Das Tagebuch der Internierung [Internment diary of Harry Seidler], 12 May 1940 - 4 Oct 1941 MLMSS 5467/1 Sunday 12 May 1940 Today was the most dreadful day that I ever experienced in England. The whole thing began in the afternoon. I got home at lunchtime and Lady MacAlister told me that a policeman had been there and wanted to see me. As I wasn't there, he said that I should come to the police station immediately. At first I thought it was something to do with my post. Straight after lunch I went to the police with no idea of what awaited me there! I noticed that there were several other refugees as well as me. They told us that we would be taken to the Guildhall - why, they didn't say. So, five of us were put in a police car and off we went to the Town Hall. There were two plain-clothes policemen in the car with us. At the Town Hall there was already quite a crowd of Germans, almost all of whom I knew, at least by sight. Only now did I begin to understand what it meant - WE WERE ALL TO BE INTERNED. I was greatly upset by this and then also noticed that we were under guard. All the exits were guarded by policemen. There were about 100-150 people in the hall and every couple of minutes new people were brought in. It was now about 2.30. I started to think over the whole situation. INTERNED. I was immediately convinced that the new government must have done this. That meant that they thought we refugees were spies, or believed that there were spies among us. Us - spies! Isn't that ridiculous? We, exiled from Germany, are suspected of being spies for our deadly enemies! Nevertheless the situation seemed quite serious. We were being watched and were considered dangerous. If you tried to talk to the policemen, you got no information - they knew nothing. Some people began to work out all the things that they wanted to have with them. They even began to send us home one by one, under guard, so that we could pack some necessary things. I worked out what I wanted, too, and then I had to wait. At last, at 5, my name was called. A plain-clothes policeman came with me; another refugee who lived near me came in the same car. I asked the policeman to wait in the hall while I packed my bag, but he said that he had to go everywhere with me, that he could not let me out of his sight. Isn't that something to make you laugh? Or should it make you cry? He had to guard me as if I were a criminal, so I wouldn't escape. The situation embarrassed me. Here was Lady MacAlister and everyone else in the house and my every move was being followed by a policeman! I packed all my things and said good-bye to Lady MacAlister; then we drove back to the Town Hall. There were far fewer people there now: all the others had already been taken away. I had to wait again. We left about 7. We were now only about 50 people and we were loaded into a double- decker bus. None of us knew where we were going. We chatted, told each other jokes and forgot that we were prisoners. At 8.30 we arrived at Bury St Edmunds. Here we parked in a street and saw two other buses in front of us in which were all the other refugees who had arrived earlier. The streets were full of inquisitive spectators and now we had a military guard. A soldier stood in the doorway of each of the three buses with a fixed bayonet. If you wanted to get off the bus for a few minutes, you had to do so under military guard. This amused the spectators on the streets. And we waited . .. About 10 we became impatient - we all wanted to go to bed - but that would not be possible for some time. It was dark and hours went by and they seemed to have forgotten about us. Das Tagebuch der Internierung 12 Mai 1940 - 4 Oct 1941 [Internment diary of Harry Seidler, 12 May 1940 - 4 Oct 1941], MLMSS 5467/1 Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW In this situation you get terribly tired. This morning we would never have believed that in the evening we would no longer be free and would be prisoners of the English. Time passed dreadfully slowly. We were hungry and tired. It was 11, 12 ... Monday 13 May And even 12.30 before we were allowed to get out (under guard) to be taken to a cleared- out garage. It was horrendous. There were already many refugees there who had been brought from other towns. They were sleeping on the cold stone floor, just with a blanket. There were older men among them, which upset me most. I would never have believed this of the English! They could act like Nazis of a kind, too! (for I can't describe treatment like this any other way!) First we are taken into custody and then we have to sit in a bus for 4 ½ hours and then we are searched - for that's what happened next. Our bags and each of us were searched (they felt all over me as if I had a weapon) and then, at 2 a.m., we had to get back into the bus. Nothing to eat, nothing to drink – we were, in short, prisoners! That old garage was already full of people so we drove off to an old shack. Here, too, we were guarded by soldiers as we got out. By now I was only half-awake: I was so dreadfully tired that I could scarcely keep my eyes open and did everything as if I were in a dream. Everything I had recently gone through had quite finished me. We went into an old shed. Inside, it looked even worse than in the garage we had come from. The roof was so bad that you could see the stars through it. What if it started to rain? We would get soaked through. The floor was horribly dirty. Finally we got something to drink: tea. That is, they said it was tea but it seemed more like dirty water to me. Nevertheless we drank it as we were awfully thirsty. This choice beverage was served in tin cups. Then they said we had to hand over all our money. People were taken in groups of five to the commander's office and we got a receipt for the money that we handed over. Everyone then got a blanket and, at 3.30, was allowed to sleep. I couldn't get to sleep for a long time. First the floor was so terribly hard and, second, everything that I had gone through in the last 24 hours kept going round and round in my head. The light was on all night, and many people didn't lie down to sleep at all but walked up and down and talked the whole time. It's quite amazing that I finally got to sleep! ... I woke at 6. Soon afterwards everyone went to wash themselves in the big buckets that had been put in the middle of the room for general use. For breakfast we got dry bread and a piece of meat. Afterwards came assembly: our names were called and then we could walk around the yard. I immediately wrote a letter to Lady MacAlister. We had to hand in letters unsealed for censoring. We felt like animals now: soldiers were guarding the shed and the yard and stood around everywhere (one of us could, after all, try to escape!). There was a little patch of grass in the yard where we all lay down and rested ourselves after that night. I woke up around I, just when lunch was being distributed. You had to present yourself and you got tea, dry bread and a piece of cheese. You really couldn't stuff yourself with this! The mood of the camp changed considerably in the afternoon: people realised that they were all in the same boat and became much more cheerful. They lay around together in groups and talked to each other. Then there was an early evening meal which was scarcely edible. Soon after the meal we got back the letters we had written earlier: letters couldn't be sent out of this camp. We were now completely cut off from the outside world. Everyone wanted to send word to their families! Das Tagebuch der Internierung 12 Mai 1940 - 4 Oct 1941 [Internment diary of Harry Seidler, 12 May 1940 - 4 Oct 1941], MLMSS 5467/1 Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW Tuesday 14 May I slept quite well. There was dry bread and a hard-boiled egg for breakfast. Afterwards we lay down again on the little patch of grass in the yard. Lunch was very sparse again. In the afternoon there was a compulsory walk. Everyone in the camp had to get into 3 rows and march through the town under heavy guard to a field. On the way we were again objects of curiosity to the towns -people. I felt like a criminal, marching under guard and being stared at by people who didn't look at all kindly! At the field the soldiers who had come with us made a big circle around us, inside which we were supposed to exercise.