Jonas Jakaitis (1919-2010), Australian Citizen, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskienė

Jonas Jakaitis was one of the 62 men from the First Transport, General Stuart Heintzelman, sent to Bangham in South Australia to work for the SA Railways.  He became an Australian citizen at the same 1953 Adelaide ceremony as his fellow SAR worker, Hugo Jakobsen.  At the time, they were photographed together for posterity by the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper.  What else do we know about him?

Hugo Jakobsen (left) and Jonas Jakaitis (right) at their 15 April 1953 citizenship ceremony

Source:  Adelaide Advertiser, 16 April 1953

Rasa Ščevinskienėhas found an index to the South Australian Railways (SAR) records which shows that, having started with the others at Bangham on 15 January 1948, Jonas left the SAR on 11 July 1952.  He had been released from his work contract earlier though, on 30 September 1949.

From the Adelaide News newspaper of the day after Jonas obtained Australian citizenship with Hugo, 15 April 1953, we know that Jonas now described his occupation as ‘motor mechanic’. 

Jonas was born in Lithuania on 4 July 1919.  Rasa has discovered a 1942 census of Lithuania online, which tells us that he was the oldest of four children fathered by Juozas Jakaitis.  Jonas and his sister Ona, born in 1924, had a mother who had died when they were young. 

Naturally Juozas looked for another mother for his children and married again, in March 1930.  With Agota, he had two more children, Augustinas, born in 1930, and Marijona, born in 1937.

The family lived in the tiny village of Ziliai, which is 7 kilometers from a much larger settlement of Kiduliai.  Ziliai now is about 11 kilometers from the post-WWII border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, between Lithuanian and Poland.  Jonas always stated that Kiduliai was his birthplace, probably because his mother was more likely to find a midwife or other assistance there.

The census took place in April 1942.  It recorded that Jonas, aged about 23, and Ona, aged about 18, were already in Germany.

However, Jonas’ selection documents for migration to Australia say that he arrived in Germany in June 1944.  While this certainly is earlier than the more usual September-October 1944, it is not 1942.  Perhaps Jonas and Ona had returned to Ziliai when circumstances seemed better, only to decide to leave again.

The selection papers record that Jonas had had the basic 4 years of elementary school and was suitable to be a ‘medium labourer’ in Australia.  His occupation at the time of interview, on 24 September 1947, was ‘motor mechanic’ and he had been working at this occupation for the previous 13 months.  He previously had been a driver in Lithuania for 2 years.

His Lithuanian, of course, and German language skills were regarded as fluent, while his English was marked ‘fair’.

Jonas Jakaitis identity photograph from his selection papers

Source:  NAA:  A11772, JAKAITIS Jonas DOB 4 July 1919

Up to the point of his naturalisation ceremony on 15 April 1953,  a card kept in the Adelaide Office of the Department of Immigration records his changed of employer and residential address.  This was required under the Alien Registration Act 1947.

 

From this record, we can see that his first and last reported employment was with car manufacturer, General Motors Holden (GMH), where he was employed as a labourer.  He worked as a machinist at Pope Products from 19 November 1949 and several smaller companies for nearly 5 years.  He obtained the specialised position of fitter and turner with the South Australian Brush Company, better known as SABCO, from 16 August 1952 but only for two months.  He then moved back to GMH, again with the job title of labourer, but maybe because the pay was better.

 

That 19 November 1949 employment date with Pope Products and the later employment information conflict with the SAR record of Jonas staying in its employment until 11 July 1952.  A human error will have occurred with one of the records.  Of the two, the Department of Immigration record is likely to be the more accurate since Jonas would have had to report each change in address or employer in person.

 

We know little about the rest of Jonas’ life in Australia except that, in 1960, he donated £1 to a collection in support of Adelaide’s Lithuanian House.  The Reserve Bank of Australia says that what £1 would buy in 1960 would cost more than $35 now.  Perhaps we could think of Jonas’ donation as putting forward $50 now.

Jonas left a widow, Adele Milita, when he died on 1 April 2010 aged a remarkable 90 years.  His funeral took place on 12 April.  He is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Enfield Memorial Park.  

With a previous family name like Adele Milita Gleichforsch, his widow probably was a Baltic German but she also had been born in Lithuania.  Her German background would explain why a card kept by a Lithuanian Catholic priest lists her and the two older children of the family as ‘Eveng’ or Evangelical Lutheran.

The third child was born 8 years after the previous one.  Given that the oldest was born in 1946, when we understand Jonas to have been single, this could well be a melded family, with Adele bringing into it the two older children from a previous marriage.

Adele also lived to a robust age, 92, dying on 5 July 2015.  The Find A Grave Website photograph of Jonas' plaque in the Enfield Park shows a blank besides his name.  The exact place of burial is not recorded.  Adele’s place of burial is recorded as being within the Catholic section, despite her Lutheran faith.  In all probability, Jonas and Adele now rest side by side.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1953) 'Thrilled To Become Australians' Adelaide, 16 April, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48284822 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

[Church card], ‘Jakaitis, Jonas’, held by Australian Lithuanian Archives, Adelaide.

