Ah, objects can tell so many stories! Dawn and I want to tell you about our latest education collection acquisition. It’s a suitcase.
After World War II (in 1949) this suitcase travelled to Australia with Elisabeth and Johannes Peter (and Elisabeth’s daughter Brigitte) from Germany. They were displaced people. They travelled on the converted troop ship Mozaffari and it took about six weeks to sail to Australia. During that time the women and children were cramped together in double bunks in a semi-dark hold. The men and the older boys were in another hold.
Displaced people had to undergo rigorous medical examinations (conducted by the IRO – International Refugee Organisation) before being accepted for resettlement in another country. Along with the suitcase came some medical records of the Peters’ family and it was when looking at these we discovered another fascinating story: one record indicates that the Peter family had “been disinfected with DDT powder” and so were eligible for further resettlement processing.
DDT? Really?
DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is a synthetic pesticide and was used in WWII to control insects that carried the disease typhus. Typhus was responsible for many deaths in both WWI and WWII. DDT was used in Australia in agriculture from the 1950s. It was believed to have a low level of toxicity to humans (because it was thought to be difficult for DDT to be absorbed through human skin) and as such was acclaimed as a wonder chemical.
In the 1960s concern arose about the use of DDT and its effects on humans. It was discovered that when DDT gets into our bodies, it is stored in fatty organs such as the thyroid and the adrenals and can be stored in smaller concentrations in the liver and kidneys. DDT concentrations are especially high in human milk. There is also debate as to whether exposure to DDT can increase a woman’s chance of having breast cancer. Studies also suggest that exposure is a risk factor for premature birth and miscarriage.
There has been a total ban on the use of DDT in Australia since 1987
This suitcase (and the related documents – check out the pics) can tell us so many stories – displacement and migration and medical advancements are just the start. Gotta love the capacity of an object to speak about our past.
Great isn’t it? – the stories that objects tell. I love the appoach in our “Australian Journeys” gallery – object biography (the object has life) because the notion resonates – reminds me of theatre exercises and brings to mind Annie Proulx’s novel “Accordian Crimes” and Ry Cooder’s song “If walls could talk”.
Oh, and because I’ve been working on migration stories recently I’d like to share some fabulous stories and resources. Have a look at : this and this
I am Elisabeth Peter’s daughter – from What’s in a Suitcase.
I’d make a change to the following sentence:
“After WWII (in 1949) this suitcase travelled to Australia with Elisabeth and Johannes Peter (and their daughter Brigitte) from Germany.”
to
In early 1949 this suitcase travelled from Germany to Australia with Elisabeth and Johannes Peter (and Elisabeth’s five-year-old daughter Brigitte).
Additionally, to my ears, “displaced people” doesn’t ring true; for some reason the tag was always ‘displaced persons’. Once in Australia, and beyond officialdom, we were called ‘New Australians’, and I think that term may have died out by the 1960s when there was a veritable flood of Europeans that migrated to Australia.
I googled Mozaffari – ship in which we came to Australia via the Suez Canal – and it also has ‘displaced persons’. The site, http://immigrantships.net/v11/1900v11/mozaffari19490319.html gives a list of all passengers on board (thought they’d missed me when I wasn’t with my parents but of course my surname then was not Peter but Mielitz). The site doesn’t know the ship departure date from Naples but it took 6-7 weeks to reach Australia. I seem to remember being told we left Germany in late January, had a long, including overnight, train trip to Naples, then spent a couple of days in a camp in Naples before boarding. I only have one memory of being on the train and another of crowds and shambles in Naples. Nothing much. The implication is that the trip I was on was the only immigrant run made by the SS Mozaffari.
Of the other passengers, we knew from Germany, the Molnar family (they also moved to Beechworth, Vic and then followed us to Adelaide in the mid-1950s), and the Keremidschieff family who remained in camp for two years (they had no sponsor and he had to work on the railways for two years first, then they moved to Adelaide – then, as Aust didn’t recognise his architect standing, they migrated to Canada in mid-1950s. There was another family we knew from pre-migration but I can’t remember their surname at the moment.
Gita recently Yvonne sent me some copies of photos of a house you lived in for a while in Beechworth. I have recently finished a book on the area, and your information arrived too late. however, I would like to make contact with you.
Joan