Australia as a Sanctuary for Holocaust Refugees
| 1938 | July 6-15: Evian Conference: Australia agrees to accept 15,000 Jewish Refugees. At this date only Germany viewed as refugee source. On september 3, 1939 World War II starts, and escape becomes impossible, so few admitted under this scheme. Nevertheless, the Australian offer more generous than that of other countries. In total, 1933-1940 8,586 Jewish refugees known to AJWS came. (Excludes the approx 2000 Jewish "enemy aliens" on the Duneera). |
| 1933+ | Prior to World War II, about 1,000 Jewish refugees from Central Europe settled in New Zealand. Negligible numbers of Jewish immigrants in the immediate post-War years. |
Official Australian War Artist Alan Moore was present at the liberation by British troops
of the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp on 15 April 1945.
More on Moore
The Australian Jewish Community has the highest number
of Holocaust survivors in the Diaspora.
There are many personal links to that era.
Within the community there are societies of Children of
the Holocaust, those rare people who managed
to survive as children the dreadful years in Europe.
Because of the make-up of the Australian Jewish community,
the Holocaust looms large in twentieth Century Jewish History.
In this regard, the AJHS cooperates with the Melbourne Holocaust Museum:
Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre Melbourne
The Holocaust Museum collects oral testimony and also publishes memoirs of the Holocaust.
And here is one story, without a direct Australian link,
of one wonderful child who did not survive,
but whose memory and name lives on in space.
