Zwischen Ablehnung, Assimilation und Akzeptanz: Darstellung von unbegleiteten, minderjährigen, europäischen Migrant:innen in den beiden Zeitungen „The Daily Telegraph“ und „The Sydney Morning Herald“ – Denise Ponholzer, Daniela Singer

Diese Aufsatzsammlung analysiert die Darstellung und Diskussion von Flucht und Migration in der australischen Presse der späten 1930er Jahre. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, wie Presseberichte zur Konstruktion von Fremdheit, Zugehörigkeit und nationaler Identität beitrugen, insbesondere im Kontext globaler Fluchtbewegungen aus dem nationalsozialistischen Europa. Die Blogbeiträge untersuchen anhand diskursanalytischer Methoden, welche Narrative – etwa Bedrohung, Überfremdung, ökonomische Belastung oder Humanität – in führenden australischen Zeitungen reproduziert und verhandelt wurden. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt dabei der restriktiven „White Australia Policy“ und der grundlegenden Prägung nationaler Identität durch Medienrhetorik. Die unterschiedlichen Beiträge nehmen spezifische Fallbeispiele in den Blick, darunter die Berichterstattung über die Évian-Konferenz, die Aufnahme jüdischer Flüchtlinge, die Darstellung unbegleiteter Migrant:innen und die spezifischen Narrative zu einzelnen Gruppen oder Ereignissen. Ebenso werden die Wechselwirkungen von Politik, Presse und Öffentlichkeit sowie die Spielräume für solidarische oder ausgrenzende Diskurse beleuchtet. Methodisch basiert das Projekt auf der Auswertung digitalisierter Zeitungsquellen und einer multiperspektivischen Herangehensweise im Rahmen eines universitären Lehrprojekts. Insgesamt verdeutlicht die Beiträge die historische Verwobenheit von medialen Diskursen, migrationspolitischer Praxis und gesellschaftlicher Identitätsbildung, deren Nachwirkungen bis in die Gegenwart reichen.

No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Mapham J (Sgt). Displaced Persons and Refugees in Germany. Photograph. Taken on May 18, 1945. Imperial War Museums. Zugriff am 13. April 2025.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Displaced_Persons_and_Refugees_in_Germany_BU6635.jpg

Zwischen Ablehnung, Assimilation und Akzeptanz: Darstellung von unbegleiteten, minderjährigen, europäischen Migrant:innen in den beiden Zeitungen „The Daily Telegraph“ und „The Sydney Morning Herald“

Denise Ponholzer, Daniela Singer


Every war is a war against a child.[1]

Abb.1: Australian National Maritime Museum. Four Berth Cabin on Unknown Migrant Ship. Fotografie von Davis Pratt, 1950. Wikimedia Commons. Zugriff am 13. April 2025.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Four_berth_cabin_on_unknown_migrant_ship_(8402848461).jpg
Abb. 2: No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Mapham J (Sgt). Displaced Persons and Refugees in Germany. Photograph. Taken on May 18, 1945. Imperial War Museums. Zugriff am 13. April 2025.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Displaced_Persons_and_Refugees_in_Germany_BU6635.jpg


Abb. 3: Australian National Maritime Museum. Alfonsas Savickis, Lithuanian migrant. Fotografiert am 4. Januar 1949. Wikimedia Commons. Zugriff am 13. April 2025.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alfonsas_Savickis,_Lithuanian_migrant_(8400341571).jpg
 




[1] Kathleen Freeman, If Any Man Build : The History of the Save the Children Fund. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1965, 39.

[2] Glen Palmer, “RELUCTANT REFUGE: Unaccompanied Refugee and Evacuee Children in Australia”, 1933-45, phil. Diss., University of Adelaide 1995, 1.

[3] Palmer, “RELUCTANT REFUGE”.

[4] Trove ist ein online frei zugängliches Forschungsportal. Dabei handelt es sich um eine Kooperation der australischen Nationalbibliothek mit vielen anderen australischen Partnerorganisationen und Museen. Unter anderem sind auch diverse Zeitungsartikel archiviert. (https://trove.nla.gov.au/)

[5] Michele Langfield, “Memories of Jewish Child Refugees in Australia”, In: Holocaust Studies 16:3 (2010), 79-94.

