Ernst Kitzinger papers relating to transportation on HMT Dunera and internment and release from Hay camp

MLMSS 10518

fonds

1940-1941

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Prints, Drawings, Clippings, Ephemera

9658091

0.16 metres of textual material (1 box) - manuscript, typescript

Ernst Kitzinger was born on 27 December 1912 to a Jewish family in Munich, Germany. Fleeing Nazi persecution, he left Germany in 1934 after completing his PhD dissertation in only one year. He went first to Rome where he undertook post-doctoral studies. He then settled in London where he worked at the British Museum and wrote and reviewed articles in his area of expertise, early and Byzantium medieval art.

In July 1940 he was deported as an 'enemy alien' on the H.M.T. Dunera. He disembarked in Sydney on 6 September 1940 and was interned in Hay Camp in New South Wales. Through the intervention of London’s Warburg Institute, Kitzinger was officially released but unable to leave the camp until nine months later. He was very active in the internment camp in seeking improved conditions, justice, and compensation for the internees.

Following his release from internment, Kitzinger settled in Washington, U.S., where he became a Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology. In 1944, he married Susan Theobald, an artist whom he had met in England before his internment.

Kitzinger died on 22 January 2003.

References:
Brush, Katherine. “Ernst Kitzinger and the Making of Medieval Art History.” Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 94, no. 3 (July 2019): 841-842.
Maguire, Henry. "Ernst Kitzinger: 1912-2003." Dumbarton Oaks Papers 57 (2003): Ix-Xiv.
Mitchell, John. "Ernst Kitzinger, 27 December 1912 · 22 January 2003." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 151, no. 3 (2007): 345-50.
Library Acquisitions File.

By descent to Kitzinger’s children.

Kitzinger's papers include letters, mostly draft, written to his family, Susan Theobald whom he married in 1944; colleagues at the British Museum; and Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times and his wife, Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger. Also included are drafts of articles written and edited for the Hay camp magazine; lists of internees; a table of supplies received and distributed at the camp; a copy of The Boomerang Camp 7 magazine; programs for the Debating Society and various theatrical productions, recitals, concerts, and reviews; a print by Ludwig Hirschfield-Mack of Hay camp; and a print by George Teltscher for a theatre program.

The papers provide first-hand accounts of life in the camp and interactions between internees and camp authorities. Kitzinger documents the conditions, arrangements and options for internees following their release from the camp. He describes the difficulties between the mostly German internees and the British and Australian officers in the camp at Liverpool (NSW), and on the return journey on board the Themistocles.

File 1: Personal correspondence
File 2: Correspondence, memoranda and rules relating to Hay camp
File 3: Lists and notes relating to internment and release from Hay camp
File 4: Hay camp programs, drawings and souvenirs
File 5: Memorandum relating to the return voyage on SS Themistocles
File 6: Essays, poems, reviews and related material
File 7: Newspaper clippings and printed booklets

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Please acknowledge:: Please acknowledge: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holders