 

Find A Grave, ‘Adelle Milita Gleichforsch Jakaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202129584/adelle_milita_jakaitis accessed 9 April 2025.

 

Find A Grave, ‘Jonas Jakaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154554810/jonas-jakaitis accessed 9 April 2025.

 

Government of South Australia, State Records (2021) ‘Index, GRS 10638, Record of employment sheets – South Australian Railways’

https://www.archives.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/830188/GRS_10638-index-I-L.pdf  accessed 9 November 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, 1947-47; 93, JAKAITIS Jonas DOB 4 July 1919, 1947-47 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005526 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; JAKAITIS JONAS, JAKAITIS, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number – 493 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620759 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-76; JAKAITIS JONAS, JAKAITIS Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-53

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9187517 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-65; JAKAITIS J, JAKAITIS Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-53 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4077737 accessed 10 April 2025.

'Personal file of JAKAITIS, IONAS, born on 4-Jul-1919, born in KIDULIAI', 3.2.1. / 79213085 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79213085 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator’, https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html accessed 9 November 2024.

 

Šeimos Surašymas 1942 Metais (Family Census in 1942) (Search Results for Jakaitis Jonas) https://eu3.ragic.com/genealogija/census/3/13586.xhtml accessed 9 November 2024.

 

The Advertiser (1953) ‘Thrilled to Become Australians’ Adelaide, 16 April, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48284822 accessed 9 November 2024

 

The News (1953) ‘13 Migrants to Become Aussies’ Adelaide, 15 April, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134289724 accessed 9 November 2024.

 

Alfonsas Sadauskas (1916-1990), my father, by Vidas Sadauskas

Alfonsas was born on 26 September 1916 in Vabalninkas village in Biržai district, Lithuania.  As a young man he worked at various mills his father had rented, cutting lumber and milling grain. 

He volunteered for the Army at 22 and rose to the rank of Warrant Officer.  Towards the end of World War II, after the Lithuanian Army was disbanded, he fought against the Soviet invasion alongside partisans in Belarus. 

He was selected to come to Australia on the USAT General Stuart Heinzelman, arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947.

Alfonsas Sadauskas' photo from his 1948 Application to Register as an Alien

Source:  NAA: MT1078/1, V1959/44899

After initially being sent from Fremantle via Port Melbourne to Bonegilla in Victoria’s North, he was sent back to Western Australia.  His destination was the Mundaring Weir area about 40km east of Perth, cutting timber for his two years’ contracted service.  

He would travel to Fremantle to meet the ships coming from Germany to see if any relatives or friends had made the journey to Australia.  None had but, within a couple of years, he found his brother Bronius via the Red Cross.  He was able to sponsor Bronius' travel from the UK to Australia in 1950.  

On one trip to the docks he met Aldona Gražulytė whom he later married in Melbourne.

They raised three children and the family was active in the Melbourne Lithuanian Community:  Aldona taught at the Lithuanian Sunday school for many years; Alfonsas had stewardship of the Melbourne Scouts’ equipment.

Jonas, the eldest child, was a Scout leader and taught folk dancing for a number of years.  He completed a degree in Electrical Engineering and worked mainly with major computer networks and data centres.

Dona, the second child, also taught at the Sunday school as well as being a Scout leader and long-time folk dancer and choir singer.  She completed a degree in Social Work and remained in that field for her entire career.

Vidas, the youngest, danced and was a Scout leader prior to joining the Australian Army.  He worked as a linguist for the majority of his career. 

Alfonsas had six grandchildren (with a total of 10 children between them), some with tertiary degrees, and all with good jobs.

Alfonsas worked with timber his entire adult life, looking after the various machines at a timber yard until he retired at 65. He died on 24 September 1990, just 2 days short of his 74th birthday, and is buried at the Fawkner cemetery alongside Aldona.

ADDITIONAL SOURCE

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; MT1078/1, European migrants general personal files 1959; V1959/44899, SADAUSKAS, Alfonsas,  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4115588 accessed 5 April 2025.

40 years since the arrival of the First Transport, by Antanas Laukaitis

[This tribute, in Lithuanian, was published on page 7 of the Australian-Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) on 9 November 1987.]

On 30 October 1947, the American ship General Stuart Heinzelman sailed from the port of Bremerhaven in Germany, carrying the very first post-War refugees to Australia. They were only from Baltics and the majority were Lithuanians – 439 persons.

This photograph accompanied the original article, captioned “A group of Lithuanians on the ship
General Heintzelman in 1947, en route to Australia; 
first on the left in the front row is Valentinas Gulbinas” 

This ship arrived at Fremantle Harbor on 28 November.  The passengers travelled to Melbourne on an Australian warship.  There they were met by the then Labor Government Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell and other government officials.

Lithuanians had their own cultural performances, holiday celebrations and more both during the trip and upon arrival in Melbourne, and later at the Bonegilla camp.  Even the first basketball team was formed, with most players being Lithuanians.

