A submarine, some suitcases and salvation: On increasingly inaccessible testimony and perfection of the Dunera miracle story

Journal article

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In Journal Issue

Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 24, 4 (2020)

Author Daniel Schwartz AbstractAccording to a story that is popular in religious Jewish circles, the HMT Dunera, transporting German-speaking Jewish internees to Australia in the summer of 1940, was miraculously saved from destruction because the captain of a German submarine discontinued his torpedo attack on the ship. He did so because he inferred, from German-language materials in suitcases floating in the sea behind the Dunera, that the ship was full of German POWs. In fact, however, the ship was full of Jewish internees, whose suitcases had been thrown overboard by corrupt and cruel British guards. Thus, the story illustrates the wondrous ways of divine providence and, accordingly, man's inability to judge God's administration of events, for what the internees perceived as a catastrophe, namely the loss of their property, was in fact the instrument of their salvation. This study of the story's origin, and of its growth and perfection over time, focuses on two points: (1) over time, the authority claimed for the story has become less and less susceptible to corroboration (and, hence, to refutation); (2) those who tell the story are not liars, for they believe it is true, and anyway the type of truth they claim is religious, not historical.
Year2020
Pages722-773
Keyword(s) Australian History; Holocaust; Immi-gration/Dunera; Religious Issues