Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The History of the Jews in New Zealand

Chapter XXXI — The Opposition to the Refugees

page break

Chapter XXXI
The Opposition to the Refugees

Until about 1930, hardly any anti-semitism appeared in New Zealand. A happy relationship existed between Jew and Gentile. In a case when a young Jewish-American seaman was brought to Auckland in chains on a charge of insubordination, the authorities helped to secure his release when he accused the captain and crew of anti-semitism. The magistrate discharged him without a stain upon his character after representations had been made in Parliament. If any anti-semitism did exist, it was overwhelmingly counterbalanced by the many kindly acts by Christians towards Jews and the spirit of co-operation with which each dealt with the other. When King Edward VII died, a combined service of all denominations was held in the Parliamentary Grounds at Wellington in which Rabbi H. Van Staveren took part and at which Barry Keesing conducted the choir. It was not unusual for Gentiles, from time to time, to make offerings to Jewish causes. W. Allinson gave an order on a firm of auctioneers in Whan-garei to sell a heifer for the Jewish Relief Fund. The Christadelphians donated large sums for Zionist causes and Jews gave frequently to Christian institutions. The Canterbury and Auckland Congregations each offered £100 to the Canon Chandler Bells Fund. For years after the end of the First World War, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles received Christmas messages from the township of Rishon-le-Zion in Israel where the regiment had been stationed during hostilities.

From about 1930, under the influence of propaganda from Germany and New Zealand sympathizers with Nazism, anti-semitic publications and statements began to be seen and heard. One very well-known retail firm of small articles, with branches in many towns, advertised in the New Zealand Financial Times "that there are no Jews who are officials of the company". Anti-semitic literature, obviously subsidized, appeared in New Zealand bookshops. Copies of the false Protocols of the Elders of Zion found their way into many homes. The beginning of Nazi cruelty, however, when Hitler came to power in 1933, shocked many New Zealanders who denounced the Prussian persecutions. A body of Christian ministers in Wellington passed a strong resolution assuring the Jewish citizens of Wellington of sympathy and prayers. One non-Jewish firm removed the Swastika sign from its stationery. A German in Dunedin suggested that the news published in New Zealand page 225 had its origin in British Jewry. The German Consul stated that "Captain Goering assured press representatives in Berlin that Jews were not discriminated against or their liberty interfered with in Germany".

The New Zealand Press scotched the excuses. One newspaper, in a leading article entitled "Jewish people but British patriots", deplored the painful fact that the language of some people in the country was almost as violent against the Jews, and quite as unfounded, as the worst used by the Nazis. It wrote of the Jewish position in the British Empire, quoting the Jews of New Zealand as an example. It reminded the readers of the people of all walks of life who wept at the graveside of Rabbi Herman Van Staveren; of Jewish support for non-Jewish institutions; of Myers Park and the Auckland Art Gallery; of the Plunket Society "born in Dunedin which owed much of its early impetus to financial aid from a group of Jews who not even the generous Scotsfolk of that city could out-do in public-spiritedness. To speak of Jews as exploiters, usurers and sweaters of labour is to use words utterly regardless of their meaning. Usury is contrary to the Jewish faith. Most Jews in New Zealand who have succeeded have done so through hard work and attention to business. Trade union opinion is that Jewish employers are usually good employers. They have paved the way for the five-day week, yet pay above award wages. The descendants of the Jewish pioneers," it continued, "are no different from other New Zealanders, except that a greater proportion of them attained eminence amongst its citizens. One of them held rank second only to the Governor-General." The newspaper suggested the establishment of a fund for the relief of Jewish refugees from Germany. It concluded with the reluctance to believe that any suggestion of anti-semitism existed in New Zealand. Unfortunately, it had itself quoted ugly examples of it in the opening sentences of its article.

The proposal to establish a fund for refugees received further support by a suggestion that a Ministers' Federation of Churches approach mayors of towns in New Zealand to open lists for Jewish German refugees. The proposer pointed out that two Jews placed New Zealand on the road to prosperity, Julius Vogel and Coleman Phillips, owner of the Dry River Run, Wairarapa, who introduced a scheme of farmers' co-operative butter and cheese factories. The proposal did not eventuate. Nazi poison had already sunk deep into many hearts. One reply to the proposal reflected the unspoken thoughts of a misinformed and unkindly proportion. It stated: "Charity should begin at home. If the Jews are so good as the New Zealander suggests, the German people would not have got rid of them. The Jew exploits each and every country that gives them freedom. They are usurers of the worst type. Usury is one of their special kindnesses to the human race. It would be a pity to add another collection to the cadging ways of this generation, especially for such a people." Quite a number of Christians immune against page 226 injections of bitter calumny voluntarily did come forward and donate towards the relief of German Jews.

