A Nazi in French Oceania: Retracing Louis Burkard from Australia to New Caledonia
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Louis Burkard, a Nazi agent residing in New Caledonia between 1936 and 1939, facilitated Germany’s procurement of critical wartime nickel resources. Lauded by Hitler and slated to become the Honorary German Consul in Nouméa, New Caledonia, Burkard would represent Krupp Steel Industries in this overseas French collectivity before his arrest, deportation, and subsequent internment in Australia in 1939. This article uncovers Burkard’s presence in New Caledonia and Australia as a Krupp engineer while demonstrating how Burkard, labelled as one of the Commonwealth’s most dangerous men, helped advance the propagation of Nazism in Australia. Burkard’s presence in New Caledonia not only played a role in the Third Reich’s military rearmament campaign, but also evinced his desire to see the French territory as an overseas space where Nazi Germany’s racial purification theories could be further assessed.