Balts at Bedford Park, Ksaveras Antanaitis' brief home by Ann Tündern-Smith

Bedford Park in Adelaide now is home now to Flinders University and the Flinders Medical Centre, as well as many private homes. In the 19th century, it was a farm of that name. Some 1.6 square kilometres of the farm was purchase by the South Australian Government in 1917 so that it could build a sanitorium for tuberculosis patients. The sanitorium was supported by its own farm. This was where Veronika Tutins was sent to work in August 1948, so that she could be near the man she married 16 months later.

Bedford Park Sanitorium, 1943, with patients' accommodation on the left and
administration and nurses' quarters in the previous owner's home on the right

Source:  State Library South Australia

The previous owner's home converted into offices and nurses' accommodation,
with medical treatment rooms at the rear:  perhaps Veronika Tutins lived here in 1948-49

Source:  State Library South Australia

Another major presence after World War II was a camp set up the South Australian Government’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) for its workers. The Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) at the Bonegilla camp sent 64 of the refugees brought to Australia by the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, to this camp to labour for the E&WS. Their first job was to be a new water main from the Happy Valley Reservoir into Adelaide city, about 20 kilometres north.

South Australia’s Minister for Works, responsible for the E&WS, had announced through the Adelaide News in May 1947 that adequate water supplies for Adelaide were being held up by a shortage of labour. There were sufficient pipes and 100 men were being employed already to lay them, but 150 more men were needed.

The E&WS already had employed a boarding house keeper at its Bedford Park camp, to help men unable to get accommodation in the city. The shortage of housing around Australia, due mainly to the builders and repairers of accommodation having been in the armed forces for up to 7 years previously, was a problem plaguing Adelaide too. (I have noted elsewhere that the shortage was so desperate that any refugee who had even helped build a farm shed in the Baltic States was enlisted as a ‘builder’s labourer’ for Australia.)

Thanks to the boarding house keeper, the men could buy meals for £1/5/- a week.  That was about one-fifth of their £5.12.6 weekly wage.  The Minister hoped that this would remove objections from men on this E&WS project who had to prepare their own meals. Presumably the lack of this service had been causing even more of a turnover of employees than normal.

Unlike the Bangham camp, which was set up specifically for men from the First Transport, the Bedford Park camp clearly was in existence before the 64 arrived in January 1948.

We have evidence that the 64 Baltic men were together in a separate part of the camp from an Adelaide Mail report of 17 January 1948, 8 days after the First Transporters arrived. Police had removed 7 men from the camp after a brawl which occurred while they were being fed. ‘Tables were upset and plates thrown at the cook.’ It seems that the boarding house keeper arrangement still had not made some of the men happy.

The Mail is very specific in reporting that, ‘The disturbances were not in the Balt section of the camp’.  The Baltic men may well have found the Australian version of food still strange, although they had had no alternatives for 7 weeks now and possibly also for another 4 weeks on the Heintzelman. However, they had been told that they could not leave of their own accord to look for other work. (It had been explained to them that they could go back to the CES for other work but, decades later, many did remember having been told that.)

The average age of the group from Bonegilla was 24 and the wage they were offered was the same award wage being paid to those already on the project. This was the first group of men sent by the CES to work outside the Bonegilla camp.

Marianne Hammerton has written a book on the history of the E&WS, called ‘Water South Australia’ and published in 1986. In it, she writes that, ‘From 1946 until well into the 1950s the Department could have done with — and indeed advertised widely for — 900 to 1,000 men just for construction projects, let alone maintenance … but it had little to offer. Those were boom years of full employment … the Department was not allowed to pay above-award wages …'

‘Standard issue to each man was an old army bed, a straw-filled hessian mattress, a chipped enamel pannikin, a knife, fork and spoon, a wash-up dish and an iron bucket. The men lived in ex-army tents, some with flooring, and shared hurricane lamps. Initially coupons were issued for food and blankets, but even when rationing was lifted the caterers showed little imagination. Supplies came in bulk — second-grade bulk tea, bulk porridge, meatballs, blue boiler peas and mutton.

‘The Department was forced to accept the problems inherent in such camps — caterers not turning up, gambling, drinking, training the unskilled — or have no labour at all …

‘In 1948 the influx of migrant (particularly Baltic) labour brought a partial solution to the Department’s problem. By 1950, 868 Displaced Persons remained out of a total allocation of 1,450 … The migrant labour force was not without its problems. There was no system of matching individuals to positions. The Department found it had a mixture of professionals, tradesmen and technicians working as labourers … Interpreters and volunteer teachers had to be found to overcome communication problems … ‘

A book is an unusual medium in which to find information relevant to the stories of our First Transporters. Other media in 1947-48 consisted of the press and radio and an element which was flourishing then but which has died out altogether: newsreels at movie theatres, before the feature film started. Keep in mind that Australia had no television until 2 months before the start of the Melbourne Olympic Games, in September 1956. 

Radio programs either were not recorded or the tapes were reused, so the media which survives from the first two years of life in Australia is mostly the press – although some Australian newsreels can be found still in our Film and Sound Archives.

One newspaper, at least, was as excited about the arrival of the first 64 (which it preferred to call 65) as the press had been in Fremantle, Melbourne and Bonegilla. The Mail headlined its story of 10 January 1948, ‘Balts free feel after prison camp horrors’. It continued, ‘”At last — freedom!” That was the first reaction of 65 [sic] Balts when they reached their new home in Bedford Park, Adelaide, yesterday.’

We know from stories of Baltic men and women from during and after WWII that it wasn’t one prison camp or even a series of them. The men were likely to have been digging trenches between opposing lines of gun or artillery fire. The women could have been conscripted into German factory work. Men who had volunteered or been conscripted to fight with the Germans were likely to have been in prisoner-of-war camps from 1944 onwards, but I have no evidence that this was a majority of the men.

