Born in Vienna , Austria in 1930 , Feith witnessed oppression of the Jews and witnessed Kristallnacht in 1938 at the age of 7 . He came to Australia as a refugee in 1939 with his Austrian Jewish parents , one of a few thousand Jews granted humanitarian visas . He took an undergraduate degree in political science at the University of Melbourne , working with Professor W. Macmahon Ball . After graduating , fascinated with Asia and inspired by Molly Bondan , he got a job in Jakarta in at the Indonesian Department of Information and worked from 1951 to 1952 as an Indonesian civil servant on a local salary . This gave him contacts and language fluency . His Masters at Melbourne was completed in 1954
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Herbert Feith