“Sympathy and human kindness”

The appeal by Christian dignitaries from the Australian state of Victoria, the text of which is documented here, was probably published as a letter to the editor in the Melbourne newspaper “The Age” in the first week of July 1941. Shortly before this, the internees had been transferred from the Hay camp in News South Wales to Tatura in Victoria. There is an obvious temporal connection with the call for help from the interned Jews and Nazi opponents. In May 1941 – around six weeks earlier – they had denounced their completely unclear situation and treatment as enemies of the Allies in their “Appeal for Justice and Humanity“. The dignitaries took arguments from this. Like the internees before them, they pointed out, among other things, that the British government had already cancelled internment in the summer of 1940. In Australia, more than 2,000 internees were still being held behind triple barbed wire a year later.

Translation: Peter Dehn.

Appeal for refugees

We, the undersigned leaders of Christian Churches and institutions in Victoria, earnestly commend the work of the Victorian International Refugee Emergency Council on behalf of the refugees who have settled in our country and, in particular, of those refugees (about 2000) who were interened in England as a result of a general internment order last July and then transported to Australia, where they are now in internment camps. These men and boys – for there is a considerable number under twenty – are almost all loyal to the democratic cause, completely anti-Nazi in politics, and, for the most part, Jewish in race, and victims of the Nazi oppression in Europe before they escaped to Britain.

Their lot is a desperate one in that thousands of those interned in similar conditions have already been granted their releasae in England, but shipping difficulties forbid their return to England. Unless there is a change in policy of the Australian Government to allow their release in this country, they appear to be condemned to remain in internment behind barbed wire and under military guard fort he duration of the war. The V.I.R.E.C. organisation has endeavored to brighten their lot in such ways as are possible. We are greatly concerned that this work should continue until the need no longer exists, and we invite our friends to provide the modest expenditure necessary, and to help by gifts of clothing, book, etc., so that these unfortunates may feel assured that in this country there are those who are desirous of extending even to „one of the last of these My brethren“ practical sympathy and human kindness. We appeal to all those who would like to see V.I.R.E.C.‘s work continued, both on behalf of refugees living in this State and refugee internees, to send a contribution to any of the undersigned or to the Refugee Council, at 177 Collinsstreet.

Dunera Boy Emil Wittenberg dated his picture to 29 May 1941 in Tatura – shortly after the move from Hay. With kind permission to come. From whomever.

F.W. MELBOURNE, Archbishop of Melbourne,
C.N. BUTTON, Moderator Presbyterian Church of Victoria,
ERIC EVANS, President baptist Union of Victoria,
J. ERNEST ALLAN, President, Conference of Churches of Christ,
A.C. STEVENS, Chairman, Congregational Union of Victoria,
WILLIAM B. DALZIEL, Territorial Commander, Salvation Army.

Please note: The newspaper clipping that prompted this publication is in the Wolkenstein family archive. Dunera Boy Christoph Wolkenstein had pasted the article under his diary entry of 9 July 1941. We would like to thank his daughter Anne Wolkenstein for authorising the publication of the text and her photo. Christoph Wolkenstein, then aged 18, and his 16-year-old brother Oswald – both Catholics from Austria – were deported from England to Australia on the Dunera.