While some of the women, at least, had arrived in Germany early enough to be ‘free living’, the majority of the Baltic refugees were placed in Displaced Persons camps — not prison camps — after the War ended. The occupying military authorities kept an eye on discipline in the camps — from Eisenhower down on the American side. Bonegilla camp had been run under the discipline of Major Alton Kershaw: see what Endrius Jankus has written for more on that.

Given that they did not know in advance what discipline would apply in their new camp, the ‘Freedom’ reaction of the new arrivals at the Bedford Park camp probably was along the lines of, ‘The start of our new lives as paid workers in the new country!’

The Mail interviewed Jonas Zumaras, Antanas Skiparis and Vincentas Babinskas from Lithuania, and Vilhelms Vanags, Voldemars Abolins and Viktors Romanovskis from Latvia. Their interpreter was the Estonian who had been appointed leader of the party by the CES in Bonegilla, because of his good English, Olaf Aerfeldt.

Olaf Aerfeldt's 1947 ID photo, when he was aged about 21

Source:  National Archives of Australia

All of them, except perhaps Romanovskis, had been held in German internment camps or forced to work as slave labour. This would explain the Mail’s ‘prison camp’ approach.

The Australian Workers Union reported to its members on 7 April through its Australian Worker newspaper that a very strong AWU camp had been established at Bedford Park. The camp was then about half Baltic refugees and half Australians. The Adelaide Branch Industrial Officer was attending fortnightly meetings of the camp committee. This was led by an Australian but half the other members were Baltic: Konstantins Svarinskis (a Latvian), Antanas Skiparis and Aleksandras Sliuzas (both Lithuanian). Interpreter Olaf Aerfeldt was described as ‘doing a magnificent job for his men and the Union’.

Olaf asked the Industrial Officer ‘to convey the thanks of the Balts in the camp to the AWU for the way the Union had looked after them since they arrived in Adelaide’ He added that ‘the Balts wanted to be good Australians and good unionists and the AWU had shown them the right road to follow.’

I will provide more details about these men in individual biographies.  Thanks to Rasa Ščevinskienė, we have a biography of one of them in the blog already.  He is Ksaveras Antanaitis, who was killed on 29 June 1948 when he fell from a truck bringing him and fellow workers back to the camp from their day's work.  The truck then ran over him, probably to the increased horror of all then involved.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES

The Mail continued its interest in the new arrivals with articles headed, ‘Officials Ignore Teacher Plea’ (14 February) and ‘English Classes for Balts Arranged’ (21 February). Initially, the buck was being passed.

The State’s Deputy Director of the CES was quoted as saying, ‘The men were given a four-week course in English when they first arrived in Australia. Something should be done to follow that up. Perhaps we could get some volunteer teachers.’ He added that the job of the CES was finished when the men were handed over to the E&WS.

A Catholic priest said that about 40 of the men attended mass at his Church every Sunday — that would have been most of the 38 Lithuanians and a smattering of the Latvians. His opinion was that, ‘Four weeks’ instruction at Bonegilla is quite inadequate’. The responsible Commonwealth authority, the Commonwealth Office of Education, had opened in Adelaide the year before, but it looks like the journalist did not seek its advice.

One week later, the Mail was reporting that four teachers had volunteered to run English classes at the Teachers’ Training College one night a week and more if necessary. Between them, they would be teaching 30 of the refugees in small groups, then promoting them to a larger group as they advanced. They appeared to have organised this with the supervising engineer for the Happy Valley water main. The E&WS effort had been to mix the Baltic men with Australian workers ‘in the hope that they would pick up the language’.

Several people had driven also to the Baltic section of the Bedford Park camp to take some of the men home for meals, as their contribution to the teaching of English.

And the young women of the YWCA had organised a dance for the young Baltic men from the Bedford Park camp, for Friday, 18 February.

After that, the Mail left the Bedford Park men and chased other news, including incidents involving individual men. The only follow up in the press was more than two years later. Then the Director of the Adelaide office of the Universities Commission said that all migrants in South Australia had the opportunity to attend English languages classes. ‘All’ was limited to groups of six or more, when the Director went into detail. These groups could apply to the nearest school for a teacher in English (presumably, if someone helped them to do this).

The Director was responding to a motion from the State Council of the Australian Government Workers’ Association, insisting that ‘all foreigners brought into Australia should learn the language within three months or be sent back to their home country’. The Director pointed out to the Adelaide News reporter on 5 May 1949 that 3 months would be too short for some immigrants.

THE CONTRACT PERIOD

I’ve pointed out elsewhere that the E&WS seemed unaware that the Commonwealth Government had changed the duration of initial contract to work as directed from one year to two years while the Heintzelman passengers were on the high seas. They were informed of after some days at the Bonegilla camp. Endrius Jankus has written that a near riot ensued.

Endrius was one who tested the terms of the contract by finding his own work in Melbourne. He then was tracked down by the CES and told that he would continue to work as directed in Tasmania or be sent back to Germany.

The Adelaide Mail of 29 January 1949 reported that 19 of the Baltic men from the Bedford Park camp ‘who had completed their term of service’ had been allowed to transfer to other employers. Given the location and length of time involved, it is likely that all 19 were from the First Transport.

At this time, there still were 239 Baltic men employed by E&WS, more than 10 per cent of the Department’s workforce.

As explained earlier, if the E&WS found out about the Australian Government’s expectation of the contract length, any remaining for the First Transport group would have finished on 30 September 1949 or within days of that date.

