George Turner 1920-2010

[Troy Tempest]

Building bombers for Britain was no bar to internment

George Turner, who has died aged 90, was a victim of a largely forgotten WWII scandal: the internment of thousands of Germans and Italians, and the transport of some to Australia in dreadful conditions. He was born George Schidlof in Vienna to freethinking Jewish parents. They were teachers of Latin and Greek, and expected George to excel at the classical tongues. He did not, and his parents described him as non-academic, despite his competence at maths and the sciences.

When he left school aged 18, he was apprenticed to a locksmith. After the annexation of Austria by Germany, in March 1938, George, like many Jews, sought refuge abroad. His parents stayed in Austria and died in the Holocaust. Because he spoke English, Schidlof chose Britain and, by spring 1940, the committed anti-Nazi was making parts for Wellington bombers in manchester.

In Britain, invasion was expected, and there were fears of a "fifth column" of subversives. Some 27,000 foreigners were arrested - some were Jewish refugees who detested the Nazis, others were long-term residents who were British in outlook and a minority were enemy sympathisers. Winston Churchill commanded "Collar the lot", although he admitted the resulting injustice. "We cannot at the present time...draw all the distinctions we would like."

Schidlof was arrested and was among 2500 transported to Australia on the Dunera, a troop ship designed to hold 1600. The deportees were locked below deck for most of the day. The guards looted their possissions and were sometimes brutal, and food and sanitation were poor. In Australia they were interned, too, until freed in 1941 on the condition that they joined the allied forces - what most had wanted.

Schidlof arrived back in Britain in October 1941 and was recruited into the Royal Armoured Corps as a wireless operator. He changed his name to Turner in case of capture. After D-Day, he fought in northern Germany and after the German surrender gathered intelligence. After domobilisation, he turned his practical talents to paper-making. In 1979 he became manager of a factory in Suffolk. He and his wife, Edith, later settled nearby. In retirement Turner took up book-binding, continuing until blindness forced him to stop. Edith survives him.

[Zepp]

The Britons was,as they still are,nice people!