During August 2019, Professor Pedram Khosronejad met some of the “children” of the civilian German expatriate colony of Persia (Iran) in Australia, whose parents had been detained in Iran in 1941 after the country’s invasion by the British and Soviet Armies during the Second World War.

About 512 of them (single males and six families with their children) were sent to the Australian internment and war camps as prisoners of the war, while the rest of the women and children were forced to return to Germany in the same time.

In 1947, some of them were deported to Germany while many could stay in Australia, although they had to find employment in order to make enough money to pay for the return of their families (wives and children). It was only in 1949 that most of the women and children were able to rejoin their husbands and continue to live in Australia.

This project concerns their life stories:
https://www.german-civilians-of-persia-wwii.com/

Professor Khosronejad is the Curator of Persian Arts at the Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo in Sydney, and an Adjunct Professor in the Religion and Society Research Cluster at Western Sydney University,