Dunera Boy Georg Hans Fröhlich’s grave dedicated
Dunera boy Georg Hans Fröhlich died in 1942 and was the first Jewish person to be buried in Canberra.
Georg with other Dunera Boys on Mt Franklin, 1942
2025 marks the 85th anniversary of the arrival in Sydney of the troopship HMT Dunera, which carried over 2,000 Jewish refugees deported from Great Britain as enemy aliens.
Georg Hans Fröhlich was one of the internees.
After a long voyage in appalling conditions, Fröhlich was incarcerated in camps in Hay, NSW and Tatura, Victoria.
Fröhlich possessed the lens-making skills required by the Australian Armed Forces and was selected as one of five internees to be released from the camps to work at Mt Stromlo Observatory outside Canberra.
In September 1942, a little over a year after he arrived at Stromlo, Frölich died of natural causes at the age of 23.
He was alone in Australia without any family, and his parents were in concentration camps in Germany.
Kurt Gottlieb conducts the burial
The Director of Mount Stromlo, Dr Richard (later Sir Richard) Woolley, took responsibility for arranging and paying for his funeral. The funeral was conducted by Kurt Gottlieb, a Jewish refugee working at Mt Stromlo who later became president of the ACT Jewish Community. The funeral took place before the ACT Jewish Community was formed in 1951, and there was not yet a consecrated space for Jewish burials.
His grave is in un-consecrated ground, lying unmarked and anonymous for 83 years. Through contact between Adele Rosalky, President of the ACT Branch of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, and Kurt Gottlieb’s daughter, Miriam, who lives in Israel, the history was uncovered, and the grave was located. The AJHS ACT arranged for a plaque to be provided as a headstone for the grave.
On Sunday, a ceremony was held to dedicate the first Jewish burial in Canberra in the presence of Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon, the Presidents of the AJHS in Canberra, Adele Rosalky, and Sydney, Peter Philippsohn, and the President of the ACT Jewish Community, Athol Morris.
Dr David Rosalky explained the religious ritual to invited guests and members and friends of the AJHS and recited appropriate psalms and prayers.
The ceremony has ensured that Georg Hans Fröhlich is honoured and his name remembered as an eternal blessing.
