Geburtsurkunde
Object numberM2007/058
TitleGeburtsurkunde
DescriptionCertificate of Birth issued in 1939 for Helmut Oswald Graetzer, born October 1913 in Breslau, informing him that as a result of legislation that has been passed he must now adopt the middle name 'Israel'. Helmut immigrated to Australia in 1938 but this document was still issued to him to his address in Berlin. It was either sent to him or brought by his parents when they arrived in 1939.
Donated by Diane Drexler (née Gray), whose mother, Cara Esther Joseph, born in Melbourne in 1920, was third generation Australian.
Diane’s father, Helmut Graetzer (who later changed his name to Gray) fled Nazi Germany after the events of Kristallnacht in November 1938. They married in 1943 at Temple Emanuel in Woollahra.
On arrival in Australia Helmut was initially declared ‘stateless’ and then categorised as an Enemy Alien after the outbreak of war. Cara, by virtue of her marriage, became an ‘enemy alien’ too. She ceased to be a British subject and was forced to comply with the regulations relating to enemy aliens including weekly reporting to the police station.
She was able to re-acquire her British nationality in 1944 having been issued a ‘Certificate of Naturalization Granted to a Woman who was a natural-born British Subject and is Married to a Subject of a State at War with His Majesty’. Her citizenship certificate states that she has “formally renounced her allegiance to the Republic of Germany”. Diane comments, “My mother never swore allegiance to Germany in the first place!”
Cara was automatically granted citizenship in January 1949 when the Nationality and Citizenship Act granted Australian Citizenship to all Australian citizens. However, her record showed that she was an Enemy Alien between October 1943 and March 1944. Incensed by this injustice, Cara attempted to have the Enemy Alien status expunged from her record. She corresponded with the Department of Immigration in 1958 but was denied her request.
Donated by Diane Drexler (née Gray), whose mother, Cara Esther Joseph, born in Melbourne in 1920, was third generation Australian.
Diane’s father, Helmut Graetzer (who later changed his name to Gray) fled Nazi Germany after the events of Kristallnacht in November 1938. They married in 1943 at Temple Emanuel in Woollahra.
On arrival in Australia Helmut was initially declared ‘stateless’ and then categorised as an Enemy Alien after the outbreak of war. Cara, by virtue of her marriage, became an ‘enemy alien’ too. She ceased to be a British subject and was forced to comply with the regulations relating to enemy aliens including weekly reporting to the police station.
She was able to re-acquire her British nationality in 1944 having been issued a ‘Certificate of Naturalization Granted to a Woman who was a natural-born British Subject and is Married to a Subject of a State at War with His Majesty’. Her citizenship certificate states that she has “formally renounced her allegiance to the Republic of Germany”. Diane comments, “My mother never swore allegiance to Germany in the first place!”
Cara was automatically granted citizenship in January 1949 when the Nationality and Citizenship Act granted Australian Citizenship to all Australian citizens. However, her record showed that she was an Enemy Alien between October 1943 and March 1944. Incensed by this injustice, Cara attempted to have the Enemy Alien status expunged from her record. She corresponded with the Department of Immigration in 1958 but was denied her request.
Production placeBreslau, Germany
Production date 1939-03-02
Subjectantisemitism, legislation, stigma, name change
Object namecertificates of birth
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 208.00 mm
height: 297.00 mm
Language
- German GERMAN! BIRTH CERTIFICATE issued for Helmut in 1939 a few months after the new legislation was passed informing him that he has to carry the middle name “Israel”.
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs Diane Drexler