The Voyage Of Their Life: Diane Armstrong

Marseilles, August, 1948: 545 passengers board the clapped-out SS Derna with light suitcases and heavy hearts, leaving behind the familiar world to face an uncertain future in Australia and New Zealand. They came from displaced persons camps in Germany, death camps in Poland, gulags in Siberia. There were those who had been hunted by the Nazis and those who had welcomed them; those who had followed the Communists and those who had fled them. Among them were a Russian princess, a Polish ghetto fighter, an Estonian submarine commander and sixty one Jewish orphans. As conditions on board deteriorated over the three month journey, tensions and violence simmered above and below decks, But romances, affairs and seductions also flourished and life long friendships were formed. Diane Armstrong sailed on the Derna with her parents when she was nine years old. She managed to locate over 100 passengers and has recreated the voyage through their recollections, memorabilia and archival documents, tracing what became of their hopes and their dreams. Illustrated with black and white photographs.