The Outbreak of War: The Second World War in the Isle of Man, Pt. 1

[@BlueShadow777]

Being Italian, my paternal grandfather and my uncle were interned on the Isle of Man. My granddad had a cafe in the Leith area of Edinburgh and the family was well respected and had many, many friends in Leith. However, when Italy entered the war in 1941, on the side of Nazi Germany, things changed. All friends turned against us and bricks were thrown through our windows etc. It wasn't long before my grandfather (interestingly, not my grandmother and I don't know why not) and my uncle the eldest (fighting age) son were removed for internment. We still have no idea what camp they were interned in, but we do know that they were due to be transferred there by the ferry the "Arandora Star". Luckily, the ferry was full and so they were held back for the next one. I say "luckily" because the Arandora Star was torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat, sinking it, with all lives lost! We'd love to discover where to get more specific information about their internment but it's very difficult as a lot of such information has not been released by the British government!

[@chryseass.5143]

Part One and Two have been absolutely fascinating- I am looking forward to watching the last part. Well done, Culture Vannin !

[@susancain9193]

Proud to be Manx 🇮🇲👍

[@dr.s.p.]

Fantastic presentation and extremely educational. Alex did an excellent job once again in presenting this after once, I am told, they found a wide angled lens to fit him in the shots.

[@heikkihumalamaki3894]

Hi, my father Veikko (sailor in Norwegian ship from Canada=>Freetown=>Calais=>London(?)) was "internated" in Island of Man during WW2 with many Italian sailors. I must say that he wasn´t very happy of his time there... Italian of course made some good food of hedgehogs, but still.. afterwords he voluntarily moved to White haven and working at some farm rest of the war.

[@brianeduardo1234]

excellent spent many childhood holidays on IOM first visit c 1959 which was only 14 years after the end of the war..

[@COIcultist]

Something is either explained poorly or is somehow mixed up. at 10.08 we see examples of male jobs on offer. Remember men earn more than women and these jobs range in pay from £1/10 (£1.50) to £3. At 10.40 we hear how the female internees had an allowance of 21 shillings (One Guinea £1.05) per day and British soldiers wives 17 shillings ( £0.85) per day so allowances of £7.35 and £5.95 respectively. So the soldiers wife is getting just one shilling less than twice the best paid man's job or four times the worst with the internee three shillings short of 2 1/2 times or 5 times. Something is wrong here. I wouldn't be surprised if the allowances were per week?