SOURCES

Hammerton, Marianne (1986) Water South Australia Netley, Wakefield Press pp 232-5.

The Advertiser (1948) ‘Balts here today’ Adelaide, 9 January, p https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/43751623 accessed 24 July 2024.

The Australian Worker (1948) ‘Bedford Park camp, SA: Balts want to become good unionists’ http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146243837 accessed 24 July 2024.

The Mail (1948a) ‘Balts feel free after prison camp horrors’ Adelaide, 10 January, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55903813 accessed 24 July 2024.

The Mail (1948b) ‘Police aid sought in camp brawl’ Adelaide, 17 January, p 24 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55904127 accessed 24 July 2024.

The Mail (1948c) ‘Officials ignore teacher plea: no English lessons for eager young Balts’ Adelaide, 14 February, p 24 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55909057 accessed 24 July 2024.

The Mail (1948d) ‘English classes for Balts arranged’ Adelaide, 21 February, p 24 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55905295 accessed 24 July 2024.

The Mail (1949) ‘Balts leave Govt. jobs’ Adelaide, 29 January, p 29 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55924132 accessed 24 July 2024.

The News (1947) ‘Labor needed on water main’ Adelaide, 21 May, p 5 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127299932 accessed 24 July 2024.

The News (1948) ‘Dance at Open House for Balts’ Adelaide, 19 February, p 11 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128385028 accessed 24 July 2024.

The News (1949) ‘All “Given chance to learn English”’ Adelaide, 5 May, p 2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130191874 accessed 24 July 2024.

Wikipedia ‘Bedford Park’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Park,_South_Australia accessed 23 July 2024.

Veronika Tutins (1911–2006), who disappeared?

Updated 4 August 2024

Veronika Tutins was a great friend of two other Latvian women from the First Transport, sisters Irina and Galins Vasins. Evidence of the friendship still exists in the form of 6 photos of Veronika, mostly with Irina and Galina. Suddenly, she vanished. What happened to her?

Veronika Tutins, 1947, from her Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA: A257, TUTINS, VERONIKA

All of them were employed initially in Australia at the Bonegilla camp. Irina was employed until February 1951, when the Department of Immigration offered her a transfer to another Reception and Training Centre for new arrivals, at Greta in NSW. Galina had left one year earlier, in February 1950. They certainly could be viewed as long-term Bonegilla employees, having worked there beyond the end of their initial contract  on 30 September 1949.

(L-R) Galina Vasins, Veronika Tutins and Irina Vasins
in the grounds of the Bonegilla camp, 1948

Source:  Private collection

Veronika, however, had ceased duty at Bonegilla on 22 August 1948 and was supposed to commence at the Bedford Park TB Sanitorium in South Australia on 24 August. We know that she wasn’t sent to South Australia as a patient, since any TB cases from Bonegilla were treated in the local Albury Hospital. 

(L-R) Galina Vasins, Irina Tutins and Irina Vasins
in the remains of a tank in the Bonegilla camp grounds, 1948

Source:  Private collection

Perhaps the answer lies in the story of Eduards Brokans, who arrived in Australia on 12 February 1948, on the Second Transport, the General MB Stewart. Due to the West Australian Government’s mistaken idea that all the passengers from the First Transport were to work in its State, the men from the Second Transport were held there pending a work allocation. So Eduards does not have a Bonegilla card. (The women were sent by train across the south of Australia, from Perth to Bonegilla, and do have Bonegilla cards.)

Eduards Brokans, from his 1947 selection papers

Source:  NAA: A11938, 494

Eduards were sent to Bedford Park in South Australia to labour for that State’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS). We don’t know exactly when this happened, as we do with anyone whose Bonegilla card is extant. We can guess that this happened between February and August 1948, so Veronika had arranged to be near him.

It’s unfortunate that she did not tell Irina and Galina about her plans. Irina, for one, was still wondering what had happened more than 50 years later. If Veronika wrote to the Vasins sisters after moving to South Australia, they did not get the letters.

While Veronika's plan was to be near Eduards, both working in the suburb of Bedford Park, the South Australian Government had other plans.  Instead of Bedford Park, that Government sent Veronika to the Belair Sanitorium, 9 kilometres by road from Bedford Park.  That must have made seeing each other at weekends harder than it needed to be.

After Veronika stopped working there, the name was changed to Birralee, a named used previously when the property was a private home.  Belair was the name of the suburb in which the Birralee Sanitorium was located.  Birralee is  the name used by Veronika to describe her workplace when she applied for Australian citizenship.

Her application for citizenship shows that Veronika worked at Belair until December 1949.  My guess is that she left before her marriage.  Extant records in the National Archives of Australia show that Eduards and Veronika Tutins were married in Norwood, South Australia, on Christmas Eve, 1949. He was more than two years younger than his bride, being born on 29 June 1914. Her birthday was 15 November 1911.

Veronika had stayed at her Belair workplace for at least two months longer than required under the conditions of the voyage which brought her to Australia.  As reported here earlier, the first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, decided that the obligation to work as directed should end early, on 30 September 1949.  This was due to “the outstanding contribution they have made to Australia’s labour starved economy”.

Veronika had 6 years of primary education, followed by 4 years of commercial schooling. Eduards had 6 years at primary school only. She had been born in Zvirgzdene, a rural parish in Latvia’s Latgale province. Latgale is the one predominantly Catholic of Latvia’s four provinces: the others are predominantly Lutheran. Veronika advised the Australian selection team that she was a Roman Catholic.

