The Holocaust · New Zealand · 1933 to 1945
New Zealand remained outside Nazi occupation. Its connection to the Holocaust includes restricted refuge, separated families and survivors who later made new homes there.
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1933 to 1945
The Holocaust · A distant refuge with restricted entry
New Zealand remained outside Nazi occupation. Its connection to the Holocaust includes restricted refuge, separated families and survivors who later made new homes there.
Concentration camps imprisoned people under brutal conditions, often with forced labor. Extermination camps were built for systematic mass murder. Auschwitz-Birkenau combined both functions.
Refugees refused permission to enter
In a 2021 remembrance speech, the Governor-General stated that New Zealand rejected 1,731 formal Jewish immigration applications between 1936 and 1938, over 70 percent of those received. A further 727 Jewish refugees were admitted in that interval. These are application and admission figures for specified years, not a tally of the fates of everyone refused.
Hans Johnson's long journey
Hans Johnson's family preserved his account of leaving Germany in 1938. An entry permit did not make departure immediate: passage was difficult to book, and Nazi passport requirements and a Gestapo inspection added danger. His route through Britain and Canada eventually brought him to New Zealand. One successful escape reveals obstacles without telling us what happened to every applicant.
Safety and family separation
After reaching New Zealand, Johnson tried unsuccessfully to obtain entry permits for his parents. They were forced to work in Berlin, deported to Theresienstadt and murdered at Auschwitz in October 1944. His testimony connects one family's loss with a specific failed attempt at rescue. Safety for a son did not mean safety for the parents who had helped him leave.