Object numberM2006/063
DescriptionTyped letter from the office of the Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Interior (signed by J. Horgan on behalf of the Secretary) to Leo Steiner (husband of the donor) c/o Hardy Bros Ltd, informing him that admission to Australia of his Austrian parents Adolf and Hermine, and his brother Paul Steiner is refused. "The matter has received careful consideration but it is regretted that your application has not been approved." The document is dated 16 August 1939, Canberra, No.39/7160
Part of a collection of letters, Red Cross messages and photographs donated by Betty Steiner (nee Walsch), relating to her husband Leo Steiner (1918-1996). Leo was apprenticed to a jeweler in Vienna; his boss wrote to the Hardy Bros in Australia who sent him a permit at the age of 18 to come to Australia. Leo obtained a visa and went to Switzerland until the permit for Australia arrived in 1938. He commenced work with Hardy Bros, a company that manufactured jewelry for the Queen. He worked for them until the outbreak of war; he then found a job with a factory making aircraft tools. Betty met Leo when she was 15. They married on 21 December 1941 when she turned 18. Leo wrote numerous letters to the Australian Government pleading for permits for his parents, Adolf and Hermine Steiner, and brother Paul to come to Australia, but his applications were denied. Leo’s mother was the daughter of Ludwig Klinger and Marie Freud and her sister was Anna Seifter. Anna and her husband Abraham survived Ferramonti-Tarsia internment camp in Italy and moved to America after the war.
Leo’s father, Adolf, had served in the Austrian Army during WWI. In September 1940, the Germans in Vienna ordered all the Jewish males to assemble in the street on a cold winter’s night and run until they were overheated. They were hosed down with cold water. Adolf caught pneumonia and died on 23 September 1940. One of the letters in the collection from Leo’s mother informs him of his father’s death. By 1995, Leo was still trying to find out what happened to his mother. A reply from the Red Cross received in 2000, four years after Leo’s death, states that Hermine Steiner’s last known residence was in Vienna and that she was evacuated to Minsk by the ‘Geheime Statspolizei Wien’ with Transport 26 on 9 June 1942. Thus, he died never knowing what happened to his mother.
Leo’s brother Paul escaped by swimming across the Danube from Vienna to Belgrade. He was captured and sent to Sabac Camp in Yugoslavia. On 15 November 1940, he married a woman named Edith. They had a child named Ruth in the camp. Several telegrams to Leo from his mother concern the well-being of Paul, Edith and the baby, later expressing concern when she stops hearing from them. The Australian and European Search Bureau of the Association of New Citizens enquiring on his behalf about the fate of Paul determined that he probably fell victim to fascist occupation forces during the mass shooting of Jews in Zasavica, Macva.
Part of a collection of letters, Red Cross messages and photographs donated by Betty Steiner (nee Walsch), relating to her husband Leo Steiner (1918-1996). Leo was apprenticed to a jeweler in Vienna; his boss wrote to the Hardy Bros in Australia who sent him a permit at the age of 18 to come to Australia. Leo obtained a visa and went to Switzerland until the permit for Australia arrived in 1938. He commenced work with Hardy Bros, a company that manufactured jewelry for the Queen. He worked for them until the outbreak of war; he then found a job with a factory making aircraft tools. Betty met Leo when she was 15. They married on 21 December 1941 when she turned 18. Leo wrote numerous letters to the Australian Government pleading for permits for his parents, Adolf and Hermine Steiner, and brother Paul to come to Australia, but his applications were denied. Leo’s mother was the daughter of Ludwig Klinger and Marie Freud and her sister was Anna Seifter. Anna and her husband Abraham survived Ferramonti-Tarsia internment camp in Italy and moved to America after the war.
Leo’s father, Adolf, had served in the Austrian Army during WWI. In September 1940, the Germans in Vienna ordered all the Jewish males to assemble in the street on a cold winter’s night and run until they were overheated. They were hosed down with cold water. Adolf caught pneumonia and died on 23 September 1940. One of the letters in the collection from Leo’s mother informs him of his father’s death. By 1995, Leo was still trying to find out what happened to his mother. A reply from the Red Cross received in 2000, four years after Leo’s death, states that Hermine Steiner’s last known residence was in Vienna and that she was evacuated to Minsk by the ‘Geheime Statspolizei Wien’ with Transport 26 on 9 June 1942. Thus, he died never knowing what happened to his mother.
Leo’s brother Paul escaped by swimming across the Danube from Vienna to Belgrade. He was captured and sent to Sabac Camp in Yugoslavia. On 15 November 1940, he married a woman named Edith. They had a child named Ruth in the camp. Several telegrams to Leo from his mother concern the well-being of Paul, Edith and the baby, later expressing concern when she stops hearing from them. The Australian and European Search Bureau of the Association of New Citizens enquiring on his behalf about the fate of Paul determined that he probably fell victim to fascist occupation forces during the mass shooting of Jews in Zasavica, Macva.
Production placeCanberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Production date 1939
Subjectimmigration, Jews in Australia, refugees, Visa Refusal
Object nameofficial correspondence
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 203.00 mm
height: 165.00 mm
Language
- English
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Betty Steiner