Julius Molis (1923-1949): The Man in the Photo by Rasa Ščevinskienė with Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 22 July 2024.

I have a photograph sent from Australia to Lithuania by my grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas. On the back is a note of one of the men’s names, Julius. I started looking for his last name. Among the Bonegilla migrant camp cards, I found a card for Julius Molis and realised that it was the same person.

I was excited because I thought I could find him or his descendants so I could learn more about my grandfather. This didn’t happen, unfortunately. You will understand why when you read Julius Molis’ story.

In this photo from Adomas Ivanauskas, we have Julius first on the left,
then Barbara, his wife-to-be, an unknown man, then Beryl and her boyfriend Adomas

Source:  Rasa Ščevinskienė

Julius Molis born on 12 July 1923, in Telsiai district of Lithuania. His occupation in Lithuania was labourer. He was among the many who left Lithuania as the Soviet forces invaded it for the second time in 1944.

In Germany, he lived in Displaced Persons camp in the English zone. He left Bremerhaven, Germany for Australia with 842 other Baltic refugees on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947. Like the others in the group of 839 allowed to leave the Heintzelman in Fremantle, Western Australia, he stayed for four days before continuing eastwards on the HMAS Kanimbla. The group then travelled by two chartered trains to the part of Bonegilla army camp set aside for them.

Below is the front of the card recording Julius’ presence at the new Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre.

Bonegilla card for Julius Molis, 1947

Source:  NAA

Several Australian newspapers carried an announcement by the Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, on 3 January 1948, on the work allocations of Baltic men at the Bonegilla Centre. Tasmania would receive 12 men for newsprint production and another 12 for zinc production.1

The first mill in the world to produce newsprint from eucalyptus hardwood was opened in the Tasmanian town of Boyer by Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd (APM) in 1941.2 During World War II, it was able to keep ten Australian dailies supplied with their paper, so serious wartime rationing of the major means of news distribution was not needed. In 1947, APM built a town about 50 road kilometres east of Boyer as a base for logging eucalypts in the nearby Florentine Valley. This town, Maydena, is where Julius and others were sent.3

By March 1949, Adomas Ivanauskas has managed to leave the outback town of Woomera for South Australia’s capital city, Adelaide. I think the photo above was taken in Adelaide in 1949 during April to November. In it, you can see some kind of celebration, perhaps a meeting of Lithuanians. On the other side of the photo, the words written in pencil are, ‘Julius and his wife to be Barbara, Beryl and Adomas’. Since Adomas and Julius had come to Australia on the same ship, the Heintzelman, in late 1947, they knew each other. This was a meeting of friends. Adelaide is more than 1,000 kilometres from Maydena. Perhaps Julius had come to Adelaide on holiday with his girlfriend, Barbara.

When I started looking for more information about Julius Molis, I found a sad report in the Tasmanian newspaper, the Mercury, from 6 December 1949. The title of the article was Man Found Hanged in Cell. Let’s read what was the report.

'Julius Molis (26) an unmarried Lithuanian employed by Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd. in the forest at Maydena, was found hanged in a police cell at New Norfolk yesterday morning. 

‘Molis was arrested at New Norfolk about 10 pm on Sunday on a charge of having attempted to operate a motor cycle while under the influence of liquor.

‘He was placed in the cell, and would have appeared in New Norfolk Police Court yesterday morning. 

‘About 8.30 am yesterday a police officer went to the cell and found Molis hanging with his feet about nine inches from the floor. He was dead. 

‘An inquest will be opened at New Norfolk today’.4

Julius Molis' photo from his immigration selection papers

Source:  NAA

On the same day as Molis’ death was reported, 6 December 1949, the Hobart Mercury newspaper carried a notice from funeral directors, Alex Fyle & Son. It advised that Julius Molis had died on 4 December 1949 and that his funeral was to arrive at the New Norfolk Cemetery on the same day, at 4 pm.5 Presumably there was no funeral mass because he was a Catholic who had committed suicide.

Julius Molis' headstone in the New Norfolk Old Council Cemetery

Source:  Gravesites of Tasmania

Julius has quite a substantial headstone in the Old Council Cemetery in the Tasmanian town of New Norfolk.  His grave would be unmarked unless someone had paid for the headstone and surround.  Presumably it was his fellow Lithuanians working in newsprint production in and around Maydena who passed the hat around, just as they did in the Bonegilla camp in December 1947 for their drowned compatriot, Aleksandras Vasiliauskas.

It is sad that Barbara did not become Julius Molis’ wife and they did not live a long and happy life together. The traumas of World War II had caught up with him.