As the Nazis grew in power and confidence and multiplied their cruelties, their anti-semitic and insidious propaganda increased in other lands, including New Zealand. Unfortunately, its poisonous venom penetrated into official bodies. Before one refugee had entered the country, the President of the Auckland Division of the British Medical Association announced that protective measures would have to be taken to safeguard against an influx of Jewish doctors to New Zealand. The New Zealand Dental Association not only approached the Government to stop refugee dentists entering New Zealand, but requested the prevention of "the entry of non-Aryans from Germany".

The first German refugees began to arrive in 1936, and as the European situation worsened, the Jewish communities sought permits of entry for the ever-increasing number of applicants. Luis Marks of Auckland worked assiduously for their cause. By July, 1938, the position in Germany became very serious, and though the Government of New Zealand expressed a great deal of sympathy, it indicated that it was prepared to do very little to grant refugees relief. It employed hackneyed phrases to cover a hard policy. An official representative stated that within the limits of migration laws, New Zealand had already received limited numbers of refugees and was prepared to consider applications. Numbers would have to be governed by economic conditions. It could not be assumed that refugees would not become a charge on the State and would make useful citizens.

With the Nazi incursion into Austria and Czechoslovakia, desperate appeals from Europe flowed in pathetic streams to nearly every official Jewish and non-Jewish organization. Highly qualified professional men begged for immigration certificates, solemnly promising to do any kind of manual labour. After Von Rath's assassination, the volume of heartbreaking appeals increased unceasingly, some stating it would probably be the last letters they would be able to write, and pleading in mercy's sake to be allowed to come to New Zealand.

Responsible organizations movingly urged the Government to adopt a more reasonable and humane policy towards refugees. The Twelfth Annual Conference of the Dominion Council of the League of Nations Union adopted the resolution: "That, in the name of humanity, the Government be urged to deal generously with applications for admission into New Zealand by Jews and other European refugees; and that the existing requirements in regard to financial guarantees be waived because of their unsuitability to present urgent circumstances, and also that some of the restrictions in relation to defined occupations be removed." Delegates pointed out that it was well known that Jews made excellent citizens, and because of the urgency, page 227 New Zealand would react in a dreadful way in the future if the country would not permit entry to refugees.

The Bishop of Wellington proclaimed a Day of Prayer for German Jews, and stated the churches would help. The Wellington Synod of the Methodist Church of New Zealand passed a resolution: "This synod expresses the deepest sympathy with the Jewish people in their fiery persecution, and calls upon the Government to give all possible practical refuge and shelter to refugees." From England, the Bishop of Chichester, Dr G. K. Allen-Bell, called upon New Zealand to accept more refugees from Europe. Storm Jameson, the renowned novelist, appealed for help for refugee writers.

The Government, however, hardened its pharaonic heart. It stuck to its ridiculous, harsh policy. When the High Commissioner for New Zealand in London allowed his personal feelings to utter the statement, "New Zealand is prepared to admit as many Czech refugees as possible to the limit of our requirements", he had to retract his statement and said only individual cases could come. Even when he spoke of unrestricted immigration, he spoke in terms of hundreds when he should have spoken in terms of thousands. New Zealand House refused to release information regarding the number of refugees who had entered the country. It was not surprising. The number was so miserably small.

The Prime Minister, in reply to a League of Nations branch deputation confirmed the Government's short-sighted, adamant policy by saying: "Our first duty is to the British people." The Government was, he stated, opposed to mass migration and would deal only with individual cases through the Minister of Customs. He did not explain how a country which could absorb millions, which was underpopulated and with vast empty spaces, could affect the British people or New Zealand by the absorption of a few thousand men and women who would otherwise have to face death. In the poor attempt to protect the material welfare of New Zealand, the Government forgot to protect its religious and spiritual outlook. It seemed to be incapable of facing a situation where democratic principles should have been applied. Fear and fascist propaganda were successfully achieving their evil aims.

