Rapolas Braškus (1921-1960), an early death, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Kidney Disease

Rapolas Braskus was one of the First Transport refugees who died early, in his case from kidney disease rather than an accident. He was only 38 when he died, although wrongly described as 39 on his Rookwood gravestone (which also has misnamed him!)

Nowadays, someone like him would be a priority candidate for a kidney transplant and would live a much longer life after his illness was cured. Another Lithuanian from the First Transport who died less than one month earlier than him from kidney disease was Borisas Dainutis, the founder of Lithuanian scouting in Australia. Kidney transplantation in Australia was only in its infancy when these two men were lost.

Rapolas Braškus, photograph from Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

First employment in Australia

Rapolas was chosen at the Bonegilla camp by the Commonwealth Employment Service to be sent to the Styx River Sawmill operated by Ebor Sawmills Pty Ltd. Even the name of the River should have been a warning. A separate blog entry will look at the company and its sawmills in more detail.

Donation

In late 1952, perhaps at Christmas, or early 1953, Rapolas donated 6 shillings to the Australian Lithuanian Community Fund, as acknowledged by Mūsų Pastogė on 14 January 1953. Converted to modern decimal currency, 60 cents does not buy much anymore, but it was likely to have been more than 5 per cent of Rapolas’ weekly income in 1952-53.

Citizenship

At the time he was granted Australian citizenship in 1959, Rapolas, then finding it easier to be known by Australians as Ray, was living in Sydney. He gave his address as 129 Stanmore Street in Strathfield. That exact address does not exist any more, but his home may have been the 1880s two-storey terrace house at 129 Stanmore Road, Stanmore.

Family

He had been born in the village of Gailiušiai, near the city of Molėtai, on 5 September 1921, to Juozapas Braškus and Zofija née Paulavičiūtė. They now are buried together in the Molėtai old cemetery. If their headstone is accurate (unlike their son’s in Rookwood), they had a daughter also – Antanina.

Rapolas has the wrong first name on this headstone in the Rookwood Catholic Cemetery,
and has been granted an extra year of life

Source:  Find A Grave by Family Tree Finder

Burial

Rapolas was buried in the Rookwood Catholic Cemetery at the expense of the Sydney Lithuanian Women's Social Welfare Society. He had arranged to leave the entirety of his probably small estate to this organisation, having no relatives in what was then known as the Free World.

His funeral was attended by the women who had cared for him in his last illness, from Sydney Lithuanian Women's Social Welfare Society, other compatriots and former colleagues from the Braeside Hospital, Stanmore, and Newcastle Hospital. The service was conducted by Sydney’s Lithuanian priest, Father Petras Butkus.

CITE THIS AS: Ščevinskienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/09/rapolas-braskus-1921-1960-early-death.html

SOURCES

Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Rapolas Braskus’, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203683762, accessed 27 September 2025.

Cemety, ‘Zofija Braškienė’ https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/391194?type=deceased, accessed 27 September 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1959) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, 18 June, p 2150 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240999254, accessed 27 September 2025.

Elektroninio archyvo informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archive Information System, in Lithuanian with some English) ‘Molėtų RKB gimimo metrikų knyga‘ (‘Molėtai Roman Catholic Church birth registry book, in Lithuanian ) (1921, 152, pages 466, 467, record 152, Rapolas Braškus) https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext/view/267697864, accessed 27 September 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Raymond S Braskus’, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148907306/raymond-s-braskus, accessed 27 September 2025.

Musu Pastoge (Our Haven) (1953) ‘Tautos fondo atstovybės pranešimas’ (‘Announcement from the National Foundation Representative Office’, in Lithuanian) Sydney,14 January, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259359667, accessed 27 September 2025.

Musu Pastoge (Our Haven) (1960) ‘Apleido Pačioje Jaunystėje (Abandoned in his Own Youth, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 29 April, p 6 http://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1960/1960-04-29-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2025.

Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1960)‘Mirė Rapolas Braškus‘ (‘Rapolas Braškus Died’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 11 May, p 6 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1960/1960-05-11-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 27 September 2025. Borisas Dainutis

Albinas Kutka (1908-1992), Master Builder and Benefactor, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 4 October 2025.

Most of the Displaced Persons from the First Transport sent to South Australia to work stayed there, even after their obligation to work where directed finished on 30 September 1949. Albinas Kutka was different: he moved to Sydney. From the suburb of Canterbury he moved to Bankstown, a suburb with its own airport for light aviation. Undeterred by the noise, he moved even closer to Bankstown Airport, in Condell Park.

Albinas was able to get recognition from the authorities as a master builder. Together with fellow Lithuanian, Vytautas Mickevičius, he was responsible for the construction of a Lithuanian retirement village in the far south of Sydney, Engadine. Rather than being adjacent to an airport, this location is adjacent to Royal National Park, Australia’s first, and only the second in the world after Yellowstone in the USA.

In old age, Albinas sold the Condell Park home and moved into one of his own buildings in the Lithuanian retirement home in Engadine.

Albinas' youth

He had been born on 9 April 1908 in the village of Lukniai, near Vyzuonos in the Utena district. He was one of 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls, born to farmers Kazimieras Kutka and Agota Kutkienė, whose maiden name was Macionytė.

Albinas lived all of his youth on the family farm until called away for military service at the age of 21. He earned the rank of junior sergeant. Eight years later, in 1937, he again was drafted into the army to refresh his training. He continued to work on the farm until the beginning of World War II. When the Soviet entered Lithuania for the second time, in 1944, he retreated to Germany.

Albinas Kutka's ID photo on his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Albinas in Germany

The Arolsen Archives hold 4 documents naming Albinas, 3 of which understate his age by exactly 10 years. What can be gleaned from them is that he was in Munich between 13 August 1945 and 6 February 1946, during which his occupation was Waldarbeiter, forest worker or woodcutter or, in American, lumberjack. He also lived for a while in a town called Vilsbiburg, which is just under 90 Km northeast of Munich, and Stade, a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany, at the opposite end of his country of refuge.

His American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) Displaced Person’s registration record was filled out on 23 August 1945, but the place where it was completed is blank (unless P.A.P.Cl. 124 still can be decoded*). Another date on this form is of interest though, because its month and year suggest that 10 August 1944 was the date that he reached Germany, that is, almost one year before he was recorded in Munich. Given that its Arolsen Archives’ DeepLink number is just one more than the form which states that he is in Stade, this city may well be where he was registered as a Displaced Person.

The AEF recorded his preferred occupation not as farmer, like his father, but Tischler, German for carpenter.  Possibly he had done a lot of building on his parents' farm.

It is possible that he moved from Stade to the Munich district to get as far away as possible from the Soviet occupiers of eastern Germany and his homeland. He reported for interview by the first Australian migration selection team at the Buchholtz DP camp, though, in the centre of western Germany. 

He impressed the team enough to be included in the First Transport, departing Bremerhaven on 30 October 1947.  At 39 years, he was one of the older passengers.

Albinas and the Sawmill

Albinas’ first job in Australia was in Backhouse, Roebuck Pty. Ltd., The Bonegilla card records this company as being located in a placed called Megan, which sounds more like a girl’s name than a place name to a modern Australian. It really does exist, though, as a community hall and the remains of a railway station, inland of Coff’s Harbour in New South Wales.

The nearest town to Megan is Dorrigo, the headquarters of Backhouse, Roebuck according to a search of digitised newspapers on the National Library of Australia’s Trove Website. The company owned sawmills. 

Albinas left the Bonegilla camp for one of them in 21 January 1948, in a group of 7 men. He was back at the Bonegilla migrant centre on 11March 1948 together with another Lithuanian member of the group, Juozas Bazys, and a Latvian member of the group who was 16-20 years younger than the Lithuanians, Nikolaus Kucina.

Assuming that it took at least a couple of days to travel from Bonegilla by bus or car to Albury, then by train to Sydney, then to Megan if the station was operative in 1948, Albinas, Juozas and Nikolaus had put up with the conditions offered by Backhouse, Roebuck for less than 7 weeks. It was not the type of working with wood that Albinas preferred.