That was not the end of the matter for officialdom though. In the Supreme Court of Tasmania, the Public Trustee elected to administer Julius' estate on 21 February 1950.  The total estate was valued at £203.18.10, which the Reserve Bank of Australia Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator says is the equivalent of $12,532.51.6  That is a considerable sum for someone who had arrived in Australia nearly penniless only two years earlier.  The bulk of the estate was a motorcycle estimated to be worth £165, the equivalent with inflation of $10,100 in 2023, but there was £6.13.7 in cash and £4.8.9 in wages owing also.7

 

The Public Trustee's intention had been advertised in Tasmania's main newspaper, the Hobart Mercury, on 4 February 1950.  On the same date, the Public Trustee had placed another advertisement in that newspaper, which asked any person having a claim on Julius' estate to lodge this with the Trustee on or before 11 March.8

 

While we do not know what claims were lodged, we can speculate that the only valid ones would have come from friends or businesses if Julius owed them money.  A mere fiance like Barbara was unlikely to have a valid claim, although a wife probably would have received the entire estate minus any claims.  

 

Since Julius would have had to wait until after 30 June 1950 to lodge a claim for a refund on the tax already deducted from his income (£13.16.0), that probably went into the Commonwealth Government's Consolidated Revenue account.  The wages owing might have been held by his employer.  The cash and money for the sale of the motorbike, a watch and his personal effects probably went into the Tasmanian Government's equivalent of a consolidated revenue fund.  This added to the sad ending.

 

International Refugee Organisation (IRO) records now held in the Arolsen Archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany, show that, on 10 May 1950, the Acting Head of the Australian Military Mission in Berlin asked the IRO to inform the next of kin (NOK) of the deaths in Australia of 7 Displaced Persons or, as he put it, New Australians. Five of the deaths were due to drowning (but not including Aleksandras Vasilauskas) or other accidents, while Julius Molis was one of two suicides. The last item on the file, dated 25 July 1950, is an internal IRO message asking for the status of enquiries about next of kin, as the Australian Government was pressing for a reply.9

The intermediate correspondence amounted to the IRO saying that it did not have NOK information and the Australian Government had been unable to supply any more. This is sad also, since all in the Bonegilla camp had been asked to nominate at least one NOK for recording on their Bonegilla card. It was a friend only in the case of Julius, but it could have been someone closer. 

 

Churchill's Iron Curtain had cut Australia and Germany off from any of Julius' relatives in Lithuania, including those who might have claimed from his estate.  

 

The correspondence indicates also that the Department of Immigration’s Central Office was ignorant of the kindly efforts of the Bonegilla camp administration.

FOOTNOTES

1. For example, ‘Share-Out of Balts‘, The Herald (Melbourne), 3 January 1948, p 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/243839773 accessed 30 January 2023. 

2. Boyer Newsprint Mill, New Norfolk, 1941-‘, Engineers Australia, https://portal.engineersaustralia.org.au/heritage/boyer-newsprint-mill-new-norfolk-1941 accessed 30 January 2023.

3. ‘Australian Newsprint Mills‘, The Companion to Tasmanian History, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/A/Australian%20Newsprint%20Mills.htm accessed 30 January 2023.

4. ’Man Found Hanged in Cell’, The Mercury (Hobart), 6 December 1949, p 8, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26665433, 'Man Found Hanging', The Examiner (Launceston), 6 December 1949, p 5, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/52707905/4676682, ‘Found Hanging in Cell’, The Advocate (Burnie) 6 December 1949, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91766087 all accessed 30 January 2023.

 

5. 'Family Notices', The Mercury (Hobart), 6 December 1949, p 20, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26665617 accessed 30 January 2023.

6. Reserve Bank of Australia, 'Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator' https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html accessed 22 July 2024.

7. My Heritage, 'Julius Molis' Australia, Tasmania Wills and Letters of Administration — Julius Molis, https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-20244-66784/julius-molis-in-australia-tasmania-wills-letters-of-administration#fullscreen 22 July 2024. 

 

8. ’Public Notices’, The Mercury (Hobart), 4 February 1950, p 8, p 23, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26690159?searchTerm=julius%20molis accessed 22 July 2024.

9. 'Personal file of MOLIS, JULIUS, born in the year 1926, born in TELSIAI', Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/81104345?s=julius%20molis&t=3173288&p=0 accessed 30 January 2023.

OTHER SOURCES

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration; MOLIS, Julius: Year of Birth - 1923: Nationality - LITHUANIAN: Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN: Number – 855; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=20391295, accessed 6 March 2023. 

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; 808, MOLIS Julius DOB 12 July 1923; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3010055, accessed 6 March 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42); 37/368, MOLIS Julius born 12 July 1923; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 29 November 1947; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7272921, accessed 6 March 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1182, Personal case files for non-British migrants who are deceased, lexicographical series; MOLIS, Molis, Julius [Lithuanian]; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1923533, accessed 6 March 2023.