mobydesu | Friday, March 12  23:46

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"I was born in Austria," began Gerty. "Hitler was born in the same country I was born in."


Gerty Jellinek was twelve. She lived a normal life with her brother and parents, even though they were not particularly wealthy. when the Nazis annexed Austria to Nazi Germany. Initially, Austria was a predominantly Catholic country- it was the state religion, with 80% of Austrians in the faith. That was before the Nazis came into power. "[Hitler] told the Austrian chancellor- I intend to take Austria into [Germany]... either there will be bloodshed, or there will be peace." Gerty and her family sat around the wireless when Hitler broadcasted his intentions- "and the big pressure of giving my homeland, Austria..." he said, in an emotional speech.

She remembers the day the Nazis marched into the town square- 13 March 1938. Every house was decked out with Nazi flags- a sea of red. Instead of the work uniforms familiar to her in the streets, she saw the uniforms of the Hitler Youth. And this happened overnight.
Gerty's mother had rented a room to an Austrian couple. That morning, he came along, decked out in full SA brownshirt uniform. "You too?" asked Gerty's mother. "What do you think?" replied the man. "Many of us were illegally organised for years. Besides, we only take the money of rich Jews." In the end, that was hardly the case- the Nazis took the money and lives of rich Jews, and from the poor Jews their lives, because they had no money at all.

The racial policies of the Third Reich were implemented in Germany over five years, but in Austria, they were in full effect in a matter of two weeks. Austria embraced Germany- they wanted to be with them. Gerty recalls being called up to the Headmaster of the public school she attended. "It is not desirable for you to come to this school," he explained. She was given an address, and instructed to attend classes there the next Monday. Her girl friends were told to avoid Jewish people. "You are not to speak or mix with your Jewish friends anymore," their parents told them. Once, Gerty says, she walked down the street and came across her friends. She was about to say hi, but they walked across the road to avoid her.

Jewish people were not allowed to go to public parks, or dine at a restaurant, or go to the picturehouses. They were subject to all sorts of harassment. "Free Austria" and other slogans were chalked on the pavement by dissidents. Gerty and her mother were out one day and saw people kneeling and scrubbing the footpath clean of the slogans. They were watched over by a 14-year old Hitler Youth member, in full uniform.

Gerty recalls the humiliation she and her family suffered on Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass. On the evening of the 10th of November, there was a loud knock on the door. The family were in bed, and the boarder answered the door. He was greeted by four six-foot tall men, in full SA uniform. One produced a list of names. "Do we have the right address?" one asked. "Yes, this is the house, I had to live with them..." answered the boarder, afraid of being judged for living with Jews. They walked straight into the house- Gerty and her brother were wild awake- they saw the stormtroopers open their parents' bedroom door, turning on the lights- they screamed!

"Have you got weapons?" demanded the stormtrooper.
"No," answered her father.
"Have you got money?"
"No."
"Have you got jewellery?".
"No."
"Get up, and get dressed."

To Gerty, her father was the most honoured person in her family. To see him being marched about as a common criminal, when he did nothing wrong, shocked her greatly. He was escorted out of the house, wearing his winter coat, into the street. Gerty's mother asked the children to stay put, and she went out into the street, as did dozens of women, looking for their brothers, fathers, husbands...
Then they saw flames- great flames, engulfing the synagogue- Jewish shops were broken into and their goods stolen. The fire brigade stood by- not to fight the flames from Jewish-owned houes but to stop the flames spreading to neighbouring ones.
Gerty's mother asked around the police stations. They were powerless. They all told her the same thing: "Go home. It is safest for you."

Kristallnacht was a success. The Nazis wanted people to believe that the German people wanted it to happen.

On the tenth day of his imprisonment, Gerty's father was released, as the concentration camps then could not deal with the number of people being processed. "You can go- get out, and get lost," he was told. He was set out into the street, and he returned home.
His family didn't recognise him at his doorstep.  He said little about his ordeal, only mentioning about how he slept on the floor. He never spoke of the possible experiences and beatings. Gerty said that he was a changed man- a different man till the day he passed away, five years later.

The pogroms were never repeated. Hitler did not want a bad impression set upon the Austrians. Other countries such as Britain did not want to intervene, and allowed Hitler to get away with such acts.

