This is the front page of a Passover haggadah that was created in 1941 in an Australia internment camp called Hay. The word “Pesach” is written in large block Hebrew letters on the cover of the haggadah. The Hebrew year, 5701, is written below the title. Further down on the page there is a Star of David with the words “7 Internment Camp, 1941, Hay, Australia” written inside. The outline of a ribbon with the words “Next Year We Will Be Free People” is drawn towards the bottom of the page. A thin rectangular border surrounds the text. The page is stained, probably with wine used during the Passover Seder. The booklet contains the Hebrew text of the haggadah with occasional comments written in German.
The haggadah was used by Jewish detainees in the Hay internment camp in Australia. The men, German citizens who had fled to Britain to escape the Nazis, were considered enemy aliens once war broke out between Germany and Britain. Britain, afraid that the German refugees might be enemy spies, interned them in England and sent a group of 2,000 refugees on the HMT Dunera to Australia. After traveling under deplorable conditions, the detainees were housed in the Hay internment camp. Later, this incident and the treatment of the detainees, nicknamed “The Dunera Boys,” was seen as “a deplorable mistake” by Winston Churchill and the British government.
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HMT Dunera – Britain joined the war against Germany in 1939. The British government was afraid that refugees from Nazi Germany and Italy might, in fact, be spies planning to help the enemy invade their country. To prevent this, they deported many of these refugees to Canada and Australia. In an act that Winston Churchill called, in hindsight, “a deplorable and regrettable mistake,” the British deported Jewish refugees along with German prisoners of war and Nazi sympathizers. Almost 2,000 Jewish men were sent on the HMT Dunera from Liverpool, England to Australia. The conditions on the overcrowded ship were terrible and many of the men were beaten and robbed by the soldiers on the ship. In Australia, the men were kept in an isolated region in New South Wales in the Hay internment camp. After the war, several of the British guards were court martialled. Some of the men on the ship, nicknamed the “Dunera boys,” returned to England to help fight against the Germans, while others remained in Australia.
Passover (Pesach) – Pesach, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, celebrates the freedom of the Israelites from Egypt that is described in the biblical book of Exodus. A main feature of the Pesach celebration is the Seder which is conducted in the home. The text of the Seder, as written in the Haggadah, tells the story of the Exodus with the aid of symbolic foods, songs, and discussion. As a reminder of the rushed manner in which the Israelites left Egypt, matzah (unleavened bread) is eaten during Pesach and chametz (leavened bread) is removed from the home. It is traditional to clean one’s house prior to Pesach and to perform a ceremony to remove and nullify any chametz that is in one’s possession.
Haggadah - While Jews scattered around the world have adapted to changing times and different places, adopting independent languages and customs, the annual telling of the Haggadah – the story of the Exodus from Egypt– remained unchanged, taking place every year on the eve of Passover eve during the Seder:
"And you shall tell your son on that day, saying: It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt."
Though this core message persists, the Haggadah itself has evolved, adapting in form and content to local cultures and influences.
