From Berlin to the Bush: Jewish Youth in Rural Australia 1939

As published on the National Library of Australia website:

“Tess Scholfield-Peters is the 2022 Seymour Summer Scholar and spent her time at the Library researching the experiences of Jewish emigrants who arrived in Australia pre-World War II.  

‘I wanted to study at the Library because the collections are so varied and unique,’ Tess says. ‘The Library itself is such a beautiful building, right in the middle of everything, and the scholarship program gives you behind the scenes access. I knew I was going to end up finding lots of unexpected and exciting material.’ 

The 6 weeks have been spent mostly in the Special Collections Reading Room, looking at manuscripts and papers, and back in our office space where we can take Main Reading Room material to our desks.  

‘My research has advanced a lot in this relatively small space of time. I’ve found so much primary source material that only the Library holds, and having a shared space to work with the other scholars has been very conducive to good work.  

‘I highly recommend the Summer Scholarship program to anyone with a keen interest in furthering their research or writing. I applied without knowing that much about the Library’s collections, but have come out of this experience with a lot more confidence in my ability to do archive research – even though I still feel as though I’ve only scratched the surface!’”