Paul R. Bartrop examines the formation and execution of Australian government policy towards European Jews during the Holocaust period, revealing that Australia did not have an established refugee policy (as opposed to an immigration policy) until late 1938. He shows that, following the Evian Conference of July 1938, Interior Minister John McEwen pledged a new policy of accepting 15,000 refugees (not specifically Jewish), but the bureaucracy cynically sought to restrict Jewish entry despite McEwen's lofty ambitions. Moreover, the book considers the (largely negative) popular attitudes toward Jewish immigrants in Australia, looking at how these views were manifested in the press and in letters to the Department of the Interior. The Holocaust and Australia grapples with how, when the Second World War broke out, questions of security were exploited as the means to further exclude Jewish refugees, a policy incongruous alongside government pronouncements condemning Nazi atrocities. The book also reflects on the double standard applied towards refugees who were Jewish and those who were not, as shown through the refusal of the government to accept 90% of Jewish applications before the war. During the war years this double standard continued, as Australia said it was not accepting foreign immigrants while taking in those it deemed to be acceptable for the war effort. Incorporating the voices of the Holocaust refugees themselves and placing the country's response in the wider contexts of both national and international history in the decades that have followed, Paul R. Bartrop provides a peerless Australian perspective on one of the most catastrophic episodes in world history.

The “thought-provoking…must-read” (Ariana Neumann, author of When Time Stopped) memoir by a Holocaust survivor who saved an untold number of lives at Auschwitz through everyday acts of courage and kindness—in the vein of A Bookshop in Berlin and The Nazi Officer’s Wife. In March 1942, twenty-five-year-old kindergarten teacher Magda Hellinger and nearly a thousand other young women were deported as some of the first Jews to be sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The SS soon discovered that by putting prisoners in charge of the day-to-day accommodation blocks, they could deflect attention away from themselves. Magda was one such prisoner selected for leadership and put in charge of hundreds of women in the notorious Experimental Block 10. She found herself constantly walking a dangerously fine line: saving lives while avoiding suspicion by the SS and risking execution. Through her inner strength and shrewd survival instincts, she was able to rise above the horror and cruelty of the camps and build pivotal relationships with the women under her watch, and even some of Auschwitz’s most notorious Nazi senior officers. Based on Magda’s personal account and completed by her daughter’s extensive research, this is “an unputdownable account of resilience and the power of compassion” (Booklist) in the face of indescribable evil.

Examines the formation and execution of Australian government policy towards the Jews during the Holocaust period. Australia did not have an established refugee policy (as opposed to immigration policy) until late 1938. Following the Evian Conference in 1938, Interior Minister John McEwen promised to accept 15,000 refugees but failed to keep his promise. Ca. 10,000 Jews entered Australia during these years despite obstacles set up by the bureaucracy. Popular attitudes toward Jewish immigrants were largely negative, and were manifested in the press and in letters to the Interior Ministry. When World War II broke out, questions of security were exploited as the means to further exclude Jewish refugees, a policy incongruous alongside government pronouncements condemning Nazi atrocities during the early 1940s. Between 1933-45 Australia treated Jewish refugees as regular immigrants, which was justifiable in the 1930s, when no one knew about the genocide of the Jews, but not in 1940-44 when news of it appeared in the press.

This collection of essays considers the development of Holocaust memory in Australia since 1945. Bringing together the work of younger and more established scholars, the volume examines Holocaust memory in a variety of local and national contexts from both inside and outside of Australia's Jewish communities. The articles presented here emanate from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives, from history through literary, cultural and museum studies. This collection considers both the general development of Holocaust memory, engaging historically with particular moments when the Shoah punctuated public perceptions of the recent past, as well as its representation and memorialisation in contemporary Australia. A detailed introduction discusses the relationship between the Australian case and the general development of Holocaust memory in the Western world, asking whether we need to revise the assumptions of what have become the rather staid narratives of the journey of the Shoah into public consciousness.

Skye Collins's profession kept her booked and busy. Her days were long and monotonous, and her nights were sacred, completed with solitude and sometimes a blue-long island... or five. After a getting out of an emotionally destructive relationship, she declares that romance isn't her cup of tea. Skye moves forward with a promise to herself not to fall back into love's trap, until someone comes along with patience and persistence she can't ignore.The smooth and charming, Eli Owens, has been infatuated with Skye since she walked into his place of business. A run-in at a local bar allows him to not only offer to buy her a drink, but to persuade her to grant him access into her unconventional world.Will Skye accept the bait and discover what happens when she gives love another chance? Or, will she run from Eli before he has a fair chance to prove himself?Find out in the riveting standalone novel, Closer.