Early on the morning of July 2, 1940, eighty-one years ago today, a German U-Boat torpedoed and sank the S.S. Arandora Star
Early on the morning of July 2, 1940, eighty-one years ago today, a German U-Boat torpedoed and sank the S.S. Arandora Star, a British passenger liner that had been converted into a troop transport vessel. The ship was en route to Canada from Liverpool when it was torpedoed. When Great Britain went to war with Germany, it ordered that all German men between the ages of 17 and 60 residing in the U.K. be placed in detention camps, and then transported to Canada or Australia. When Italy entered the war, Italian men in the U.K. became subject to the order as well. Many of the Italians who were detained had been in the U.K. for decades, operating shops, businesses, and restaurants. Most of the Germans were refugees from the Nazis, and many were Jews. Of the 714 men who lost their lives in the sinking of the Arandora Star, most were Italian and German detainees. The British justified their decision to detain and deport the Germans and Italians on the grounds that they were securit...