In December 1938, Yorta Yorta man William Cooper took half in a protest organised by the Australian Aborigines’ League to ship a letter to the German consulate in Melbourne condemning the “merciless persecution of the Jewish folks by the Nazi authorities”.
The protest got here weeks after Kristallnacht, an outpouring of violence towards Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany, which resulted within the burning of synagogues, harm to Jewish companies, imprisonment of tens of 1000’s of Jews and lots of killings.
Holocaust educators in Australia have taken up Cooper’s march for example of being an “upstander”, slightly than a “bystander” throughout the Holocaust.
It’s additionally an instance for the 1000’s of faculty college students who go to Holocaust museums in Australia every year of the kind of private and political motion wanted to make sure the Holocaust doesn’t occur once more.
William Cooper.
Wikimedia Commons
However what do Australians learn about Cooper and his protest? The reply from a latest survey seems to be not very a lot.
Holocaust consciousness excessive, however not Australia’s function
The nationwide survey of greater than 3,500 Australians, funded by the Gandel Basis, has discovered folks’s normal data of the Holocaust is excessive – 80% of respondents knew the Holocaust occurred between 1933 and 1945 and 67% knew the Holocaust refers back to the genocide of Jews.
However there have been important gaps when it got here to Australia’s connections to it.
Solely 16% of respondents, for instance, knew who Cooper was. Simply 11% knew Australia refused to simply accept extra Jewish refugees throughout the Evian Convention in 1938, a gathering of 32 international locations to debate the German-Jewish refugee disaster. And solely 7% of respondents knew Australia has one of many largest variety of Holocaust survivors on the planet per capita, outdoors Israel.
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Whereas these figures are sobering and a trigger for reflection, different findings are extra constructive.
The survey not solely measured Australians’ data of the Holocaust, but in addition their Holocaust consciousness. That is outlined as acknowledging the true scale of the Holocaust and caring about Holocaust training.
Virtually 9 in ten Australians (88%) agreed we are able to all be taught classes for in the present day from what occurred within the Holocaust. And regardless of millennials having usually much less total data of the Holocaust than older generations, they’ve increased ranges of Holocaust consciousness.
Our survey is the primary of its sort undertaken in Australia, and much like different surveys abroad.
On this 1943 picture, Polish Jews are led away for deportation throughout the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto by German troops.
Nameless/AP
How Holocaust consciousness is linked to Australian historical past
In accordance with a latest biography of Cooper, what’s usually lacking from commentary about his 1938 protest towards the Holocaust was the actual fact he wished to make use of the chance to attract consideration to racism and violence towards First Nations peoples in Australia, too.
The writer, Bain Atwood, argued the emphasis on this one occasion overshadowed the broader activism of Copper and the Australian Aborigines’ League on points like First Nations illustration in authorities, land rights and acknowledgement of colonial dispossession and violence.
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The priority right here is {that a} persevering with concentrate on the Holocaust might detract from understanding our personal troublesome historical past in Australia.
Our survey discovered, nevertheless, a powerful relationship between Holocaust consciousness and constructive emotions in direction of non secular minorities, refugees and asylum seekers and First Nations Australians. The findings recommend, although, extra work must be accomplished to make the connections between Australian historical past and the Holocaust express. This contains our historical past of colonial genocide and our therapy of asylum seekers and refugees.
This doesn’t imply making simplistic comparisons, however acknowledging completely different histories and recollections and the way they interconnect. Our survey discovered, for example, simply over half the respondents agreed with the assertion: “the Stolen Generations are an Australian instance of genocide”.
Assist for higher Holocaust training is excessive
Promisingly, our survey discovered increased ranges of Holocaust consciousness amongst those that had visited a Holocaust museum or taken half in particular Holocaust training. There was additionally robust assist amongst our respondents (66%) for obligatory Holocaust training in colleges.
There’ll quickly be new or considerably redeveloped Holocaust museums in each state and territory in Australia. Australia additionally not too long ago turned a full member of the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which features a dedication to incorporate the Holocaust in class curriculums and institute a nationwide day of commemoration (which Australia did final 12 months).
The federal authorities has additionally supported pilot tasks for a Holocaust Memorial Week in 2018 and 2022.
The Victorian authorities, in the meantime, has supported the event of particular sources to assist educators train the Holocaust in colleges. And a rising variety of Australian educators have graduated from Gandel Basis’s intensive educating packages at Yad Vashem, the world’s largest Holocaust memorial museum in Israel.
With the rise of anti-Semitism – together with on-line hate and Holocaust denial and distortion – understanding the connection between Holocaust consciousness and efforts to fight racism in the present day is extra essential than ever.
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Steven Cooke acquired funding from the Gandel Basis to undertake this analysis. He’s a member fo the Australian delegation to the Internatioanl Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Andrew Singleton receives funding from the Australian Analysis Council and Gandel Philanthropy
Dr Donna-Lee Frieze donna-lee.frieze@deakin.edu.au receives funding from the Gandel Basis as a lead researcher for the Gandel Holocaust Data and Consciousness Survey 2021, is a lead researcher on the venture Holocaust Memorial Week 2022 with a grant from the Division of Schooling, Abilities and Employment and a delegate for the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. She is affiliated with Deakin College.
Matteo Vergani receives analysis funding from the Victorian authorities, Gandel Philanthropy, the Australian federal authorities, and the Canadian authorities.