Arandora Star
1940 Manifest

In 2024, I published a research article in the Modern Italy Journal ¹ that identified and validated the names of all the Italians who were embarked on the SS Arandora Star. Over the past 12 months, as part of a potential project to create a UK monument in London remembering all those who embarked on the Arandora Star, I expanded my investigation with the aim to record the names of all those who boarded the ship on the evening of June 30^th, 1940.

There has always been a wide range of estimates as to how many men had embarked on the ship before it set sail from Liverpool. Previously published figures ranged from 1564 to 1673 (Rumble – Modern Italy Journal ²). My research puts the number embarked at 1614 and, for the first time, provides the names of all those on board.

I am grateful to the following for their help:

Alan Davis for his contribution to the cohorts of Military Guards and Crew
Peter Dehn (dunera.de) for his invaluable input on the German et al contingent
Joanne Tapiolas for her sense-checking of the Australian perspective

Their assistance, knowledge and guidance was essential in helping me to complete this work.

The 1614 men comprised:

707 Italian Internees, of whom 442 perished and 265 rescued
470 German, Austrian, Polish, South African, Czech, Romanian and stateless Internees. Of these 150 men perished and 320 were rescued
255 Military Guards, of whom 94 perished and 161 rescued
182 Crew members, of whom 57 perished and 125 rescued

In total, 743 of the 1614 men perished in the North Atlantic while 871 were rescued by HMCS St Laurent ³ . The following documents contain details of the four main groups of men who embarked on the Arandora Star:

1. Embarkation List: Italians
2. Embarkation List: Germans et al
3. Embarkation List: Guards
4. Embarkation List: Crew

Further information is provided below on the four main groups of men who embarked on the Arandora Star.

Italians

Detail and background of the Italians is covered at length in the Modern Italy article ¹.

Germans, Austrians et al

The UK Government wartime records describe this group as either 'Germans' or 'Germans and Austrians'. It comprised Germans, Austrians, Poles, South Africans, Czechoslovakians, Romanians, British and several stateless men. Some were classified as Germans but were nationals of countries in Eastern Europe that had been invaded by Germany at the start of the war. The number in this group was established using the following methodology.

Perished on Arandora Star - 150
The names of the 150 men were checked and validated against the currently available Home Office Internees Index records: HO396/162: Lost on Arandora Star Germans ⁴. This is four more than the published list contained within Maria Serena Balestracci's book "Arandora Star, Dall'oblio alla memoria" ⁵ . The four additional men were:

Maximilian Baum b 30.11.1890
Also recorded in Soldiers’ Effects Register ⁶ and Probate Death Index ⁷.
Hans Goldschmidt b 19.10.1881
Also recorded in BT334 Register of Deaths at Sea ⁸.
Gerhardt Gutermann b 05.10.1901
Also recorded in Register of Deaths, Scotland ⁹ and Probate Death Index ⁷. He was buried at Lochboisdale, Scotland.
Johannes Sanders b 18.05.1892
Also recorded in Register of Deaths, Scotland ⁹. Initially buried at Coligarry Barry Cemetery, Scotland his remains were subsequently transferred to the German Military Cemetery, Cannock Chase.

Rescued and transferred to Australia on Dunera - 250
The Embarkation List for SS Dunera German & Austrian Arandora Star Survivors ¹⁰ recorded 251 individuals. However, two men did not embark on the Dunera:

Heiny (Heinz) Scheither b 31.12.1908
Recorded in HO396/164: Internees on AS Survivors ⁴ and HO396/274: Germans interned in UK ⁵ – addendum to the record states he did not sail on Dunera.
Paul Schneider b 16.04.1894
Recorded in HO396/164: Internees on AS Survivors ⁵ and HO396/275: Germans interned in UK ⁵ – addendum to the record states he did not sail on Dunera.

Neither Scheither nor Schneider appear on the Mearnskirk Register ¹¹ but were interned on the Isle of Man rather than being sent on the Dunera. Another internee, Johann Laumen was rescued from the Arandora Star and transferred to Australia. He is not included on the Dunera Embarkation List ¹⁰, but he is to be found on the Australian records ¹² .

Johann Laumen b 05.08.1908
Recorded in HO396/164: Internees on AS Survivors ⁴ , HO396/142: Australia Internees ⁴ and Internees held in Camps in Australia ¹².

Wolfgang Kittel was rescued from the Arandora Star and dispatched to Australia alongside with the 450 other survivors (Dunera Embarkation List ¹⁰). Kittel was a German 'consul' in British West Gambia where he was arrested, taken to the UK and interned. After he was dispatched on the Dunera, the British believed that he might be a useful 'diplomatic' individual to swap with a British captive at a future point. He was removed from the Dunera at Cape Town, South Africa and reinterned in the UK. As it turned out, he was of no real value and Kittel was repatriated in 1943.

Wolfgang Kittel b 05.08.1908
Recorded in HO396/164: Internees on AS Survivors ⁴ , HO396/262: Germans interned in UK ⁴ – addendum stating he sailed on Dunera but disembarked at Cape Town and now interned in UK, and HO396/299 Germans Men Repatriated (25.05.1943 – Colonial Internee) ⁴.

Background information on this group of men is extensively detailed in the Australian National Archives records ¹².

Rescued and Re-interned in the Isle of Man - 70
The Mearnskirk Hospital Admission Register ¹¹ records 68 German & Austrian men who were admitted to the hospital on July 3, 1940. We should add to that number Heiny (Heinz) Scheither and Paul Schneider, as detailed previously. In a similar vein, there were two Italians who were rescued and interned on the Isle of Man but did not appear on the Mearnskirk Register. That brings the total of men rescued and interned in the Isle of Man to 70.

