On 18 November 1938 a short but extraordinary report appeared in the Times of London. It claimed that a certain Dr Janzow, President of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Australia, was offering a haven in Australia to refugees from Hitler’s Germany. Appearing as it did just days after the notorious Night of Broken Glass, the offer appeared to throw a timely, yet almost incredible, lifeline to Europe’s despairing Jews and others.
This book is about those who schemed to rescue refugees from Hitler, and those who wrote in desperate hope to Dr Janzow. It reproduces many of the letters, extraordinarily moving documents of those bleak times, and it goes in search of the fate of those who wrote them.
Publisher: Australian Humanities Press
Lyall Kupke, The Lutheran wrote:Die Arbeit bietet eine wichtige Horizonterweiterung in der Beschäftigung mit der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus.
Christoph Barnbrock, Concordia Journal wrote:As we reflect on the deeds of our Lutheran ancestors, it gives us reason to examine our own response to the many refugees who have fled for their lives and sought freedom in our land.
This study collects many parts of a puzzle, including biographical details of single persons as parts of political information, and puts them together in one picture. Of course, this effort has to be incomplete. But the special value of this study is not only that it remembers the victims of the racial policy but also that the proceedings are shown from an Australian point of view. Bu that Lutheran churches from abroad are focused, and it becomes clear that they have been not only spectators but they have been affected themselves. Monteath has been working carefully and gives sensible judgment.