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Discrimination

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Transcript: Miss Elizabeth Killinger talks about anti-German sentiment during World War I

Anti-Discrimination Act 1977

Anti-Discrimination Board NSW

'Qualified and useful - qualified and useful - qualified and useful - unqualified and useless; careful here! He must be white.'

Miss Elizabeth Killinger talks about anti-German sentiment during World War I, recorded 1986

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Discrimination

Transcript: Miss Elizabeth Killinger talks about anti-German sentiment during World War I

Miss Elizabeth Killinger was born in 1899 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' Her family was of German extraction and she talks here about anti-German sentiment during World War I.

Anti-Discrimination Act 1977

Legislation relating to discrimination in employment, the public education system, delivery of goods and services, racial, sexual and other forms of discrimination.

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Anti-Discrimination Board NSW

Part of the NSW Department of Justice. It promotes anti-discrimination, equal opportunity principles and policies throughout NSW, administering the anti-discrimination laws, and handling complaints under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW)â€‹â€‹â€‹.

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'Qualified and useful - qualified and useful - qualified and useful - unqualified and useless; careful here! He must be white.'

full record »

By

George Molnar

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.pic-an24899017]

Miss Elizabeth Killinger talks about anti-German sentiment during World War I, recorded 1986

full record »

Miss Elizabeth Killinger was born in 1899 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' Her family was of German extraction and she talks here about anti-German sentiment during World War I.

Transcript

INTERVIEWER: Was there any anti-German sentiment felt against your family?
ELIZABETH: Not terribly much but my eldest brother, at Liverpool primary school, Mr Paradise was the headmaster there at the time and he used to call him [her brother] 'Kaiser Bill'. He says 'Kaiser Bill, come here, do this and do that!' And of course Bill was terribly upset and he came home and he told Mum. He said 'I don't like it', he said 'he calls me Kaiser Bill in front of all the, and makes fun of me'. And so Mother said 'We'll soon put a stop to that' and she went up and saw him.
INTERVIEWER: And did it stop then?
ELIZABETH: It stopped then. She said, 'child can't help his parents' nationality,' and she said 'actually I know he's well-behaved at school'. It wasn't that he was a bad lad or anything, but it stopped.
INTERVIEWER: Were your parents naturalised or not?
ELIZABETH: Yes, well my mother didn't have to be because she was English born, but Father was naturalised. I don't remember when but he must have been naturalised quite early because he wouldn't let us speak German; absolutely forbad[e] us to speak German. He wouldn't teach us German.
INTERVIEWER: Even when you were young children?
ELIZABETH: Even when we were young children we weren't allowed. He said, 'You are not to speak German!' 'Because,' he said, 'you're English, in an English land. I want you to speak good English,' and he said, 'So many of my friends, people that I know, they speak the German,' (or whatever) and he said, 'they can't speak English properly,' and he said, 'They're neither one thing or another.'

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

[BRN:57222]

(Excerpt from interview with Miss Elizabeth Killinger for 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 - 1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith.)