The Government's view did not coincide with the opinion of P. Holloway, a New Zealander serving on the Co-ordinating Committee for Refugees, who pointed out that the matter was not entirely a Jewish question. Of the one and a half million refugees, only 500,000 were Jews. The other million was almost equally divided between Christians of Jewish origin and those of no Jewish blood at all. New Zealand, he stated, had a responsibility as a member of the British Empire. It was one of the few countries fit to receive refugees. It had a smaller population per square mile of cultivable land than Australia. New Zealand had a sacred trust to civilization, and it had an opportunity to accept that trust. Refugees would improve the economic page 228 position because New Zealand had need to develop secondary industries.

The excuse given for the non-admission of refugees on a large scale, that it would create unemployment, did not receive the support of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, which doubted its genuineness. So did the executive of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. It wanted the creation of new industries. It alleged that the Government had no system in its admission of refugee immigrants, and quoted the example of some young Hungarian Jews who wished to open a factory for the manufacture of radio valves, but could not do so because of the vacillating policy of the Government. Some for whom a guarantee had been given could not enter the country, whilst others who had no guarantee entered with ease.

Cruelly increasing German pressure upon Jews and the talk of imminent war, urged the Peace Pledge Union to move a resolution at Wellington: "That this meeting of the Wellington Branch of the Peace Pledge Union asks the Government to relax restrictions on the entry of European refugees to this country. We feel that the present plight of these people in their own countries is such that all democratic governments should be doing everything possible to relieve their distress. We feel also that our Government is not doing all it can in this respect. We would especially urge the Government to permit and encourage the entry of refugee artisans and farmers, etc., even to the extent of assisting them to come to New Zealand. The unfortunate position is that the people who are in the greatest need and the most extreme danger are, in many cases, the very ones who are without the means to come here. We would therefore urge our Government to assist them and thereby prove its sincerity in its repeated assurances that it wishes to play its part in bringing peace to the world. In this regard we ourselves are prepared to help in every way open to us."

At the Wellington Diocesan Synod of the Anglican Church, the speakers strongly advocated the admission of refugees on economic grounds. Archdeacon Young advocated their immediate entry on moral grounds. Shocked by lack of knowledge of the problem, he could not imagine such a situation existing in a Christian world. France and Switzerland had responded splendidly to the call, but what had New Zealand done? The problem was fundamentally a moral one, and if the leaders of the Church did not feel that way, it was a poor outlook for the rest of the country.

A spokesman for the Customs Department denied allegations made against it, and stated that it gave the utmost consideration to applicants who by training could help secondary industries. The New Zealand Manufacturers' Association had put forward its views concerning admission of trained factory workers, but the spokesman would not repeat the views although he naively admitted that some might be biased. The Government spokesman also denied lack of system, but would not expand his denial, slipping out of page 229 the issue by stating that he did not propose to enter a newspaper controversy. He also avoided other serious issues by uttering unsatisfactory platitudes. The problems regarding refugees, he asserted, were far more complex than average New Zealanders realized. An offer of employment and guarantee was only one aspect, but it was by no means all that was involved in deciding the issue of a permit.

So insistently did the public clamour for the hastening of immigration of refugees, that the matter came before the Legislative Council. But only two days before the outbreak of the war, the Government, unwavering in its merciless, rock-like attitude, carried an amendment to set up a committee to investigate the position and report before any action was taken. The fierce determination of the Government to restrict immigration in spite of a large proportion of public opinion, became patently obvious the next day in a reply by the Minister in charge of immigration. When a member asked for assurances that Jewish refugees were of a suitable type, as he understood ghetto Jews were coming to New Zealand, the Minister answered that he made individual decisions in each case. Great care had been taken. With almost cynical triumph he added: "The number admitted is not so great that there can be many who turn out to be unsatisfactory. The care taken is such that one would expect very few people to be admitted whose admission one would regret."

On the following day hostilities with Germany broke out. German and Austrian immigration ceased completely. The victims of Nazism and of its propaganda were doomed.

The insignificant paltriness of the New Zealand effort in the rescue of victims of Nazi persecution became apparent when figures appeared later, and perhaps inadvertently, in the Press. Before 1938 only thirty-seven Germans and Austrians entered the country; in 1938-9, 251 migrated to New Zealand, and in the following year 423. The figures speak for themselves.

