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Name: CLEMENS, Hans Carl
Birth Date: 1902 ?10 Dec
Death Date: ?1988
Nationality: German
First Date: 1930
Married: Hattie Hilda b. 1905 Alton, Hants.; bapt. 1 Oct at Medstead, Hants., d. 11 Feb 1986 Nedlands, W. Australia (in 1845 in Swan, W. Australia, m. Jos Nobles)
Children: Helen Martha (19 Sep 1933 Eldoret); Lieselotte (1935)
Book Reference: Harold Owen Memoirs
General Information:
Ancestry Passenger list He travelled from Cape Town to Fremantle, Australia, in 1932 with his wife and Helen Martha.
Harold Owen Memoirs: 1939 Hans Clemens, Mrs Elmer's manager was interned. The Police came and took him away one morning. His wife returnedn to her previous home town, Perth, with the children. It was revealed later that Hans was head of an underground Nazi movement in East Africa and held meetings in his house. I happened to barge in on one of them and Hans invited me in to meet his friends, all prosperous looking, well-dressed middle-aged men. They pumped me about my recent visit to Britain, what was it like, were there a lot of troops about and such like? I said everything was calm and peaceful, which wasn't exactly informative and not intended to be. As I left they all stood up and gave the Nazi salute - 'Heil Hitler!'. Most embarrassing, I think Hans felt it too. I had looked at Hans's glossy magazines showing military parades and people's womens''s army marching with shouldered spades past Hitler and giving the Nazi salute. The magazines were full of pictures of tank parades. War was an obsession with them. Hans was obviously very patriotic but harmless, I thought. I mentioned the incident to QH and he said that the authorities were aware of the movement but as we were not at war with Germany at that time no action was being taken. They would all be interned soon anyway. Hans had been given time to pack his possessions which he put into three large boxes, padlocked. I know this because I went to see him in his internment quarters to ask him something. He gave me the keys of his boxes and asked me to open up one, retrieve his 'Mein Kampf' and take it to him. I think he thought he was unlikely to see his boxes again. I opened the box and delved down to find the book. He had lovely lion and leopard skins and a lot of old German silver, which must have been very valuable. I remembered that Hans came from a very wealthy family in Hamburg. I did not disturb anything, closed the box and snapped the padlocks. I returned his keys and book to him and that was the last I saw of Hans. I learned later that Hans had buried all the Nazi papers in the NFD desert.