Her registration as a Displaced Person with the American Expeditionary Forces now with the Arolsen Archives recorded that, in late 1945, she knew the Latvian, Russian and German languages. Two years later, when appearing before the Australian selection team, she undoubtedly could add English to the list. She had been selected as a waitress, back in the days when the Australian Government was setting up hostels for its younger, unmarried staff, although whether she waited on tables at Bonegilla is not known. He had been selected as a labourer.

Another Arolsen Archive card records that she had been living in Latvia’s capital, Riga, before fleeing to Germany. While in Latvia, she had worked as a typist, according to her application for Australian citizenship.

In Germany, from 7 December 1944 to 2 March 1945, she had been employed as a metal worker in a Chemnitz factory. Since Chemnitz became part of the zone occupied by Soviet forces, then became part of East Germany, undoubted Veronika was on the move westwards from early March 1945. By October 1947, she was living in a Displaced Persons camp in Esslingen, in south-western Germany.

She told the Australian selection team that she was single, but had one dependent, a sister. The sister was recorded on her Bonegilla card as Olga Zakis, still resident in Esslingen.

By the time of her application for citizenship in September 1958, Veronika had just obtained work as a comptometrist with a long-established Adelaide hardware manufacturer.  Since comptometers have not been used in offices since the 1990s, I suspect that the majority of readers will not know what they were.  

They were mechanical adding machines, which could be used for subtraction as well.  Trained comptometer operators could enter all the digits in a number at once, using up to ten fingers, unlike on modern calculators, where one digit at a time is entered.  This made them exceptionally fast.  Their decline was not due to the invention of modern calculators but to advances in electronic computing.

A comptometer manufactured in the 1950s

Source: John Wolff's Web Museum

Eduards had been born in the Rezekne area, also in Latgale. Like Veronika, he was a Roman Catholic. At the time of interview by the Australian selection team, he gave a street address in Esslingen. It does look like Esslingen could have been where these two met.

His previous occupations were recorded by the Australian team as farmer from 1927 (at the age of 13) to 1937, then ‘worker’ (perhaps labourer) for 1937-40, then office worker for 1940-44 and ‘worker’ again for 1944-47.

Veronika had recently had her 38th birthday at the time of her marriage. Despite this relatively advanced age for childbearing, they had three children together: two girls and a boy, born between 1950 and 1954.

Eduards became an Australian citizen in the Adelaide suburb of Mitcham on 17 October 1955. Very often, a couple make the commitment to Australia by applying at the same time and taking the oath of allegiance in the same ceremony. Veronika waited. She applied in September 1958, she was approved with her certificate sent to South Australia in February 1959, but she did not take the oath to become an Australian citizen until 27 October 1959, also at Mitcham.

Maybe even before this commitment to Australia, the United States became more attractive to them. It might have been economic opportunities, as with some of the other First Transporters who left (like Vytautas Stasiukynas) or it could have been personal reasons, including reunion with family members (see Viktoras Kuciauskas).

The attraction may well have been Eduards’ younger brother, Aleksandrs, born on 19 July 1917. Unlike the older sibling who started working on a farm at the age of 13, Aleksandrs had attended university in Latvia and graduated with a PhD in agronomy from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. He initially resettled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which also became the home of his brother’s family.

Ancestry.com has a digitised passenger list showing Veronika reaching San Francisco from Sydney on the SS Oronsay on 13 June 1960. With Veronika was her husband, a son and two daughters. The daughters were named as Mary and Rita, while the son was Edmunds. ‘Mary’ is likely to be the daughter identified on Geni.com as ‘Mērija Ilze Brokāne’. The names of the other two in their original, non-Anglicised versions, are not spelt out on this Website. 

It is possible that Veronika finally applied for Australian citizenship in order to have a passport for the journey to the United States. The Australian-born children would have been on one of their parents’ passports.

Dr Aleksandrs Brokans died at the age of 100 in 2017 in a Maryland nursing home. The children of Veronika and Eduards are listed among surviving members of his family.

Eduards did not have quite the long life of his younger brother, dying at the age of 86 in December 2000.

Eduards and Veronika Brokans in later life

Source:  Geni.com

Veronika lived on to the respectable age of 94, dying on 10 April 2006. Irina Vasins was still alive then, dying in 2008, while her sister Galina is still alive as far as I am aware. Mind you, it was not as easy 18 years ago to use the Web to solve disappearance mysteries, so I wasn’t able to find the answers in this blog entry while Irina was still with us.

Veronika is buried in the Resurrection Cemetery, West Hanover Township, near her final home of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

SOURCES

Ancestry.com ‘California, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959 for Veronica Brokans, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/10094931:7949 accessed 12 July 2024.

Arolsen Archives ‘DocID: 69544463 (Veronika TUTINS)’ https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69544463 accessed 10 July 2024.

Arolsen Archives ‘DocID: 75443572 (VERONIKA TUTINS)’ https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/75443572 accessed 10 July 2024.

Geni.com ‘Veronika Brokāne’ https://www.geni.com/people/Veronika-Brok%C4%81ne/6000000011861721721 accessed 12 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Australian Customs Service, State Administration, South Australia; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-65; BROKANS Eduards - Nationality: Latvian - Arrived Fremantle per General M B Stewart 12 February 1948, 1948-1955; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4072903 accessed 10 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 819, TUTINS Veronika DOB 15 November 1911, 1947-1947; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118138 accessed 10 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration Central Office; A11938, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stewart departing Bremerhaven 13 January 1948, 1948-1948; 484, BROKANS Eduards born 29 June 1914, 1948-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4664555 accessed 18 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D400, Correspondence files, annual single number series with 'SA' and 'S' prefix, 1945-1969; BROKANS VERONICA - Application for Naturalisation - [Box 92], 1950-1959; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=202814862 accessed 29 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; TUTINS Veronika - Nationality: Latvian Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 also known as BROKANS, 1947-1949; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7171511 accessed 10 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; BROKANS Eduards - Nationality: Latvian - Arrived Fremantle per General M B Stewart 12 February 1948 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7205717 accessed 18 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; BROKANS Veronica - Nationality: Latvian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 Also known as NEE TUTINS, 1947- 1959; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7205718 accessed 13 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria] ; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; TUTINS, Veronika : Year of Birth - 1911 : Nationality - LATVIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1187, 1947-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203711044 accessed 10 July 2024.