When a handful of refugees did arrive on the docks at Auckland and Wellington, the fuss and clamour of the Press by far exceeded the hullabaloo warranted for such a small number. When less than ten refugees landed from a ship, one prominent responsible newspaper screamed in the headlines, "Many refugees from Europe". On other occasions when only one refugee landed, it was possible to imagine from the excitement raised in the Press that all the tribes of Israel had landed in New Zealand.

Not all of the 711 German and Austrian refugees who came to New Zealand in the four years prior to the war belonged to the Jewish faith. About half were either lovers of personal liberty or persons of Jewish origin or ancestry who subscribed to the Christian religion. A fair proportion of the Jewish refugees, because of their frightful experiences and the controversial reception from the newspapers on their arrival, cut themselves off from the Jewish page 230 community and either kept to their own circle or intermarried with members of other faiths.

Although when war broke out New Zealand fought against Germany and its inhuman philosophy, anti-semitism and strange attitudes still persisted in quarters where they would have been the least expected. The University of Otago Council not only moved against the admission of any more refugee doctors, but, in a report from the Dean of the Medical School, it appeared that the University Council had written to the Customs Department requesting that it should refuse entry of foreigners into the country on the ground that they would cause overcrowding in an overcrowded school. S. N. Ziman, the Government representative on the University Senate, protested against a humanitarian profession going out of its way to write to the Customs Department requesting it not to admit foreigners. F. A. de la Mare, the graduates' representative, said the action of the Medical School seemed to him one of the grossest pieces of improper conduct he could possibly imagine. Man's inhumanity to man had reached a unique degree, for the practical effect of the action was to condemn fellow human beings to murder and spoliation. He believed the Government's policy in regard to the admission of refugees to be one of restriction, saying that it had done less in this respect than any other country. New Zealand had been ungenerous to the last degree.

For the sake of the good name of the University, the lame excuse that the report had been drawn up hurriedly, was accepted, and it was sent back to the Medical School for amendment and clarification. Nevertheless, in the following year, F. A. de la Mare had again severely to criticize a member of the Medical School for trying to introduce a ban against refugee doctor students.

The anti-semitic and anti-human prejudices seemed extraordinary, puzzling and futile when compared with the actual number of refugee doctors and students who belonged both to the Jewish and Christian faiths. At the beginning of 1942, only 15 refugee doctors had qualified in the whole of New Zealand since 1935, and 11 more would have qualified by the end of 1942 if they passed examinations. From 67 applications, only 43 refugees had been admitted to the school, of which 8 already had British qualifications. The 15 refugee doctors had offered the New Zealand Government to go wherever it wanted them to practise, and 6 had been placed by the Department of Health.

An allegation of overcrowding because of the refugees made by one prominent newspaper and the plea that the door should be completely shut against any further admission of aliens because of the risk, received short shrift from many readers, who compared the newspaper's attitude to that of the Nazis in Germany. The editor tried to justify the attitude, but did so page 231 very lamely. He must have known of the small number of refugees who had entered New Zealand. Nor could there have been any great risk. Out of 2300 cases of foreigners investigated by New Zealand tribunals, none at all were recommended for internment. An attempt to turn the issue by asking refugees to help in the war effort had no meaning. The Jewish refugees had long before offered their services to the Government in any capacity which the Government saw fit.

A sorrowful feature of anti-semitism manifested itself when representatives of patriotic bodies issued statements which, when analysed, could be nothing else but unpatriotic and harmful to New Zealand. The President of the Wellington Branch of the Royal Society of St George said: "The sweepings of Europe can no longer enter New Zealand." He had thought that refugees were coming to the country through Australia, but had been assured they could not enter New Zealand whether they came from a British country or not. At Dunedin, the Returned Servicemen's Association resolved that refugee doctors must go back to former attendant hospital duties when the war ended. New Zealand had taken an overdose of refugees, commented one delegate. The Manufacturers' Association passed a resolution that aliens should not be permitted to commence business. The folly and the irreligious sentiments expressed by such ungodly views moved Justice O'Regan, a man worthy of his office, to denounce and frequently attack anti-semitism before Catholic audiences, whom he warned of its dangers and insidious effects.

As the war progressed, and many who had prejudices against Jews began to see the Germans and their aims in their proper light, public outcries and hostility against the refugees diminished. When about fifty Poles and Lithuanians, who had escaped from Europe through Vladivostok when Germany attacked Russia, landed, hardly a comment was raised. Most New Zealanders realized that they, the Jews and the refugees were fighting a common enemy.