Oral History Interview with Roger Bryan

Roger Bryan (formerly Rudolf Britzmann), born in Berlin, Germany on June 14, 1921, describe his father, a physician and a decorated German army veteran, who was arrested on trumped-up charges in the mid 1930s; his father’s death in Moabit prison under suspicious circumstances; his school years, which included a few antisemitic experiences; how his family coped after his father’s death; his struggle to get out of Germany, and how he managed to emigrate to London, England with help from both Jews and non-Jews in 1939 just before World War II started; working in London until he was classified as an enemy alien, incarcerated, and deported to Adelaide, Australia on the HMT Dunera; the terrible conditions on board and being mistreatment by the British during the trip; the journey to a detention camp in Hay, New South Wales, and how Australians treated the detainees; his jobs in the camp and the many activities and programs started by the prisoners; joining and serving in the Pioneer Corps (a non-combatant unit of the British Army) to get out of the internment camp; serving in the GHQ Second Echelon prisoner of war section of the British Army in London and in camps for German prisoners of war in Louvain, Belgium and the former Neuengamme concentration camp; being transferred to Nuremberg to work as an interpreter/translator during the war crime trials; leaving the service and living in Glasgow, Scotland with his wife, whom he married in 1943; starting a family and a photography business; and moving to the United States in 1953.

Date: 07/09/1996
Interviewer: Natalie Packel
Interviewee: Roger Bryan
Language: English
Subject: Aliens--Great Britain.
Antisemitism--Germany.
Holocaust survivors.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Personal narratives.
Jewish refugees--England.
Jews, German--Australia.
Jews, German--England--London.
Jews--Germany--Berlin.
Prisoner-of-war camps--England--London.
Prisoners of war--Germany.
Translators.
War crime trials.
World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps.
World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Australia.
World War, 1939-1945--Jews--England.
World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, British.
Men--Personal narratives.
Geographic Name
Adelaide (S.A.)
Berlin (Germany)
Glasgow (Scotland)
Hay (N.S.W.)
London (England)
Louvain (Belgium)
Moabit (Berlin, Germany)
United States--Emigration and immigration.
Location: Berlin, Germany
Nuremberg, Germany
London, United Kingdom
Adelaide, Australia
Hay, Australia
Leuven, Belgium
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Permalink: https://hoha.digitalcollections.gratzcollege.edu/item/oral-history-interview-with-roger-bryan/