and girls, were sent out of Britain to be interned on the Isle of Man and other sites. Sent on the same ships as Nazi POWs, some boys were transported to Canada, some to Australia aboard the “hell-ship” Dunera. After German U-boats sank the Arandora Star carrying 1,200 internees with the loss of 600 lives, public pressure built against further indiscriminate internment. A large number of the deported came back, and along with many young men and women who had stayed in Britain, Kindertransportees joined the army which now accepted “enemy aliens”.