Summary

Black and white photograph adhered to album page 19, of a mast flying the ICEM (Intergovernmental Committee For European Migration) flag, taken by Walter Lischke during his migrant voyage on the MS Skaubryn in 1955.

The inscription, handwritten by Walter Lischke in German, reads: 'Weihnachten. Wir erwarten den Weihnachtsmann'. (Translation: 'Christmas. We're eagerly anticipating Santa Claus').

This photograph is one of a series of forty black and white photographs adhered to pages within a small album. The photographs were taken by Walter Lischke, before, during and just after his migrant voyage to Australia with his wife and four children on the MS Skaubryn in November-December 1955. Walter put the photos in the album after arriving, entitled 'Our Australian Trip 20.11 - 31.12.1955...Our dear grandmother', and sent it back to his wife Gerda's mother in Germany. After she died three years later, the album came back to the family in Australia.

The album, with each photograph annotated in German, commences in Bremerhaven from where the family departed Germany, and follows their journey to Australia. Also refer to record HT53880, the camera with which Walter Lischke took all the photographs.

Description of Content

Ship masts with flags.

Physical Description

Black and white photograph

Significance

Statement of Historical Significance:
This collection provides an evocative insight into one family's post World War II migrant journey, from processing and transport from Bremerhaven, Germany through the ship voyage, ports, arrival and processing at Station Pier, Bonegilla and their early settlement. The photo album compliments other diaries and photo journals in the Museum's collection and demonstrates the importance to migrants of documenting their journey and creating an enduring record of this seminal human experience. The camera with which the photographs were taken is also part of the collection, providing an often rare tangible link between the technology and what it produced and the technological era represented.

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