Although Gerty returned to school, her mother couldn't stand the racial hate. She went from one consulate to another- 5 or 6 in the morning. She was turned down time after time, by India, Australia, America... "Maybe tomorrow," they answered her. No country wanted a mass immigration.
But one place did not require any papers to enter- China, and in particular, Shanghai.
Gerty's mother  went to a travel agent- she could have tickets to Shanghai by steamer- it was February, but they had to wait till August to get onto the ship. She thanked the travel agent, and booked the tickets.

There were no known arrests in April. One day the now-turned Nazi boarder announced that "it is not safe to live with Jews in one house." The family was kicked out from their very own house, with whatever they could carry themselves, with the rest of the furniture and crockery left with the boarder. They moved into the ghettoes, in a one-bathroom, one-kitchen flat shared with twenty-five people. Gerty probably left school then, at the age of 13.

They received bad news from the steamer company- half of the fare had to be paid for in British pounds or US dollars. One of her parents had a cousin in France, and they asked him to send money, stating their reasons.
The cousin was outraged. "How can you take your children to the wilderness of Shanghai? Send them to Paris, I will take care of them. You can go to Shanghai." He received a stern reply from Gerty's mother- "In times like this we need family. Either we live together, or we perish together." The cousin apologised for his insensitivity, and sent money to the family. Her mother's words and steadfastness, said Gerty, had saved her and her brother's lives.

In July the family left Austria for Italy, without incident. Two weeks later, on the 31st, they kissed Italian soil, and stayed until the 16th of August, when they boarded the ship bound for Shanghai.

The trip was not without difficulty as the ship was Italian. "We are an Italian ship," announced the captain during the trip, "and as we are sided with Germany we cannot land in English ports." Later in the voyage, the captain made his decision. "We will stop at Dutch harbours- we will get you to Shanghai."

The family arrived at Shanghai on the 12th of September 1939, and lived there for nine and a half years. They were brought into the poorest sections of the villages, and it was in the middle of the Sino-Japanese war. The Japanese did not believe in the Nazis' racial policy. "There are two types of people- Asians, and Whites. We will control them, but we will not kill them." 20,000 Jewish lives were saved.

Gerty's father passed away in 1943.

In 1945 the Japanese surrendered, and the US liberated them from Japanese control. Gerty said their dignity and jobs were returned- they worked in US canteens for a while. In 1947 she met her husband, a Vienese refugee who was older than her.
In 1948 they were worried about the Communists coming into power, and they decided they couldn't stay in China. A friend advised them to go to Australia and start a new life there. Gerty fell pregnant in China, and her only daughter was born on Australian soil, now a German teacher in a Sydney school. She now has two grandchildren, and is working in the Sydney Jewish Museum as a volunteer guide.

Gerty is the only surviving member of her family- her brother passed away ten years ago.

In 2008, the Austrian government invited Gerty, one of three hundred refugees from the Nazi regime, to Austria, to become 'living historians'. She set off for Austria with her daughter, describing the experience as "rewarding".

The Austrian gvernment accepted that they were guilty of welcoming Nazi Germany with open arms, and started an organisation to train teachers to teach about the history of that period. When Gerty talked with the  schoolchildren, she found that they were very well informed.
In the same town square where the Nazis entered in 1938, the Austrian refugees were honoured by the Prime Minister and the Austrian government.

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Many thanks to Gerty and the volunteers at the Sydney Jewish Museum, as well as the HSIE faculty teachers for providing such an inspiring and interesting learning experience.

Gerty has been interviewed by the SBS on World View as well as
Compass on ABC.


The Sydney Jewish Museum retells the origins of the Jewish people, their struggle in Europe, and their stories of migration to other countries following the Second World War. It is also a memorial to all the six million people of Jewish conviction, of those 1.5 million children, who suffered and perished at the hands of Nazi Germany.


The Sydney Jewish Museum is located in Maccabean Hall, 148 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst. It is a 10-minute walk from Kings Cross Station, and across the road from Green Park and the 311 bus stop ouside Old Darlinghurst Gaol.

Labels: austria, germany, jewish, migration, museum, nazi, shanghai, survivor