It was the early 1950's and long playing records were being introduced into Australia. I spent a period of time at the Mercury Records factory in Melbourne to learn how the master discs were made etc. whilst my company Electronic Industries were installing the presses ready for production.

 

On my return I found a staff of 4 women to inspect the records before they left the production department, a male assistant, and a young Dutch woman to organize the paper work in my small office.

 

I have several stories that are not related during this period. This one involved my girl in the office.

 

Joanne seemed to be struggling with her work and taking the occasional  day off. I asked my assistant about it.

The only person who seems to come here when you’re away, is Joanna’s husband Stephan. He works down on production test.” He hesitated.

“Is there more? If there is, I want to know about it.”

“People that work with him reckon that he was part of the Hitler Youth Movement during the war, and that he married a Dutch girl, and took on a Dutch name, to hide the fact. He’s not a very likeable character - too forceful for most people.”

“Are you telling me that he’s a Nazi?”

“That’s what some people think.”

Fortunately, Stefan, Joanna’s husband, did not come under my jurisdiction. I had enough problems to deal with

 

“Mr. Bonner, Mr. Bonner!” I turned to see one of the women hurrying to catch up. She stopped, but hesitated.

“Is there something I can do for you?” She hesitated briefly again.

“No, not for me, it’s Joanna. Do you know about her?”

“The only thing I do know is that she doesn’t seem to be too happy over recent times, and I was hoping she would tell me what was troubling her.”

“She’ll never do that. It’s that pig of a husband, he’s physically abusing her!” I was taken completely by surprise; it was the last thing I expected.

“But there’s no marks on her face.”

“No, he’s cunning, only beating her about the arms and body, that’s why she wears a long sleeve blouse to hide the bruises. Her body is sometimes so sore she has to take a day off.” The woman’s intensely enquiring gaze was demanding some sort of positive response.

“I’ll sort the matter out believe me; I’ll see that it gets stopped.”

“You won’t tell her that I told you?”

“No, I won’t even talk to her about it. There’ll be other ways.”

 

The very next day Ed the chief of Intelligence/Victoria appeared at my office. I instinctively knew that it would be something urgent. He wanted some form of remote recording device for surveillance. I knew that the company was manufacturing something that could probably be modified.

 

Joanne's problem immediately sprang into my mind.

 

“I’ll do a deal with you Ed.”

 

“Joanna, who works in my office, is being physically abused by her husband.

She is definitely Dutch, but I have reason to believe that her husband Stefan, has taken on a Dutch name to hide his past. Without him knowing it, I listened in whilst he was trying to physically persuade another German immigrant to do something that he didn’t want to do. By the sound of his objections, I’m convinced that he was attempting to recruit this man into some sort of movement, possibly similar to the Hitler Youth, and his bombastic, egotistical nature shouts out that he could have originated from the Nazi Youth Corps.”

 

Ed attempted to speak but I carried on. “I haven’t finished yet. If I find out for you that he is part of some movement, no matter how small, will you see to it that he’s stopped from abusing his wife, or better still, removed from the scene?”

Ed didn’t pause to think. His eyes lit up “Just what we wanted. If you do what you say you’ll do, we will do our part. You can rely on that.”

 

The next day I went over to Stefan’s department to ask where he could be located, and was delighted to hear that he had been sent over to one of the subsidiary companies for the day. Down in the salvage department the German was working alone, and I closed the door behind me and locked it from the inside. It was quite often closed to the staff, so no one would suspect that anything was amiss.

The German got up from his chair. He was a quiet man, always ready to oblige and I was already regretting what I was going to have to do.

 

“What are you locking the door for?” he queried, an apprehensive look on his face.

“I want a chat with you and don’t want us to be disturbed. Your name is Klaus, isn’t it?”

Klaus moved to the far wall, putting as much distance between himself and me as he could, his whole body language and facial expressions were changing to fear, and for a moment I felt sympathy welling up inside, and I strived to control it. Klaus had no doubt suffered the torments of Stefan, and probably others, for too long, and confrontation of any sort soon reduced him to what I was witnessing, a person who was expecting the worst.

He was starting to shake, as if he had a fever, his cheeks quivering.

 

I moved closer and Klaus appeared to visibly shrink in size as his shoulders hunched down even further. “Stefan is trying to force you into joining his group, isn’t he?”

“Nien, Nien, Nien.”

“You’re lying to me, because you are frightened.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“You’re frightened for your family, aren’t you?”

Klaus looked terrified, but said nothing. I knew that it was time to deliver the blow.

“What will happen to your family when the immigration authorities learn of your ties to Stefan and his group, you won’t be able to help them then, will you? You are immigrants, aren’t you? They won’t tolerate having Nazis here in Australia, will they?”

Klaus collapsed into a heap on the floor. “What do you want? what do you want?” he kept saying.

 

“Where and when does Stefan hold his meetings? He has to be stopped. He will drag you and your family into deep trouble with the authorities.”

In a voice hardly perceptible, I heard what I wanted. “I’ll help you, please help me.” I helped Klaus up from the floor and seated him in his chair.

The information flowed freely and its content more revealing than I could have imagined. I looked at this pathetic man and the feelings of wartime came flooding back to me. What must he have suffered as a German since the war had ended? It was all over for the time being, I had got what I came for, but I felt far from happy about it. To be truthful, I was downright ashamed of what had just transpired.

 

“Believe me Klaus, Stefan has been bullying, and threatening others, as well as yourself. I promise you he will eventually be stopped, and you’ll not be bothered by him again. In the meantime,  you will have to suffer a little longer, but I’ll be on your side, no one will know what’s going on. What happened here today, will be our secret.”

I phoned Ed and passed on the information, "We'll get on to it right away"

 

The following afternoon I was sitting quietly in my office when loud noises erupted in the production department. Moments later the door burst opened with a bang and in rushed Stephan He was shouting profanities at me and picking up a binder from the desk hit me with it. Instead of feeling scared my anger rose to fever pitch, I picked up a paper weight and threw it at him and he fell to his knees. His incoherent shouting receding as he was leaving the production area. After my shaking had ceased, I suddenly thought about Klaus. He was leaning over his desk blood pouring from his nose. " It's all over now Klaus. when they catch him, they will deport him, and he will be out of your life"

 

Back in my office the phone rang it was Ed. " We passed the information on to the Jewish authorities, but they have lost him. Thought I had better let you know that he is carrying a hand gun" I shuddered . "Too late Ed he has already been" A later call confirmed that he had been taken into custody,

 

Due to the circumstances Joanne got a quick divorce, and added to that her family in Holland emigrated to be with her. During the rest of my stay with the company she was a happy and contented girl.