1940-11-13 to 1942-05-01

Tatura

Radok, Uwe

Tatura camp

Dunera

Loewe, Fritz

UMA-ITE-2019002000038

Request at location

Series
[UMA-SRE-20190020] PRIVATE AND PROFESSIONAL CORRESPONDENCE OF FRITZ LOEWE

Accession
[1988.0020] Consolidated Papers of Fritz Philipp Loewe

Scope and Content
Folder containing nineteen letters written by Uwe Radok to Fritz Loewe from the Tatura Internment Camp. Uwe Radok and his younger brothers, Jobst and Rainer, were interned after arriving in Australia on the Dunera in August 1939. Internees were permitted to write two letters a week, in English, which were censored. The first letter to Fritz Loewe, 13 November 1940, is in German. Loewe provided support and practical assistance to the family, including sending books and lecture notes, and advocating for Uwe and his brothers’ release and future in Australia.
Topics include: Conditions in the camps (The Radoks were moved between Tatura internment camps 1. 2. and 3. and conditions varied between camps); Establishment of Correspondence Courses; Obtaining books and study materials; Uwe Radok’s meteorological studies; Jobst and Rainer Radok’s matriculation results (Jobst and Rainer sat for matriculation subjects while interned. Rainer Radok became a distinguished mathematician); Assistance for a fellow internee, classical composer Walter Wurzburger (1914-1995); Progress of applications for release and possibility of immigration to America or Canada (“…The [British] Home Office…informed my brothers & myself – for the first time after more than two years of internment – that we have been classified as A-cases – that is as Nazis & criminals…”, 7 November 1941″). The final letter (1 May 1942) includes a request for two new strings for Jobst’s violincello so he can “continue playing in the camp orchestra & the string quartet group.”

Correspondence

Siobhan Campbell