In the Shadow of Holocausts

Noel Loos

Noel Loos has lived his life in the shadow of two holocausts. Though born in Australia prior to World War II, his father was born in the now infamous war-trial town of Nuremberg in Germany. Living and working in Australia of German origin was not easy. Accused of being a Nazi with no proof, Loos’ father was persecuted nonetheless. No one in Australia had any idea of the unfolding holocaust in Europe. Hitler and Stalin conservatively murdered 14 million people between them.
After contact with Aboriginal people while teaching in a remote North Queensland railway siding in 1954, Noel Loos committed himself to research into the history of colonisation in Queensland. He has subsequently concluded that the Aboriginal people had been subject to a genocide, a holocaust different from that inflicted on the Jews in Europe, but equivalent to it. Leading educationists in Queensland asked Loos to set up a course to assist teachers committing themselves to the education of Indigenous children and subsequently to a support system that would assist Aboriginal and Islander students, without the stipulated entry requirements, to successfully graduate as teachers.
This is his story.