Fritz Bambach

Fritz Bambach was born in Bensheim in Germany in 1883 but he was living in Isfahan in Iran when he was detained by British authorities on 16 September 1941. At that time his wife Elly was living in Dresden. Fritz arrived in Adelaide on 19 November 1941 aboard the Rangitiki and was transferred to Loveday the following day. He spent most of the war interned in Loveday, until he was transferred to Tatura in Victoria at the end of January 1945. Records show that he was ‘Released to Sydney’ in January 1947. Clearly Bambach was a man of very substantial artistic gifts, which he used to good effect to record life in Loveday.

Camp 14A. 18 August 1944. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Camp 14A July 1944. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Café Neustadt, 16 February 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Café building in Camp 10, December 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Camp 9, 18 February 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Camp 10, 1942. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Christmas 1942. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Fritz Bambach’s bunk, left, with suitcase bearing his name above. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Hut 43 in November 1941. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Hut 43 in 1942, before it was re-organised. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Kitchen in Camp 10, May 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Kitchen. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
A guard at Loveday, 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Loveday, November 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Autumn morning in Camp 10 Loveday, April 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Bambach’s Hut 43 in Loveday, 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Sand storm. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Wash and bath-house, Camp 10, Loveday, April 1943. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Longing. Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Courtesy Ralph Guilor.
Carved wooden kookaburra by Fritz Bambach. Courtesy Andrew Guilor.
Wooden bowl made by Fritz Bambach in Loveday. Courtesy Andrew Guilor.

Sources:

Peter Monteath, Captured Lives: Australia’s Wartime Internment Camps, Canberra: NLA, 2018.

NAA: MP1103/1, R36428 Prisoner of War/Internee: Bambach, Fritz; Date of birth - 18 August 1883; Nationality – German

NAA: D4028 BAMBACH Fritz - Nationality: German. Place of Birth: Bensheim/Hessen. Arrived: Outer Harbor, 19 November 1941.