Star-Democrat (2017) ‘Obituaries: Dr Alexander Brokans’ Easton, Maryland, USA, 28 November, p A6 https://www.newspapers.com/image/353165191/?match=1&terms=edmunds%20brokans accessed 12 July 2024.

Vasins, Irina (2000-2007) Personal communications.

Vintage Calculators Web Museum,  Calculator Companies (2024) 'Comptometer' http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/comptometer1.html accessed 31 July 2024.

Wikipedia 'Comptometer' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptometer accessed 31 July 2024.

Naming the 64-65 Balts to Bedford Park, by Ann Tündern-Smith

The names below come from a Department of Labour and National Service list of those its Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) was sending to labour for the South Australian Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) in January 1948. According to the CES, the date they were sent to the E&WS Bedford Park camp in South Australia was 7 January. According to all their Bonegilla cards, it was 8 January.

This is not the only discrepancy in the First Transport (General Stuart Heintzelman) records. For example, the newspapers reported that 18 had been chosen from the later group sent to Wolseley (then on to Bangham) in South Australia for further training in Peterborough. All the other records show 17 only. Perhaps that mistake was made by a South Australian Railways spokesman (it was sure to be a man in those days) talking to the media.

Even the number of passengers on the first refugee voyage to Australia on the General Stuart Heintzelman vary from one report to another. After 25 years, I think I have figured it out. The initial number reported to the press was 844 but it is known that one person pulled out. That’s why the number than becomes 843. Suddenly it changes to 839, but that was after 4 were not allowed to land in Australia.

One was kept on the Heintzelman because adverse (read Communist) security information had been received after departure from Bremerhaven. The other 3 were referred to an Australian doctor who boarded the Heintzelman off Fremantle by the ship’s medical team. The Australian doctor argued that they would become a charge on Australia’s health system, ending their opportunity to resettle here. (That was after a through medical examination in Germany before the selection process was finalised.)

Perhaps the 7 January date is the day the CES told the lucky 65 where they were going. In that case, they may have stayed overnight at Bonegilla after packing and actually departed on 8 January.

Just wondering why the numbers always seem a little out … why are there only 64 people on the list below?

Biographies of two of the men are on this blog already, so their names in the list below are a different colour (grey on my screen) since clicking on the names will take you to their stories. I'll add more links as more stories go up.

LITHUANIANS	LATVIANS	ESTONIANS
Aleknavicius, Juozas	Abolins, Voldemars	Aerfeldt, Olaf
Antanaitis, Ksavaras	Aboltinsh, Voldemars	Trull, Adolf
Artmonas, Pranas	Alvars, Raimonds	Viiding, Kaljo
Babinskas, Vincentas	Kopcs, Antons
Baronaitis, Antanas	Romanovskis, Viktors
Galinis, Vytautas	Skurolis, Donats
Kairys, Ceslovas	Sprogis, Alfreds
Kalendra, Apolinaras	Steimanis, Zigurds
Karpavicius, Pranas	Skrebels, Valerians
Skidzevicius, Vytautas	Strods, Janis
Skiparis, Antanas	Strupitis, Augusts
Sliuzas, Aleksandras	Strungs, Mikolis
Sluksnys, Jonas	Suchanovskis, Aleksandrs
Smilgevicius, Kazys	Svarinskis, Konstantins
Songaila, Juozas	Svilis, Vitolds
Sopys, Vincas	Vanags, Vilhelms
Stasys, Alfonas	Veide, Modris-Tautmilis
Staugaitis, Antanas	Veips, Stanislavs
Strimaitis, Kazys	Zauls, Janis
Subacius, Feliksas	Zidenis, Janis
Syrus, Faustas
Tumpa, Romuldas
Urbonas, Jonas
Urbonavicius, Czeslovas
Uzpulevicius, Alfonsas
Valinskas, Jonas
Valiulis, Juozas
Valteris, Stasys
Valys, Juozas
Velicka, Balys
Venzlauskas, Antanas
Vidginis, Juozas
Vidugiris, Alfonsas
Vidugiris, Petras
Viknius, Petras
Vitkunas, Bronius
Volkovas, Simonas
Zakarauskas, Juozas
Zumaras, Jonas

SOURCE

National Archives of Australia, Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules, 1947 - 1950; 21, Schedule of displaced persons who left the Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla Victoria for employment in the State of South Australia - [Schedule no SA1 to SA31], 1948 - 1950; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 9 July 2024.

Antanas Staugaitis (1927-2003): Lithuanian DP Taxi Driver by Daina Pocius with Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskienė

Like the ill-fated Ksaveras Antanaitis, Antanas Staugaitis was one of the Lithuanian Displaced Persons or DPs selected in Germany to travel to Australia on the first voyage after World War II, on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman. Like Ksaveras, he then was chosen to be in the first group of men sent by the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) to work outside the Bonegilla camp.

Their destination was Bedford Park, South Australia, where they lived in a tent city while building a 20-kilometre pipeline from Happy Valley Reservoir, to their south, into Adelaide to their north. Their employer was the South Australian Government’s Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) Department. Antanas later worked for the E&WS at Port Lincoln also.

