Helen Ferber, born in Adelaide speaks about her family background; her father's career at BHP; life in Whyalla, Newcastle and Melbourne; her education; father's views on career options for girls; family's educational background; recollections of her uncle, Sir Richard Butler; her university education, travels to Italy and Germany, language studies; WWII preparations; her impressions of pre-war Italy and Germany; her studies in Munich; Germany under Hitler; Nazi propaganda; summer schools, anti-Nazi friends, anti-Jewish action; the war build-up; studying in Perugia, Italy; being caught up in war preparations for the invasion of Czechoslovakia; her return to Australia; completion of her university education; interpreting work for the Army, monitoring foreign broadcasts; her employment as monitor at Listening post, responding to crucial world news; censorship; writing wartime reports; her work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Mission in Yugoslavia: the growth of Communism; her letters, excerpts, uses and responses.
Ferber discusses American security; the American threat to the Mission in Yugoslavia and later impact on staff; the build-up of the Cold War; her sisters' lives and careers; her work with UNRRA's Public Information office in Paris; Arthur Calwell; working with postwar migrants, her involvement in Jewish migration and refugees; her return to Australia; her marriage to David Ferber and his career; Foreign Service life in USA and Philippines; returning to employment in Melbourne; working on the Henderson Report, a study on poverty, research team members; Ronald Henderson; her contribution as Australian Economic Review's business manager; David Ferber's later work, their children and their daughters' careers; her publications; her role in the Federation of University Women; return visits to Europe, compares visits to Germany in 1938, 1947 and 1968 and Yugoslavia in 1945 and 1968; influences of her work on social policy in Australia; perspective on her own history and family history.
Helen Ferber worked as public information officer for the Displaced Persons Headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Paris from March, 1947. She was responsible for getting information to displaced persons in camps about their countries and possible repatriation. Ferber had also worked for the Yugoslav Mission of the UNRRA. She later worked on the 'Henderson report' (a study on poverty in Australia) and for the Australian Economic Review. Her published works include: Stagecoach to Birdsville and Citizens' advice and aid bureaux in Victoria.
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