Anzac Day: Kiwi family stripped of rights despite nephew’s sacrifice on Western Front
Ripu Bhatia15:01, Apr 26 2021

A man has discovered his family were branded “aliens” in New Zealand while his uncle was fighting in World War I.
Lance corporal Arthur Koberstein was a Kiwi of German descent, killed in 1918 in France on the Western Front.
Despite his sacrifice, Arthur’s close relatives were stripped of civil liberties and discriminated against during the war as anti-German hysteria swept the nation.
Bay of Plenty man Gordon Koberstein, 84, is Arthur’s nephew.
“I knew he’d been over in the war and got killed over there, but the information I got [recently] is a lot more than what we had,” he said.
“I had heard of people, who had German names, changing their name during the war because they were getting picked on.”
During the war, there was increasing hostility in New Zealand to anyone of German descent, or anyone with a German-sounding name. Parliament passed the Registration of Aliens Act in 1917, under which “aliens” – anyone not a British subject “either by birth or naturalization” - were required to register with their local Aliens Registration Officer at the police station, and report to them regularly.
A number of Arthur Koberstein’s uncles were forced to register, even though some had arrived in New Zealand as children in the 1870s and had spent most of their lives in the country.
“It makes you realize what was happening and what they were going through at the time,” Gordon Koberstein said.
“It would have been uncomfortable, they'd come out to a new life here really, they weren't expecting that sort of thing.”
Gordon Koberstein discovered this chapter of his family history through genealogy website Ancestry’s New Zealand and Australian military database.
Researcher Jason Reeve said the stories of New Zealanders of German descent during the World War I was bittersweet.
“Often the stories are not necessarily well-known, but many of the records on Ancestry from this period provide clues to the angst faced by recent immigrants in the colony, as well as Kiwis who were simply descendants of German immigrants,” he said.
“In particular, the WWI NZ Army Service Records on Ancestry reveal many instances of young NZ men enlisting under anglicised names, while their next-of-kin parents show a different name altogether. Arthur Koberstein of Manawatu was no exception, attempting to pass himself off as 'Robertson’.”
Ancestry has opened up its collections of New Zealand and Australian military databases to New Zealanders free of charge for Anzac Day commemorations. The records will be freely accessible until tomorrow.