Antanas Staugaitis, ID photo 
from his migration application

Source:  NAA

Everyone on the First Transport had been told in Bonegilla that the Australian Government had changed their agreement to work, where required, for one year to a two-year agreement. Maybe E&WS hadn’t got that message, because the Adelaide Mail of 29 January 1949 reported that the DPs or Balts, as they were known also, were being permitted to transfer to other employers. If that was with the assistance of the CES to another task where there was a shortage of workers, however, it was all above board.

We know from his application for Australian citizenship that Antanas left 6 weeks after the Mail report to work with the South Australian Railways. This was initially with other Balts and Aussies at Peterborough for 6 months, then in Adelaide.

From an alien registration index card held by the National Archives in Adelaide, we find that Antanas was released officially from his “two years” contract with the Australian Government on 3 October 1949. That’s about two months short, if the contract is regarded as terminating on the anniversary of arrival in Australia, 28 November 1949.

The Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, announced the early release in Canberra on 5 September 1949, according to Australian newspapers of the following date. The contracts were supposed to end on 30 September, not 3 October. The early release was due to “the outstanding contribution they have made to Australia’s labour starved economy”.

Antanas completed an Adelaide mechanic’s course in 1953. He continued to work on the railways until 1956, rising to the rank of fireman. Then he purchased a taxi license and worked as a taxi driver until retirement in 1992.

He renounced any previous allegiances and became an Australian citizen on 12 October 1956. His address at the time was on South Terrace, the edge of Adelaide’s Central Business District. Those who certified in November 1955 for his citizenship application that he was of ‘good repute’ were Railways trainers and a station master equivalent.

He loved nature and would travel to the outback, to the Northern Territory with his good friends. He was known as a smart man with a conscience. For instance, in January 1950, the infant Mūsų Pastogė Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, about to celebrate its first birthday, reported that he had donated two shillings to support it. (The Reserve Bank’s pre-decimal currency inflation calculator advises that this is now the equivalent of a bit more than $6.)

Antanas was born 27 August 1927, in Šliziai, Šakiai region, into a farming family. The Germans took him from his family and friends to work in Germany, in 1942 when he was still only 14 years old. They sentenced him to two years hard labour, claiming that they had found him carrying arms. At least the hard labour was in agriculture, so probably he got fed enough to continue working.

After the war he was in a DP camp in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, and later in the nearby Gross Hessepe municipality, where he attended the technical school to study the motor mechanic’s trade. He did not get to finish this course as his selection to resettle in Australia on the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman, intervened.

He did not marry and had no family in Australia. He died at his home in Mile End, also inner Adelaide, on 20 March 2003, aged 75.

SOURCES

Encyclopaedia of Australian Science and Innovation, ‘Corporate Body South Australian Engineering and Water Supply Department’ https://www.eoas.info/biogs/A001434b.htm accessed 23 May 2024.

Hammerton, Marianne (1986) Water South Australia: a History of the Engineering and Water Supply Department (Netley, SA: Wakefield Press) 331 pp.

Mail (1949) 'Balts Leave Govt. Jobs' (Adelaide, SA) 29 January,  p 29 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55924132 accessed 23 May 2024.

Mercury (1949) 'Migrants' Contract Time Cut', (Hobart, Tas) 6 September, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26661508 accessed 24 May 2024.

Morning Bulletin (1949) 'Contract Terms of Migrants Cut', (Rockhampton, Qld), 6 September, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56918854 accessed 24 May 2024.

Mūsų Pastogė (1950) ‘Mūsų Pastogės Rėmėjai’ 25 January, p 4, in https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1950/1950-01-25-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 23 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations, 1926-2001; 1956/45135, Application for Naturalisation - STAUGAITIS Antanas born 27 August 1927, 1955-1956, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8374445 accessed 24 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 292, STAUGAITIS Antanas DOB 27 August 1927, 1947-1947, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118002 accessed 24 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1923-1971; STAUGAITIS Antanas born 1927 Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 Nov 1947, 1947-1956; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30038183 accessed 24 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; STAUGAITIS Antanas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived: Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1956, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9222371 accessed 24 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; STAUGAITIS, Antanas : Year of Birth - 1925 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 688, 1947-48, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203905745 accessed 24 May 2024.

Papers held in the Lithuanian Archives in Australia, https://www.australianlithuanians.org/uncategorized/adel-arkhives/ accessed 25 May 2024.

Places in Germany, City Oldenburg in Oldenburg, https://www.places-in-germany.com/22143-city-oldenburg-in-oldenburg.html accessed 23 May 2024.

Places in Germany, Municipality Groß Hesepe https://www.places-in-germany.com/111536-municipality-gross-hesepe.html accessed 23 May 2024 accessed 23 May 2024.

Reserve Bank of Australia, Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator, https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html accessed 23 May 2024.

Artur Klaar (1919-1970): Economics student, accountant, Estonian

Updated 18 July 2024

We've met Artur Klaar already as the fellow Estonian who befriended Flaavi Hodunov in Peterborough.  It's possible that they had become friends at Bangham, at Bonegilla, on the First Transport or even earlier, when they discovered that they had both attended the same public primary school in Narva, Estonia.

Artur was also the best man at Flaavi's wedding on 26 December 1949 and the godfather to Flaavi's first-born daughter in 1951.

Artur Klaar (left) with Flaavi Hodunov on Flaavi's wedding day;
the blue eyes are authentic, according to their Bonegilla cards, but whoever hand-coloured the photo used their imagination for the auburn hair as people of Estonian descent are much more likely to have dark brown or blond hair or sometimes Viking red if they have Swedish blood

The best man and the bridesmaid before the wedding of Flaavi and Walya:
Artur Klaar with G Linke, probably Gladys

Source for both:  Collection of Tatyana Tamm

Born on 1 June 1919, Artur was nearly 8 years older than Flaavi so probably would have been in high school already as Flaavi started primary school. It was not just the same school premises and maybe teachers that they had in common, though.

