Dr Wilhelm Rechnitz 1899 – 1979: The life and times of a German Jew, a convert to Christianity, and a Minister in the Torres Strait Islands.

A presentation by Professor Leon Mann AO FASSA, who is a Professorial Fellow in the School of Psychology at The University of Melbourne. He is a scholar in the fields of leadership, decision making, groups, and collective behaviour. He also conducts historical research on the Broken Hill Jewish community, the German rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, and the Dunera Boys in internment. Dr Wilhelm Rechnitz was one of the German Jewish “Dunera Boys” sent by Winston Churchill in 1940 to internment camps in Hay and Tatura, but he converted to Christianity and became a Minister.

Together with Ralph O’Brien, Professor Mann helped establish the Academy of Social Science’s Rechnitz Fund and Grants Program in 2023 which honours Dr Wilhelm Rechnitz, and this presentation is based on Dr Rechnitz’s unpublished autobiography written 1964-1966, Dr Rechnitz’s Papers in the Queensland State Library, and Rev Professor John Moses’ 2013 essay on Dr Rechnitz’s relationship to Judaism and Anglo Catholicism.