Image Not Available

Voyage of Heinz and Gisela Bernhard to Australia

Photographer Heinz Bernhard (1903 - 1976)

Date1938

Object number00013885

NamePhotograph album

MediumBlack and white photographic prints on paper, bound album

DimensionsOverall: 242 x 310 x 39 mm, 1.35 kg
Display Dimensions: 242 x 310 x 40 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Gabrielle Bernhard

Terms

DescriptionA photograph album documenting the voyage of Mr and Mrs Heinz Bernhard from Germany to Australia in 1938. The Bernhards were German Jews who immigrated to Australia in 1938. The first pages of the album, dated 7 June 1938, records the marriage of Heinz to Gisela and their farewell to Berlin. The following pages record their journey by sea and rail to Australia via England, Canada and the islands of the Pacific Ocean on EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA and the NIAGARA. The album contains ship memorabilia and postcards. The last two pages contain newspaper clippings from Australian newspapers about the arrival of the Bernhards and other Jewish immigrants on board NIAGARA at Sydney in July 1938.HistoryOnly 6425 Jewish and non-Aryan Christian migrants arrived in Australia between 1936 - 1947. Originally the Commonwealth government agreed to 15,000 "victims of oppression" visas at the Evian conference in France in 1938. Part of the visa conditions in 1938 was that Jewish German migrants must be in possession of at least two hundred pounds when landing and the means to sustain themselves in Australia. Mr Heinz and Mrs Gisela Bernhard were land owners and successful business people in Germany prior to their departure and were relatively wealthy. Mrs Bernhard was a milliner whilst Mr Bernhard had inherited property. This would fit in with those conditions imposed on Jewish - German citizens wishing to migrate to Australia. What is clearly evident in the album is the anxiety many of these refugees suffered, this comes across quite clearly in the annotations. This anxiety seems to heighten as Heinz and Gisela Bernhard approach Australia, where they are met by a less than sympathetic press. (The tone of a press clipping, in the album, recording the Bernhards arrival in Sydney, is testimony to the less than enthusiastic reception such migrants generally received). Ominously this press clipping is the last entry in the album. Later in September 1940 Heinz Bernhard was detained as an Enemy Alien. Quite innocently his photographic interests and well known anti-American sentiments saw him fall foul of the authorities. He was eventually released from Tatura in May 1942. For the rest of his life Heinz worked as a storeman in the wine and spirits industry and Gisela Bernhard worked as a housewife.SignificanceThis photographic album is significant as it documents the trip undertaken by Mr Heinz & Mrs Gisela Bernhard, Jewish Germans, in June - July 1938 from their home in Berlin to Sydney. As well as photographs the album contains a variety of memorabilia which together with English annotations provide a highly detailed account of life aboard ship and the anxieties and hopes of a young Jewish - German migrant couple on route to a new life in Australia.