Albinas to Iron Knob

All 3 were sent off to Iron Knob, in South Australia, on 16 March, together with a fourth man who also had given up a career as a sawmill hand. The fourth man was a Latvian, Peteris Mesters, who had been sent to Northern Timbers, Pty Ltd, of Johnson’s Creek, New South Wales. Not surprisingly, Google Maps now can find 10 localities of this name in NSW, only 2 of which are in Sydney. Two certainly are northern, being on the border with Queensland.

Just before WWII, Iron Knob had been described as the largest known deposit of high-grade iron ore in the world. Broken Hill Pty Ltd – but now simply BHP – had commenced mining in the area in 1900.

The group of Lithuanians working at Iron Knob understood the importance of having a newspaper in their own language. They organised a collection to support the creation of Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian). The newspaper thanked them as its first sponsors on 12 September 1948. Albinas had donated ₤1 of the total of £8/5/- given by 10 Lithuanians.

Working together surely brought the Lithuanians there closer together. Even after they left Iron Knob, they kept in touch. For instance, 3 of them advertised on 23 May 1949 in the newspaper Australijos lietuvis that their friend Jonas Puslys, together with Olga Vainoryte, had created a Lithuanian family, so they congratulated them and wish them a sunny life. The three were Rasa’s grandfather, Adomas, and Albinas Kutka as well as Petras Juodka. By May 1949 they were not no longer working together, because Adomas for one was living already in Adelaide.

Jonas Puslys had not gone with the others to Iron Knob though. He started his working like in Australia as a fruit-picker, then had been sent to Australian Newsprint Mills’ Boyer plant in Tasmania. It looks like the connection between these four is earlier than work in Australia. None of them were in the Scouts, so perhaps it goes back to the same camp in Germany or the same locality in Lithuania.

It also looks like these men, along with Povilas Laurinavičius, had discovered the Australian postal system, and it was working for them. Actually, buying stamps and posting letters was sure to have been one of the “Australian way of life” topics covered in the Bonegilla camp English language classes.

Albinas to Adelaide

An Alien Registration record card for Albinas shows that he was released from his contract to work as directed in Australia on 30 September 1949, along with most of the others who came on the First Transport. His next place of employment was the Pier Hotel in Glenelg, suburban Adelaide, alongside Povilas Laurinavičius. Then it was off to 3 Robert Street, Canterbury, New South Wales, an address reported to the Department of Immigration on 27 June 1951.

Albinas to Sydney

Why did Albinas not stay in Adelaide like most of the others sent to South Australia to work out their contract? Another Kutka, Antanas, came to Australia from Germany on the Protea, arriving on 30 September 1948. He was sent to Sydney’s Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board to work. From the information available to us, we cannot tell if they were related but, since both were born in the Utena district, we cannot dismiss this possibility either.

If they were related and communicating with each other, then perhaps from Antanas' description of life in Sydney, Albinas thought he would do better there than in Adelaide.

We know already that he moved from the initial Canterbury address to Bankstown, a suburb with its own airport for light aviation. Undeterred by the noise, he moved to a home even closer to Bankstown Airport, in Condell Park.

On 3 December 1953, the Mūsų pastogė (Our Haven) newspaper reported that Albinas was in his second year of successful house construction in Bankstown. The reporter added (in Lithuanian, of course) “His example shows what can be achieved with determination and initiative.”

Ten months later, in October 1954, he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle. Mūsų pastogė wrote (in Lithuanian) “His face was injured, his head was cut open, and his bicycle was smashed. After spending several days in the hospital, Alb. Kutka returned home.”

Albinas acquired Australian citizenship on 22 June 1967. His address at the time, 47 Cragg Street, Condell Park, shows that he now owned his own home, probably built or updated with his own hands.

