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May 10, 2016

What’s Australia Got to Do with It?

Ever wondered whether Australia has to do with the Holocaust?

You are not alone. Most Australians commonly associate their country’s involvement with WWII with the war in the Pacific and for good reason. Yet there are more Australian connections to the Holocaust than you might first imagine.

For example, Australia was actually considered by one top Nazi official as a place where European Jewry might be exiled—a suggestion so far fetched that even Heinrich Himmler did not consider it seriously. On a deeper level, another Australian connection is the erroneous and harmful notions of ‘race science’ that infused the Nazi world view. Such views were also prevalent in Australia in the early part of last century—with their deleterious effects being felt most keenly by Australia’s indigenous populations.

Sadly, Australia also refused to change its migration quotas to allow in Jewish refugees trying to flee Germany and Austria in the late 1930s. In the post war period, discriminatory policies against Jewish migration continued, even after knowledge of the mass murders of Europe’s Jews. Despite these exclusionary policies Australia did eventually receive the most Holocaust survivors per capita with the exception of Israel. These individuals changed the face of the Jewish and broader Australian communities and we are proud to profile their stories in the new exhibition.

Author – Avril Alba, Project Director