Rudolph Duerkop: The man behind the Nazi camp at Narrabeen

In 1948, most Sydneysiders would have been appalled to read that two former Nazis were on the loose and working in highly-paid jobs in the city.

The story was only partly true – the two Nazis were still on the loose after escaping from an internment camp in Victoria but they were lying low.

But one of them – Rudolph Duerkop – had a strong connection with the northern beaches, being the man who established the Nazi camp at Narrabeen and who directed German seamen to the camp through his role as leader of the Nazis’ Harbour Service in Sydney in the late 1930s.

In fact, Duerkop and his de facto wife, Helene Kranz, were considered two of the most active Nazis in Sydney throughout the late 1930s.

Duerkop was born in Hanover in 1890, trained as an electroplater, went to sea, spent two years in American waters and then jumped ship in Australia in 1911, although the authorities here could never determine which ship he had been on or in which port he jumped ship.

In 1914, Duerkop married an Australian woman, Ellen Lange, and a daughter named Greta was born in 1916.

Duerkop was arrested in Melbourne in December 1916 and charged with breaching the War Precautions Act and the Alien Enemy Act for failing to report himself to the police or register as an enemy alien.

He initially claimed he was Swiss, not German, but then claimed he had been told by police in Sydney that he didn’t need to register as an alien because he was married to an Australian.

It didn’t wash and he served 90 days in Pentridge Prison before being interned in the Langwarrin internment camp.

Read the article by John Morcombe, Manly Daily in The Daily Telegraph.