No One Knows Their Destiny

A moving portrait of two Dunera Boys, from Kristallnacht in Vienna to VE Day in Melbourne, that complicates the traditional story of the Dunera.

Popular culture has mythologised the Dunera Boys – but who were the real men who sailed on the infamous ship, and how did the voyage transform their lives?

Art historian Tonia Eckfeld draws on a deeply personal history to tell the story of her father and her uncle, Jewish refugees whose lives were shaped indelibly by their wartime experiences and internment – each to very different outcomes.

In 1939, Reinhold and Waldemar Eckfeld fled Hitler’s Austria to Churchill’s United Kingdom. There they were unjustly arrested and transported on the Dunera to Tatura prison camp, where it took many months to gain their freedom. Their experiences of internment were often harrowing, riven with violence, deprivation and frustration. Waldemar, who was beaten by British guards aboard the Dunera, found himself entangled in court martial proceedings – the records of which were reportedly destroyed by the British government to hush up a human-rights scandal. Reinhold, classified as an ‘enemy alien’, joined the Australian Army after release and served the country that would not legally recognise him for so long.

Drawing on a trove of historical artefacts – including previously unseen artworks, photographs and official documents – Tonia Eckfeld takes the reader inside these events as they unfold. Gripping and illuminating, this book asks us to reconsider the conventional narrative of the Dunera Boys, unearthing new perspectives on the impact of war, trauma and legacy on family relationships.

Listen to Tonia Eckfeld discussing No One Knows Their Destiny with Gary Max on J-Air.