They both would have remembered many other parts of the small but significant town of Narva. Perhaps the older Artur would have been able to explain things about it that the younger Flaavi had not understood.

Artur Klaar (left) with Walya and Flaavi Hodunov, probably in Peterborough

Source:  Collection of Tatyana Tamm

Their paths had separated after the primary school. Flaavi probably did not start school until the late summer of 1935, as Estonian children still don’t start until after they have turned 7. If he finished primary school at the start of the 1941 summer, this would have been the time when the Soviets retreated ahead of a German advance into Estonia.

We know from Flaavi’s daughter, Tatyana, that Flaavi’s parents sent him to Germany as the Soviet forces invaded again in September 1944, since he had been working with German mechanics.

After finishing primary school around 1932, Artur finished high school around 1938 before becoming a bookkeeper in a bank while enrolled in an economics course at the University of Tartu.

All young Estonian men during the first period of independence (1918-40) were required to do many months of military training after they finished their schooling. Artur had not only completed this but completed an officer’s training course at the military academy. At the end of this, he was promoted to the most junior officer rank, of ensign.

Artur had completed only 1½ years of his economics course when WWII disrupted it. At this point in his story, it is relevant to consider what preceded WWII and the first independence period in Estonian history.

The first known foreign occupiers of Estonia were the Danes, who maybe arrived during the 12th century. The King of Denmark sold the Duchy of Estonia to German crusaders, the Teutonic Order, 1346. While these German occupied themselves with christianising the Estonians, they probably were amongst those who took the opportunity to settle on land which seemed theirs for the taking.

The Swedes came next, ruling over Estonia from 1561 until forced out by a Russian invasion in the early 18th century. During the Swedish period, some Swedes also bought land in Estonia, giving the country a mixture of German and Swedish nobility. The Russian occupation of Estonian was formalised in 1721. In order to keep the nobility on side, the Russians initially gave them more power over the Estonian peasants, who were living on the less salubrious parts of the noble estates.

The Russians had occupied Estonia for more than 200 years when the October Revolution gave the locals a longed-for opportunity to claim their freedom. This became official with a proclamation of independence on 24 February 1918. The Russians, now the Soviet Union, invaded again in August 1940, claiming all the Baltic States as theirs under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Hitler broke this Pact, having decided that Germans needed Lebensraum in the Soviet Union too. German rule returned to Estonia in June 1941, but was under threat again in the summer of 1944.

This history indicates that the Estonians’ lived experience of the German nobility and the Nazis, and Tsarist and Communist Russia meant that, of the two evils, they certainly preferred the Germans. Thus joining the German Army to fight the return of the Russians was not supporting the Nazi regime but opposing the Russians. Many of the Baltic men who came to Australia on what I have called the Fifth Fleet were among those who fought against the Russians, and Artur Klaar was one.

He fought in two major battles, those of Narva and Vaivara, the latter known as the Sinimäed (or Blue Hills) and remembered by Estonians today as a battle in which the Soviet forces were defeated. He was promoted to the rank of junior lieutenant and awarded the Iron Cross for his bravery. I know that he was not the only First Transport passenger who had an Iron Cross in his luggage.

The Allies in occupied Germany decided to overlook this form of co-operation with the former Nazi regime. It often happened in circumstances where the young Baltic men had no other option, and sorting out volunteers from conscripts was not worth the effort. As time as proven, the Allies were more interested in removing Communists from the ranks of those migrating to third countries than looking into the details of apparent co-operation with the Nazis.

The report for his September 1947 interview by the Australian selection team in Buchholz refugee camp records that Artur’s knowledge of English then was slight. However, I happen to know from my own mother’s life and a good friend who was studying economics at Tartu University at the same time as her, that a knowledge of English was something of a prerequisite. I imagine that many texts were available in English only, plus English was available as a high school subject.

The report also said that Artur had 6 years experience as an accountant in a bank.  I think this is a bit of an exaggeration.  Six years from the end of high school in the summer of 1938 takes us to the summer of 1944, when the Russians/Soviets were invading again and Artur was fighting the battles of Narva and Vaivara, possibly from February.  There was also the greater part of a year spent around 1939 in compulsory military training.

Only four months later after his arrival in Australia, Artur was sent from Bangham to Peterborough because of his good language skills. That tends to support the idea that he knew some English before starting at Tartu University. His studies there, Edna Davis’ shipboard classes and classes at the Bonegilla camp all would have helped Artur hone his skills.

From Peterborough, Artur was sent to Adelaide to work in the South Australian Railways (SAR) offices. He remained with the SAR for the rest of his life.

In Adelaide, he met and married another Estonian, Silvia Tulina, on 21 June 1951. Silvia had studied medicine for 6 years at the University of Tartu between 1936 and 1942. In Germany from September-October 1944, she had made her way to Göttingen to complete her medical qualifications before travelling to Australia in 1950.

In Australia, Silvia found along with other doctors with European qualifications, that she could not practice medicine here, not without doing the whole course again.

There were so many such instances of this that Egon Kunz, himself with a doctorate from Hungary in Hungarian language, literature and social history plus an Australian doctorate in demography, wrote a book about it. Intruders: Refugee Doctors in Australia was published in 1975.

The situation for those with medical degrees from outside English-speaking nations has changed little since. It can be compared with the struggle which Vytautas Stasiukynas had to obtain employment related to his veterinary science qualifications.

