In September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany,
and the life of Uwe Radok, a young German-born engineer
working in Scotland, changed forever. Classified as
an ‘enemy alien’, Uwe was deported to Canada on the
Arandora Star
. When the ship was torpedoed, drowning
more than 800, Uwe and his brothers survived — only
to be marched onto the infamous
Dunera
, bound for
Australia.
From 1940 to 1943 Uwe kept a series of diaries. Their
pages offer a remarkable account of the effects of
displacement. The harrowing voyage and the tedium of
indefinite detainment are rendered with clarity. Over time,
this gives way to an exploration of the contours of love, as
Uwe formed a sustaining connection with another male
internee.
Edited by Uwe’s daughter Jacquie Houlden and historian
Seumas Spark, the diaries offer a fascinating insight into
life in wartime internment. In depicting the barriers
to homosexual and bisexual love in the 1940s, they
reveal a new element to the
Dunera
story that has gone
unexplored. Vivid and poignant,
Shadowline
is a powerful
portrait of a man torn between his feelings and society’s
expectations.