When World War II began, the Australian security services raided the German consulate in Sydney and intercepted its mail. They found records with the names and addresses of Nazi Party members living in Australia. According to these records, Klaphake was member 3452978. But throughout his internment, he insisted that he was opposed to Nazism.
  | In Klaphake’s application for leave to submit objections to a detention order, he stated that he had only joined the Nazi Party in order to leave Germany. NAA: MP529/8, KLAPHAKE/W, p. 6 | |
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Demonstrating his allegiance
In 1933, Wolf Klaphake developed a new process for the production of synthetic camphor. He sold the patent rights to the IG Farben Corporation. When he made plans to leave Germany for good, senior managers of this influential firm persuaded the Nazi authorities to allow him to transfer the proceeds from that sale to an Australian bank.
But there was a price to pay: his IG Farben contacts advised him that he needed to demonstrate his allegiance to the Nazi regime by applying to join the Nazi party NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – National Socialist German Labor Party). He lodged an application from London, shortly before his final departure from Germany and, as he never paid dues or attended meetings, thought that that was the end of the matter.
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 | ‘I did not like to leave Germany’ - From the ABC radio play A Doubtful Character Download: (MP3, 418kb) Read: Transcript | |
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‘A vital agent of Nazi Germany’?
The Australian security services were suspicious of Klaphake because, unlike many others who claimed to have come to Australia to escape from Hitler’s Germany, he was non-Jewish, able to transfer a considerable amount of money from Germany, and associated with IG Farben, a firm crucial for the German war effort. When it transpired that Klaphake had been assigned a Nazi Party membership number, their suspicions seemed to have been confirmed. The officer charged with translating and evaluating Klaphake’s papers, which had been seized when he was arrested in June 1940, concluded in June 1941:
It is reasonable to say that Dr. Wolf Klaphake was a vital Agent of Nazi Germany abroad. Items in this exhibit show him to be representing a firm of I.G. Farbenindustrie in Berlin – one of the largest Munition manufacturers in Germany at the present day – and to have been financed by the German Government through this firm. [FN1]This assessment was shared by other intelligence officers working for the Australian security services.
Protestations of innocence
For four years, Wolf Klaphake wrote letter after letter to the authorities in which he protested his innocence.
 | In March 1942, Klaphake asserted that he was pro-British and anti-Nazi. NAA: MP508/1, 255/741/381, p. 7 | |
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Repeatedly Klaphake argued that everybody in the camps knew that he was not a Nazi. In July 1942, he wrote to the Commandant of the Tatura No. 3 camp:
Every Hitler-sympathizer inside or outside the internment camps knows by now, that I am sincerely supporting the cause of the Allies in my heart … Do the Authorities not know it yet? [FN2]He assumed that everybody knew about his anti-Nazi views because of his behaviour in the camp: he did not take part in the singing of German Nazi songs such as the Horst Wessel Lied; he refused to sign a form allowing the Australian authorities to communicate his whereabouts to the German government; he did not accept the Reichsgeld, the pocket money paid to loyal Germans by the German government; and he did not make friends with people who were known to be Nazi sympathisers.
 | Less than two weeks after being interned, Klaphake wrote to the military authorities to request that the German government not be informed of his internment. NAA: ST1233/1, N20785, p. 261 | |
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Throughout his internment, he demanded to be segregated from German Nazis. Whenever the authorities gave him the choice, he opted to be interned with other anti-Nazis. In 1942, when his wife Maria was interned, the Klaphakes were accommodated in camp 3D, together with Italians, Jewish refugees from Singapore, and a very small number of other Germans who refused to have anything to do with the Nazis in the camps.
For four years, he failed to convince the security services of his innocence. Several factors account for this failure. The authorities failed to understand his motivation to come to Australia. If he was neither Jewish nor a committed socialist, why then did he leave Germany? Why had he been on friendly terms with IG Farben directors? Why did he meet the German consul after his arrival in Australia?
But Klaphake’s failure to convince the authorities was also due to his inability to understand them. Like most other internees, he did not know why he was interned. How could he prove his innocence if he did not know why they thought he was guilty? On 16 October 1942, he wrote to the Tatura 3D commandant:
I beg the Authorities of this country, the sole Authorities I recognize, to tell me ... what the reasons for my internment are and to give me the chance of defending myself. [FN3]
Notes
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[1]
 | N Bell, Translator’s Report, 12 June 1941, p. 3. NAA: D1901, K1056, p. 87 |
[2]
 | Wolf Klaphake to Commandant Camp 3D, 16 October 1942. NAA: MP70/1, 36/101/150, p. 4 |
[3]
| Wolf Klaphake to Commandant Camp 3D, 16 October 1942. NAA: MP70/1, 36/101/150, p. 4 |