top of page
Isaac and Lulu Fabian, refugees from Konigsberg in Nazi Germany, find that their 'freedom' in Cambridge has its shackles. Lulu struggles with not being allowed to speak her native language in public, even to their baby daughter. Isaac, burdened with the unholy trinity of being German, Jewish and a communist, finds his movements severely circumscribed. He's not allowed a bicycle, a radio or a map. Nor, ultimately, his liberty. During the nationwide alien internment of 1940, he is incarcerated in Camp Douglas on the Isle of Man, along with thousands of his countrymen. Nazis and Jews alike. As far as the British government is concerned, atrocities against the Jewish people are not high on the Nazi list of crime. June Hunter, translator for the Ministry of Information thinks otherwise and is determined to prove it. Side-stepping authority she goes to the Isle of Man to interview the prisoners. But instead of stories of hardship and horror, she encounters mechanisms for survival and walls of silence. She meets Isaac, starting a chain of events that will have a profound impact on him and his family.

The Secret Purposes

AU$24.75Price
  • David Baddiel
Product Page: Stores_Product_Widget
bottom of page