Silvia Klaar was more fortunate than most. At the time she reported her change of name by marriage to the Department of Immigration, Adelaide, for its Aliens Registration records in July 1951, she advised that she was now employed as an assistant pathologist at the University of Adelaide. She was employed in similar non-clinical fields for the rest of her working life.

Artur died way too early, on 6 November 1970, of a heart attack when aged only 51. He would have been employed still by the SAR when this happened.

Silvia told me that Artur was a smoker who could not give up the habit. He also had developed high cholesterol in the days before heart by-pass operations were performed in Australia.

He merited an obituary in the Australian-Estonian newspaper, Meie Kodu, on 3 December 1970. It’s in the Estonian language, of course, but Google Translate now can be a useful starting point for any of us.

The obituary’s author, Richard Ollino, noted that Artur had enrolled again in Economics at the University of Göttigen in Germany, but abandoned this course due to his selection for resettlement in Australia.

Artur then matriculated to the University of Adelaide, but again abandoned the course when bad health interceded. Silvia said that he had passed two Adelaide University subjects at this point. Richard also wrote mysteriously of “a duty, and obligation”, which blocked Artur’s return to study.  Maybe it was his marriage, into which Silvia brought a young daughter.  In any case, three times interrupted might have left him feeling that it was not meant to be.

Richard Ollino’s obituary describes how Artur was able to contribute greatly to the Estonian community in Adelaide. In translation, it reads in part, “The problems of preserving the Estonian spirit abroad were close to his heart. He devoted his strength and energy to Estonian social activities in Adelaide in various fields.

“He was a board member of the Adelaide Estonian Society for a long time, a board member of the Adelaide branch of the Fighters' Association, and a member of the Adelaide Congregation Council of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was always ready to help where a helping hand was needed.

“However, the Estonian community in Adelaide remembers Arthur Klaar most of all for the fact that he, as a founding member of the Estonian House, laid the foundation for our Adelaide Estonian home, in which our national activities now take place.”

This sort of community activity is at least as important volunteering to support the wider community through organisations which might benefit more of those in need, whether it's the Good Neighbour Council and Red Cross like Edvins Baulis, the local hospital or the lost dogs home.  It stabilises a new community in its unfamiliar surrounds and is likely to stop those on the periphery from drifting further away into problems in a foreign language, a foreign society. 

Artur Klaar is at the rear left of this 25 January 1953 photograph
of the elected members of the committee of the Estonian community in Adelaide

Source:  Siska

Despite not completing a degree, Artur continued his membership of Fraternitas Estica, a Latin name meaning 'the Estonian fraternity'. Fraternities for men and sororities for women were a serious, lifelong commitment in Estonia’s one pre-War university and for Estonians in exile.

The fraternity certainly honoured Artur’s life, with its death notices appearing in what might have been all the Estonian community newspapers in the English-speaking world: Vaba Eesti Sõna (Free Estonian Word, America), Vaba Eestlane (Free Estonian, Canada) and Meie Kodu (Our Home, Australia) advised their readers of Artur’s passing.

Sources

Klaar, Silvia (2011) Personal communication.

Korp! Fraternitas Estica (nd) ‘Coetus 1957/1958 [1957/1958 Group]’ https://www.cfe.ee/album-esticum?show=1957#A778 accessed 23 March 2024.

Kunz, Egon (1975). Intruders: Refugee Doctors in Australia. Canberra, Australian National University Press, digital copy now available from https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/114807, accessed 16 May 2024.

Ollino, Richard (1970) 'Artur Klaar, In Memoriam' Meie Kodu, Sydney 30 December, p2 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1970/12/03/ accessed 17 May 2024.

Persian, Jayne (1918) ‘Egon Frank Kunz: Displaced Person’ https://australia-explained.com.au/history-shorts/egon-frank-kunz-displaced-person/ accessed 23 March 2024.

Pocius, Daina et al (2023) 'Vytautas Stasiukynas (1920 –?): The Vet Who Found Happiness in South America' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2024/01/vytautas-stasiukynas-veterinarian-Colombia.html accessed 17 May 2024.

Siska. Voldemar (nd) ‘Eesti ühiskond Lõuna-Austraalias’ [‘The Estonian community in South Australia’] https://www.folklore.ee/rl/fo/austraalia/rmt/EAI/siska.htm accessed 23 March 2024.

Tündern-Smith, Ann (2022) 'The only Australian aboard our Heintzelman voyage, Edna Davis (1906-1985)' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2022/12/edna-davis-only-australian.html accessed 17 May 2024.

Urmenyhazi, Attila (2008) 'Kunz, Egon Francis (Frank) (1922–1997)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/kunz-egon-francis-frank-14133/text25143, accessed 16 May 2024.

Balts at Bangham (1948-49): Photographs, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Tatyana Tamm

Updated 26 May 2024.

Tatyana Tamm kindly has supplied a number of photographs of the Displaced Persons sent to work at Bangham, South Australia, for the South Australian Railways.  

Of course, we no longer know who is in them.  I you recognise anyone, please contact us through the General Stuart Heintzelman/First Transport Facebook group or comment below.

Double click on the photos to view enlargements.

This June 1948 photo may well include
Displaced Persons who arrived on 3 later transports
(the name they gave to the ships bringing them to Australia,
since the first 4 were United States Army Transports);
identification may be easier using the enlargement below

Note that these men seem be about to be transported on a flat rail wagon
with no sides and, as the sign says, No Hand Brake —
good luck is needed urgently

Are these Bangham men cooking up something, or doing the laundry?

Bath time at Bangham

Another June 1948 photo: is this group about to board more transport to work,
at least with sides this time? 

And another June 1948 photo:
do your recognise anyone?