Otto Kubsch

  General Notes:

Otto was interned at Tatura on the 28/8/1940 under the National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations.
In the first nine months of the war, the Australian Government was anxious to avoid repeating the World War I experience of mass internments of enemy aliens – despite vociferous public demands for their immediate internment. Only small numbers of Germans and Austrians were interned in September 1939, and many of them were released in early 1940. In February 1940, the Secretary of the Department of the Army reported:
Of the 5100 persons over the age of 16 years who have been registered as German citizens, 234 are now interned and 23 are placed under certain restrictions ... No other restrictions have been placed on the remaining German citizens at liberty, other than the requirement to register, to report themselves weekly to an Aliens Registration Officer, and to obtain a permit if they wish to travel outside the Police District in which their place of abode is situated. A very liberal interpretation has been placed on the latter.
But the military situation in Europe and fear of fifth columnists in Australia moved the government to change its policy. In the first week of June 1940, the Germans embarked on a major offensive in France. The fall of France, and the capture of large numbers of British troops on the European mainland, seemed to be only a matter of time. Between 6 and 10 June 1940, all over Australia hundreds of enemy aliens were rounded up and interned.
Those interned in June 1940 included many German and Austrian refugees. In October 1940, the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence circulated a memorandum outlining the rationale behind the internment of refugees. It demonstrated that the Australian security services understood little about the circumstances under which refugees had left Germany. It claimed that ‘virtually all the refugees in Australia from Germany left Germany by definite permission of the Gestapo’ and stated that the onus was on refugees to prove their innocence.

Otto had brown hair and grey eyes. His occupation was listed as Dental Mechanic. During the time he was in the detention centre he was in the Waranga Hospital at Rushworth three times for up to a week. He was released on 12/12/1944.

Death was the result of a car accident

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: Dental Mechanic, Hotel Proprietor.

Otto married Irene Agnes Caroline Johnson, daughter of Richard Henry Johnson and Beatrice Saunders. (Irene Agnes Caroline Johnson was born on 12 Apr 1910 in 103 Harrington Street, Hobart, Tasmania Australia and died in Benalla, Victoria Australia.)