These players included Vincas Mažiliauskas (later known as a Melbourne Varpas player), Jonas Motiejūnas, (former chairman of Varpas now living in America), Algis Liubinskas (died in Sydney, supporter of Kovas, whose son Mikas follows in his father’s sporting footsteps, famous as a Kovas basketball player and former prominent rugby player), Romas Genys (“Bodžis” from Sydney, a former famous Kovas basketball player in the days when Kovas won competitions between Australians and Lithuanians) and Zigmas Paškevičius. [Kovas is Sydney’s Lithuanian Sports Club while Varpas is the Melbourne equivalent.]

When they arrived in Australia, the first Lithuanians found a few compatriots who had been living here for a long time already.   They discovered the former Lithuanian Association of Australia, which was headed by the venerable Antanas and Ona Baužė and family.  They were the Lithuanian guardians and guideposts to the aliens in a land new to us.

The first Lithuanians who arrived were brave and determined, choosing this distant and so little-known land for their future life.  And how other compatriots who stayed in Germany waited for the first letters from Australia and resumés in the press!  Most of them needed to make a decision to go to Australia or choose another, more famous land.  Not all of the first letters and descriptions in the press were good, as everything was so new, the climate was hot and the jobs were the worst ones that Australians didn’t want to do.  Even worse, the wages were not very high compared to the working conditions.

When I came to Australia two years later and went to the desert, where the heat reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit [52 degrees Centigrade] in the summer, there were blizzards of red sand and poisonous spiders, scorpions and even snakes were hiding in the tents, apparently away from the heat.  Even I cursed this country with curses that I only knew and wanted to run away from the desert, but I could not escape.

However, there were also happier people who spoke positively about Australia.  After that, more and more of our compatriots were willing to go for a swim, without fear that kangaroos would swipe them with their tails.  They did not fear that scorpions and spiders would crawl into their beds.  They no longer thought that the Aboriginals would impale a white-skinned Lithuanian, and even better, the fair Lithuanian women, to roast them on their spears in a eucalyptus fire.*

The number of Lithuanians grew more and more.  A considerable number, especially singles, went to distant regions of Australia and stayed there, creating non-Lithuanian families who were completely separated from Lithuanian life and Lithuanians.   Quite a few, including some of our first arrivals, have found their eternal rest in Australian graves, but the traces and fruits of their work are very clearly visible.

This is the first of the arrival generation and the beginning to our communal and organisational life, which today their children and even the third generation of Lithuanian youth continue very beautifully.  It is to be hoped that the Lithuanian spark of Lithuanian life, culture and our beautiful traditions ignited by those first arrivals, which is currently lit in a big and beautiful Lithuanian bonfire, will burn for a long time in our youth and future Lithuanian generations, showing that Lithuanians are truly resistant to all kinds of foreign storms.

It is good that in Sydney we have a dozen representatives from the very First Transport.  Among them, Anskis Reisgys, the current head of the Talka Credit union in Sydney, did not get lost after going through the hardships of Australia, but acquired a teacher's license and taught for many years, participating in all activities related to our country.  Mindaugas Šumskas, another employee of Talka, is an active member of the community.  Valentinas Gulbinas, former chairman of the District, honorary member of Kovas, has worked a lot with young people and was one of the leaders when Australian Lithuanian athletes went to America and Canada.

Mykolas Petronis, a well-known former businessman in Sydney and honorary member of Kovas, is the representative of various organisations and an active member of the community.  Romualdas Genys, a player in the first Australian Lithuanian basketball team, later rose to fame.  Juozas Šuopys, who had a successful home rental business, is a great friend of Lithuanian players.  Vincas Šuopys, a printer, started painting Mūsų Pastogė in Lithuanian. As for the female representatives, we have Balanda [Dulaityte] Liubinskas, the mother of our outstanding athlete Mick, Konstančija [Brundžaitė] Jurskis and others who arrived later.

The first Lithuanian immigrants contributed a lot to the establishment and construction of the Sydney Lithuanian Club.  The sponsors and honorary members of the Kovas Sports Club include First Transport arrivals.  At Sydney Lithuanian Club on Saturday evening, 21 November, Kovas will honour these distinguished and first post-war Lithuanian immigrants to Australia during its annual ball.

They will be introduced with ceremony to our younger citizens and current athletes, who, under the guidance of the tireless coach and manager, Snaige Gustafson, will carry out the evening's program.

The athletes and managers of Sydney's Kovas Club invite everyone, not only Lithuanians of the very first, but also of later transports, their families and their guests, to participate in this ball in large numbers.  There they can remember their own youth and those first steps taken in this great and hospitable land of kangaroos. 

* Modern-day apologies to any indigenous or other readers who are offended or shocked by this expression of the ignorance of the writer and others.

SOURCE

Laukaitis, Antanas (1987)'40 Metu Nuo I-J Transporto Atvykimo' ['40 Years Since the Arrival of First Transport'] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] Sydney, 9 November, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1987/1987-11-09-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 7 April 2025.