Rudolf Franz Girschik (Part 2 of Story)
| First name | Rudolf Franz |
|---|---|
| Last name | Girschik (Part 2 of Story) |
| Country of Origin | Austria |
| Date of Birth | 3/3/2010 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1941 |
| Submitted by | Helga Griffin |
Story
Part 2 of the Story.
The family camp was largely organized as a German community. The majority of internees had been shipped out some months earlier from the British Mandated Territory of Palestine and they had a dominating influence in the way the community administered itself internally. There were also a minority of Italian, Czech and Hungarian families. People tried to get on with each other but it was a congested place with about 850 people in just over 6 hectares of land. And domineering Nazi Party activity among many internees was divisive although opposition to it was not overt for the sake of some peace in an already bewilderingly uncertain situation. Camp 3 Nazis were misguided, conforming nationalists; none had committed crimes. With the big question of ‘What will happen to us after the war?\’ hanging over them, people tried to improve their environment with gardens, school for the children and adult education courses and with much cultural activity enhanced by donations from the German Red Cross. (The birth of Rudolf and Elfriede\’s son, Herbert Friedrich, in early 1945 at Waranga military hospital classified his as an ‘Australian\’; his family nick-named him Kriegskind, the child of the war.
After the war some politically fanatic internees were deported. Others were generally given the choice of returning to a bombed-out Europe or of staying in Australia. To go back to Iran or Palestine was at first forbidden. Men left the camp in 1946 in search of work and accommodation for their families while the wives and children stayed behind. With the acute post-war housing shortage tenants with children were not welcome. Helga and Peter had to be boarded out on charity. For some years Rudolf was unable to find work in Australia in his own profession. But the children soon settled well in Australia so that their parents chose not to return to Europe and in the 1950s the Girschik family all became Australians. Rudolf\’s more significant work as an engineer in Australia included laying the second railway line between Kalgoorlie and Perth and supervising the construction of the Western Australian Art Gallery.
Told largely from her memory, Helga\’s story of Rudolf\’s family\’s early life in Australia appears in her book under Helga Griffin, ‘Sing me that lovely song again …\’ (Canberra, 2006).’