Military Guards

The number and names of the Military Guards on the Arandora Star has always been shrouded in mystery. The UK Government were obviously keen at the time to minimise the number of casualties to avoid bad publicity during wartime, and there were numerous different accounts of the numbers. However, thanks to some painstaking research by Alan Davies, the full complement of 255 men can be named and published ¹³ . His detailed spreadsheet is reproduced in this article.

Civilian Crew

The names and number of the civilian crew on the Arandora Star have been published online for many years. The Arandora Star was part of the Blue Star Shipping Line before the liner was commandeered by the British Government. There is a comprehensive set of information available on the Blue Star website ¹⁴ including the full crew list that was also created by Alan Davis.

Internee Profile

In carrying out the research, it became apparent that there was a significant difference in the profile of the two major groups of internees viz. the Italians and the Germans, Austrians et al.

The 707 Italians were, to a very large degree, all ‘immigrants’ who had decided to make the UK their home. Many of them had lived in the UK for decades and were recorded in the early 20^th century censuses and the 1939 England & Wales Register. Despite their ordeals, most of the survivors remained in the UK after the war. Only a small number were Jewish and/or had fled Nazi or Fascist persecution in their home country.

The profile of the 470 non-Italian cohort was very different. 403 of them were classified as Germans. 53 as Austrians and the remaining 14 had other various nationalities. Many were refugees who had fled Nazi oppression in the years prior to 1939. A much smaller percentage of them were recorded in the 1939 Register, and many of those recorded were already in captivity in various prisons. Over 140 were either merchant seamen captured when their ships were impounded on the high seas or were employed by German shipping companies in countries belonging to the British axis. Almost a quarter were Jewish and refugees. A handful were British citizens who had publicly expressed strong Nazi sympathies.
Although often recorded as German, many were born in countries that had been overcome by German expansion e.g. Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Silesia. Many of these survivors returned to Germany or their home countries after the war.

References and Sources

The data was gathered and analysed from the following sources:

• 1. Alfonso Pacitti, Arandora Star Analysis and 'Embarkation Listing' of Italians. Modern Italy Journal, Volume 29, Issue 3, August 2024, pp 345-382
  All the sources pertaining to the 707 Italians are recorded in the article. The latest version of the article can be found here: ‘Embarkation Listing - Italians’

• 2. Robert Rumble, Hunters and Hunted. Modern Italy Journal, Volume 29, Issue 3, August 2024, pp 277-293. The sinking of the SS Arandora Star within the wider context of the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1940

• 3. DeWolf, H.G., Vice-Admiral. 1960. ‘HMCS St. Laurent’s Race to Rescue the Enemy’, Maclean’s Magazine, 19 November, 21–28.
  Captain De Wolf's account of the rescue states that 861 men were rescued in contrast to the 871 stated in this article.

• 4. HO 396 ‘Home Office: Aliens Department: Internees Index (1939-1947). The National Archives, London.
  These cards (some 308 volumes) are located at the National Archives, Kew, London and one individual is recorded on each card. The files are collated over numerous collections and individuals often appear several times in different categories.

• 5. Balestracci, M.S. 2008. Arandora Star Dall’oblio alla memoria. Parma: Monte Università Parma.
  The Appendix (pp 374-376 'Germans & Austrians') lists those who were believed to have perished.

• 6. UK, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects 1914-1920: UK National Army Museum, London.
  It appears that the authorities used some spare empty pages in a book already being used for the above purpose. The records of the estates of those internees who died on the Arandora Star are at the end of the book.

• 7. England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1858-2019: London.

• 8. BT 334 Board of Trade: Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen: Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea (1941). The National Archives, London.
  This Register records and details everyone who dies at sea. The date of the record is often some time after the event, but the Register has provided a fairly complete set of records of those who died on the Arandora Star.

• 9. Births, Marriages and Deaths, Scotland (1837–2007): Registrar General for Scotland, Edinburgh.

• 10. FO 371/25210 ‘Embarkation Lists. “Arandora Star”, Sailed 30th June 1940’. The National Archives, London. FO 371/25210 ‘Embarkation List No.1, SS Dunera. 251 German and Austrian Survivors from “Arandora Star” ’. The National Archives, London.

• 11. HB 64/4/1 ‘Mearnskirk Admission Register 1940–1946’. NHS Scotland Archives, Mitchell Library, Glasgow.
  This register contains records of all admissions to the hospital during 1940. There were 63 Italian and 68 German men admitted on 3 July 1940 on the register with a complete set of accompanying information.

• 12. MP 1103/1 ‘Registers Containing “Service and Casualty” Forms (Form A112) of Enemy Prisoners of War and Internees held in Camps in Australia’. National Archives Australia.
  The Australian National Archives is accessible online at National Australian Archives. Each of the 450 internees rescued by HMCS St Laurent and subsequently transferred to Australia aboard the HMT Dunera has one or more records extensively detailing their time held in various Internment camps located in the states of South Australia and Victoria.

• 13. Military Guards embarked on Arandora Star, June 30th, 1940
  Data researched by Alan Davies, copy of spreadsheet included within this article.

• 14. Blue Star on the Web – The History of the Blue Star Line
  The full crew list is accessible at Blue Star Line.

  The stunning rescue photograph at the beginning of this article was taken by crew members aboard the HMCS St. Laurent and is reproduced courtesy of Keyhart Productions Inc. Canada.