• Title
  Harry Seidler Internment camp shirt from Quebec, Canada, 13 July 1940 - 4 October 1941
• Call number
  LR 85
  
• Level of description
  item
• Date
  
  13 July 1940 - 4 October 1941
• Type of material
  Objects
• Reference code
  446679
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 shirt - denim
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  At the age of 15 Harry Seidler's parents sent him from Vienna to live with his brother, Marcell, in England in September 1938. He was sent on a student visa through the Society of Friends and his sponsors were Lady Edith MacAlister and her sister, Miss Anne MacAlister with whom he lived with in Cambridge for 2 years. It was the MacAlister's who suggested he continue his schooling by taking up the subject of building at the Cambridge Polytechnical School. And so began his architectural career. His parents came to England in late 1938.
  
  After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939 all refugees were given a category that determined their status in England. On the 12 May 1940 all Germans were assembled to be interned and Harry with his brother Marcell were sent to a camp at Bury St. Edmunds and several more camps before he was finally sent to Quebec, Canada in July 1940.
  
  He was first interned at Camp L, Cove Field Barracks, Plains of Abraham, Quebec City, from 13 July to 14 October 1940, where the shirts were handed out. He was then sent to Camp N, Sherbrooke, Quebec, from 15 October 1940 to 4 October 1941.
  
  Harry was released as a student and accepted by the School of Architecture at the University of Manitoba with guarantees from relatives living in Canada. Marcell was too old to be released under the student scheme and he was to languish in internment for a further 2 years.
  
  After several years studying in the United States Harry migrated to Australia in 1948 where his parents had relocated after the war. He established an architectural practice in Sydney in the same year and his first building was for his mother, Rose Seidler House, Turramurra.
  
  Reference:
  Internment: the diaries of Harry Seidler, May 1940-October 1941. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1986. pp. 61-88.
  
  Reference:
  Internment: the diaries of Harry Seidler, May 1940-October 1941. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1986.
• Scope and Content
  The shirt has a red circle sewn on reverse and "SS Guaranteed by Sigal quality Garments size 15" on label inside collar.
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• General note
  
  Related Manuscript Material: Harry Seidler - Personal and family papers, 1939-1979 (Location Number: MLMSS 5467 Mitchell Library)
  Digital order no:Album ID : 874419
• Name
  Seidler, Harry, 1923-2006
  
• Subject
  World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Canada.
  
• Topic
  concentration camps
  shirts
  
• Place
  Quebec
  Canada
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Personal Effects - Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, N.S.W.)
  Harry Seidler: Painting towards Architecture - Museum of Sydney (November, 2014 - January, 1970)
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE989075

View Media Files

1.

2.

Show more