The Voyage of Their Life - The Story of the SS Derna and Its Passengers

Spine creased, corners scuffed.

On a sultry summer's day in August 1948, 545 passengers boarded an overcrowded, clapped out vessel in Marseilles with light suitcases and heavy hearts, leaving behind their familiar world to face an uncertain future in Australia and New Zealand. They came from displaced persons camps in Germany, death camps in Poland, labour camps in Hungary, gulags in Siberia and stony Aegean islands. There were those who had been hunted by the Nazis and those who had welcomed them; those who had followed the Communists and those who had fled from them. The epic voyage lasted almost three months, and was marked by catastrophe, conflict and controversy. A remarkable human story and a unique portrayal of a migrant ship and its passengers.