[6] Ruth Balint, “Children Left Behind: Family, Refugees and Immigration in Postwar Europe”, In: History Workshop Journal, No. 82 (AUTUMN 2016), 151-172. 

[7] Palmer, “RELUCTANT REFUGE”.

[8] Glen Palmer, “Seventeen Children: Australia’s Response To German Jewish Refugee Children 1933-1945”, Melbourne 1995.;

Glen Palmer, “Resilience in child refugees: An historical study”, In: Australasian Journal of Early Childhood 25(3) (2000).

[9] Charles Price, “Immigration Policies and Refugees in Australia”, In: The International Migration Review , Spring – Summer, 1981, Vol. 15, No. 1/2, (1981), 99-108. 

[10] Karen Agutter, “Fated to be Orphans: The Consequences of Australia’s Post-War Resettlement Policy on Refugee Children”, In: Children Australia, Vol. 41, Nr. 3 (2016), 224-231. 

[11] Susan Jacobowitz, “REFFOS, WOGS AND DAGOES: The Immigration Experience In Post-World War II Australia”, New York 2016.

[12] Suzanne D. Rutland, “A Distant Sanctuary: Australia and Child Holocaust Survivors”, In: Simone Gigliotti und Monica Tempian (Hg.), The Young Victims of the Nazi Regime: Migration, the Holocaust and Postwar Displacement, London 2016, 71-90..

[13] Philipp Strobl, “Austrian-Jewish Refugees in Pre- and Wartime Australia Ambivalent Experiences of Encounter”, In: Zeitgeschichte, Heft 2 (2021), 2.

[14] Graeme Hugo, “Change and Continuity in Australian International Migration Policy.”, In: The International Migration Review 48, no. 3 (2014), 868–90, 869.

[15] Price, “Immigration Policies and Refugees in Australia”, 99.

[16] Hugo, “Change and Continuity in Australian International Migration Policy.”, 869.

[17] Patrick Ongely und David Pearson, “Post-1945 International Migration: New Zealand, Australia and Canada Compared.”, In: The International Migration Review 29, no. 3 (1995), 765–93.

[18] Eve Lester,  “AUSTRALIAN RESPONSES TO REFUGEE JOURNEYS: Matters of Perspective and Context.”, In: Refugee Journeys: Histories of Resettlement, Representation and Resistance, edited by Jordana Silverstein and Rachel Stevens, 1st ed., ANU Press (2021), 23-50, 23.

[19] James Jupp, “From “‘White Australia’ to ‘Part of Asia’: Recent Shifts in Australian Immigration Policy Towards the Region.”, In: The International Migration Review 29, no. 1 (1995), 207–28, 208.

[20] Astrid Tumpold-Juri, SKIM OFF THE CREAM: Auswanderung von Österreich nach Australien 1947-1978, Dissertation Universität Graz (2008), 41.

[21] James Jupp, “From “‘White Australia’ to ‘Part of Asia’: Recent Shifts in Australian Immigration Policy Towards the Region.”, In: The International Migration Review 29, no. 1 (1995), 207–28, 208.

[22] Ongley, Pearson, “Post-1945 International Migration”, 771-772.

[23] Sev A. Ozdowski, “The Law, Immigration and Human Rights: Changing the Australian Immigration Control System.”, In: The International Migration Review 19, no. 3 (1985), 535–54.

[24] Ongley, Pearson, “Post-1945 International Migration”, 771-772.

[25] Andrew Markus, “Labour and Immigration 1946-9: The Displaced Persons Program.”, In: Labour History, no. 47 (1984),73–90, 86.

[26] Andrew Markus, “Labor and Immigration: Policy Formation 1943-5”, In: Labour History, no. 46 (1984), 21–33, 27.

[27] Markus, “Labor and Immigration: Policy Formation 1943-5”, 27.

[28] Jupp, “From “‘White Australia’ to ‘Part of Asia’, 208.

[29] Markus, “Labor and Immigration: Policy Formation 1943-5”, 21–33.

[30] Palmer, “RELUCTANT REFUGE”, 125.

[31] Markus, “Labor and Immigration: Policy Formation 1943-5”.

