Temporary protection and the refugee convention in Australia,Denmark, and Germany

This paper reports on a comparative study of temporary protection (TP) mechanisms in Australia and selected European jurisdictions. Specifically, it analyzes policy developments and trends in the use of TP mechanisms in Denmark, Germany, and Australia through a systematic examination of the evolution of “substitute protection” mechanisms; their implications for “effective protection” and their impacts on key stakeholders. The policy analyses are augmented by interviews and survey questionnaires with key NGO service providers in the three target jurisdictions. The paper argues that the traditional link between Refugee Convention protection and national territorial jurisdiction and responsibility is being undermined by extraterritorial processing and offshoring arrangements.

Understanding and misunderstanding Nazi Germany : four Australian visitors to Germany in 1938

This article examines the visits by four Australians, Bill Oats, Thomas White, Jessie Street and Robert Menzies, to Germany in the northern summer of 1938. It analyses their observations of Nazi Germany and Hitler’s actions over Czechoslovakia. Menzies was more positive about the Nazi system than the other three, but all four condemned its barbaric nature. On Czechoslovakia, Menzies, a key conservative federal minister, was the only one to approve of appeasement over Czechoslovakia. The article explores the significance of these visits for the four observers’ lives and especially for Australia. It argues that Menzies’ support for appeasement, unlike other appeasers, did not, in the long term, harm his political leadership.

Future teachers' professional knowledge on argumentation and proof : a case study from universities in three countries

In this paper, qualitative results of a case study about the professional knowledge in the area of argumentation and proof of future teachers from universities in three countries are described. Based on results of open questionnaires, data about the competencies these future teachers have in the areas of mathematical knowledge and knowledge of mathematics pedagogy are presented. The study shows that the majority of the future teachers at the participating universities situated in Germany, Hong Kong and Australia, were not able to execute formal proofs, requiring only lower secondary mathematical content, in an adequate and mathematically correct way. In contrast, in all samples there was evidence of at least average competencies of pedagogical content reflection about formal and pre-formal proving in mathematics teaching. However, it appears that possessing a mathematical background as mandated for teaching and having a high affinity with proving in mathematics teaching at the lower secondary level are not a sufficient preparation for teaching proof.

Nazi Germany as a christian state : the 'Protestant experience' of 1933 in Württemberg

 This article examines the response of Christians in Germany to the first year of the Nazi state. It responds to Manfred Gailus' call of 'micro-histories' and onsiders how Protestants in Württemberg conceived of 1933 and how they responded to the Nazis' antisemitism. It argues that they drew on a pre-existing myth of national-religious revival in World War I (the 'spirit of 1914') and remained 'actively passive' when it came to antisemitism.

Exhibit review : Focus on strangers: photo albums of World War II, Stadtmuseum, Jena, Germany, 2011

Focus on Strangers: Photo Albums of World War II is based on a collaborative research project conducted by two German universities (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg and Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena) and was conceptualized in cooperation with four German city museums in Oldenburg, Munich, Frankfurt, and Jena. While the exhibition continues a tradition of museological projects examining Germany’s war history, such as the Wehrmachtsaustellung, which provoked fi erce public debate, Focus on Strangers moves beyond most conventional approaches in a signifi cant way. Th e exhibition pays tribute to the recent development in which private traces of memory have become part of the public perception of history, in this case the history of World War II.

The soviet occupation of Germany: hunger, mass violence and the struggle for peace, 1945-1947

This is a major new account of the Soviet occupation of postwar Germany and the beginning of the Cold War. Dr Filip Slaveski shows how in the immediate aftermath of war the Red Army command struggled to contain the violence of soldiers against German civilians and, at the same time, feed and rebuild the country. This task was then assumed by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG) which was established to impose order on this chaos. Its attempt, however, intensified the battle for resources and power among competing occupation organs, especially SVAG and the army, which spilled over from threats and sabotage into fighting and shootouts in the streets. At times, such conflicts threatened to paralyse occupation governance, leaving armed troops, liberated POWs and slave labourers free to roam. SVAG's successes in reducing the violence and reconstructing eastern Germany were a remarkable achievement in the chaotic aftermath of war.