Getting to Know ‘The Enemy’

Internees Cafe, Holsworthy. Courtesy Dubotzki Collection

Supporting PowerPoint Presentation for

Migration Heritage Centre

( http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/enemy athome/the-enemy-at-home/ )

> The Context

World War I

Tension between the

British

and

German

empires

Propaganda Must it come to this? Enlist! Poster, c.1916. Courtesy Australian War Memorial Anti-German hysteria

German Australian community suddenly faced suspicion and hostility

‘Enemy aliens’

noun

All German subjects in Australia, including naturalised migrants and Australian-born persons with German/Austrian backgrounds

Registration of Aliens Poster, c.1917. Courtesy National Archives of Australia Edmund Resch (No. 5498) Liverpool camp, 1914 –18 (NAA: SP421/4, Album)

> The Concentration Camps

intern

verb

-

to confine or hold as prisoners of war, combat troops, enemy aliens

Holsworthy, Liverpool

• The main internment camp in

NSW

• 5000 to 6000 men detained

Holsworthy Internment Camp, Courtesy Dubotzki Collection

> The Internee Experience

Kampenspiegel Wochenschrift

Internee gymnasts, Courtesy Dubotzki Collection Internee dressing room, Courtesy Dubotzki Collection

Bias

CENSORSHIP

Whitewashing

Australians, Arise!, c.1916. Courtesy National Library of Australia

Photo manipulation http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/h oax/photo_database

>> Socratic Questioning

CLARIFICATION

e.g. “What is the main issue here?”, “Could you give me an example?”

Challenge ASSUMPTIONS

e.g. “Are you assuming?”, “Is this always the case?”

REASONS and EVIDENCE

e.g. “Is there reason to doubt that evidence?”

ALTERNATIVE views & perspectives

e.g. “How would other groups respond? Why?”

IMPLICATIONS and CONSEQUENCES

e.g. “What does this mean?”, “What effect would that have?”

QUESTION the question

e.g. “Why is this question important?” “To answer this question, what other questions should we answer first?”

>> Details of your Task

Kurt Wiese cartoon, Courtesy Dubotzki Collection

•

Question

what the average person would simply accept as fact or take for granted.

•

Analyse

the sources, what they reveal, and their reliability •

‘Close the case’

proof.

by evaluating the experiences of the German-Australian community, using sources as

>> The Historian as Detective

“The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the answer”

— Thomas J. Watson

(1874-1956, President of IBM)