[32] Palmer, “RELUCTANT REFUGE”, 4-5.

[33] = United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

[34] Simone Gigliotti und Monica Tempian (Hg.), The Young Victims of the Nazi Regime: Migration, the Holocaust and Postwar Displacement, London 2016.

[35]  = International Refugee Organisation

[36] Tumpold-Juri, „SKIM OFF THE CREAM“, 81.

[37] Jacobowitz, “REFFOS, WOGS AND DAGOES”, 78.

[38] Victor Isaacs und Rod Kirkpatrick, Two hundred years of Sydney newspapers: A Short History, Sydney 2003, 8.

[39] The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, URL: https://moadoph.gov.au/explore/behind-the-lines/the-daily-telegraph-sydney (abgerufen am 20.02.2025).

[40] Isaacs, Kirkpatrick, Two hundred years of Sydney newspapers and Rod, 8.

[41] Want Child Migrant Plans Now, The Daily Telegraph, 16.11.1943, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247809367/27292229.

[42] Alien Child Migrants, The Daily Telegraph, 08.12.1944, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248072752/27314894 .

[43] Permit For Jewish Orphan Migrants, The Daily Telegraph, 09.12.1944, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248070982/27314918.

[44] Permit For Jewish Orphan Migrants, The Daily Telegraph, 09.12.1944, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248070982/27314918.

[45] Permit For Jewish Orphan Migrants, The Daily Telegraph, 09.12.1944, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248070982/27314918.

[46] No objection to German orphans, The Daily Telegraph, 08.07.1945, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247637055/27283623.

[47] No objection to German orphans, The Daily Telegraph, 08.07.1945, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247637055/27283623.

[48] No objection to German orphans, The Daily Telegraph, 08.07.1945, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247637055/27283623.

[49] Palmer, “RELUCTANT REFUGE”, 64.

[50] People Australia, Georg William Martens, URL:  https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/martens-george-william-34460 (abgerufen am 11.04.2025).

[51] Young German Child Migrants Advocated, The Daily Telegraph, 31.08.1945, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247633007/27284967.

[52] Palmer, “Seventeen Children”, 95.

[53] Many suggestions on child migration, The Daily Telegraph, 26.05.1946, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248505919/27447483.

[54] Many suggestions on child migration, The Daily Telegraph, 26.05.1946, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248505919/27447483.

[55] Palmer, “RELUCTANT REFUGE”, 129.

[56] Letter form an angry man. Can you hear the cry of Europe’s children?, The Daily Telegraph, 26.05.1946, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248505952/27447478.

[57] A history of the Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, URL: https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-history-of-the-herald-20031125-gdhuol.html (abgerufen am 20.02.2025).

[58] Isaacs, Kirkpatrick, Two hundred years of Sydney newspapers and Rod, 14.

[59] The Sydney Herald (NSW: 1831-1842), TROVE, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/title/37 (abgerufen am 20.02.2025).

[60] Letters. Immigration and Defence, The Sydney Morning Herald, 21.01.1944, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27941963/1087246.

[61] Palmer, “RELUCTANT REFUGE”, 176-177.

[62] German Children Urged As Migrants, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27.06.1947, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18032674/1007379.

[63] German Children Urged As Migrants, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27.06.1947, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18032674/1007379.

[64] The Women’s View – Signs Of Womens’s Unity, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28.06.1947, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27901304/1007406.

[65] Schemes To Aid Destitute German People, The Sydney Morning Herald, 30.12.1947, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18055614/1011491.

[66] Australian Home For German Orphans After Struggle, The Sydney Morning Herald, 15.01.1948, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18057391/1011703.

[67] Orphans From Germany. May Be Adopted Here, The Sydney Morning Herald, 14.12.1948, trove, URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18097575/1016446.

[68] Jordana Silverstein, ‘The Beneficent and Legal Godfather’: A History of the Guardianship of Unaccompanied Immigrant and Refugee Children in Australia, 1946–1975.” The History of the Family 22 (4): 446–65. doi:10.1080/1081602X.2016.1265572, 2017, 459.

[69] Silverstein, The Beneficent and Legal Godfather’, 447.


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