Summary

Camera, Voigtlander Prontor-SVS/VITO B, in brown leather case. The camera was owned and used by Walter Lischke to take a series of black and white photographs 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 (MV collection item HT39776), 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.

The camera has not been used since 1980 after Walter's death and is no longer in working order. It remained in the possession of Walter's children until its donation to the Museum.

Physical Description

Camera, Voigtlander Prontor-SVS/VITO B, in brown leather case with long brown leather strap and a light reader device encased in small pouch attached to the strap.

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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