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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Royce Kurmelovs

Happy birthday, Hitler: how Australia’s Nazis got away with ‘the whole rotten show’

The earliest members of Adelaide’s Nazi party branch in front of a vineyard in Tanunda, South Australia, circa 1934
The earliest members of Adelaide’s Nazi party branch in front of a vineyard in Tanunda, South Australia, circa 1934. Photograph: National Archives of Australia

A Nazi flag hangs on one side of the hall, the Australian flag on the other. Between them, a floral arrangement lines the steps leading to a framed portrait of Adolf Hitler above which a sign in German says “50 years”.

Who took the photograph inside a German club in Adelaide on 20 April 1939 is not known but more than 80 years later the image of the decorations laid out to mark Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday is a reminder of an episode in Australia’s history now barely remembered.

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