Sydney's Lithuanian Retirement Village

Ona Baužienė started campaigning for land on which to build a Lithuanian retirement village when she became the chairwoman of the Sydney Lithuanian Women’s Social Services Association in 1967. We have just met through her recollections 30 years later of meeting the First Transport Lithuanians in the Bonegilla camp.

Her committee started an intensive program of fundraising through catering for community events, raffles and the like. In 1970, the Association was granted land at Engadine on a permanent basis on condition that it be solely used for housing the elderly.

Work on the first two buildings started in 1975 after signing a contract with the builders Albinas Kutka and Vytautas Mickevičius.  A community centre finished in 1978 was financed entirely by the Association’s fundraising plus donations. It included a kitchen, dining room and library.  The remaining 17 residential buildings, for up to two residents each, were completed in 1981, thanks this time to funding from the NSW Government as well as the Association’s efforts.

Albinas (extreme left) and Vytautas Mickevičius help to celebrate the 
completion of the buildings

The topping-out wreath and 2 village buildings, 1981

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

The official opening was on 19 August 1984. The builders, Albinas and Vytautas, brought their topping-out wreath to the opening.

Albinas the Benefactor

Mūsų pastogė advised in April 1982 that Albinas Kutka, a well-known Lithuanian builder recognized by the Australians as a "master builder", had become seriously ill recently and has been hospitalized for a major operation. The patient was recovering rapidly and hoped to return to his home in Bankstown soon. Albinas Kutka was known to local Lithuanians as a generous supporter of the Lithuanian cause.

The words “Albinas Kutka was known to local Lithuanians as a generous supporter” were very accurate, because he had been donating unreservedly to many Lithuanian activities. Messages and thanks from the newspapers can confirm this. Here are some examples.

• Mūsų Pastogė, 12 May 1980: student A. Binkevičius received $200, of which $100 was donated by builder Albinas Kutka.
• Tėviškės aidai, 21 November 1981: “The always quiet and sincere Lithuanian, Albinas Kutka", sent a donation of $100 to the Daina Choir.
• Tėviškės aidai, 20 March 1986: On the occasion of February 16 (Lithuania’s Independence Day) compatriots in Sydney and the surrounding area supported Lithuania’s freedom struggle with their sincere donations. Albinas Kutka’s donation $50 was the largest individual amount received.
• Mūsų Pastogė, 25 October 1988: A. Kutka donated $100 for the trip of Lithuanian dissident, Professor Vytautas Skuodis. Again, this was the largest individual donation.

  

  The photo which accompanied Albinas' obituary
  

  Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

Albinas' Last Years

Albinas was already in his mid-70s when the village was opened.  He sold his own house and settled into a unit he had built himself. Since Albinas was single, it was more stimulating for him to live there among Lithuanian acquaintances. In his last four years of his life, his health deteriorated. Doctors recognised his condition as difficult to treat. In the end, he received care in a nearby Calvary (Catholic) nursing home.

Albinas Kutka died on 13 September 1992, and was buried in Catholic Section of the Rookwood cemetery. During his final illness, Albinas was cared for by his neighbour and friend Vincas Kondrackas and his wife. They also took care of the funeral arrangements.

FOOTNOTE:  Perhaps P.A.P.Cl. 124 can be decoded.  Recently I happened upon a list of DP Camps by Team No on the <dpcamps.org> Website.  While it doesn't explain P.A.P.Cl., it does say that Team 124 was located in München, that is, Munich, where other evidence places Albinas also.

SOURCES

‘A.E.F. D.P. Registration Record, Albinas Kutka’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 67941909, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/67941909?s=Kutka&t=2739669&p=0, accessed 21 September 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis, (Australian Lithuanian) (1948) ‘Pirmieji Mūsų Rėmėjai’ (‘Our First Sponsors’, in Lithuanian) https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280321942, accessed 21 September 2025.

Australian Cemetery Index, ‘Kutka’, https://austcemindex.com/?family_name=kutka, accessed 21 September 2025.

'Australian Lithuanian History, Australian Lithuanian newspaper’ https://salithohistory.blogspot.com/2008/12/, accessed 21 September 2025.

Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Albinas Kutka’, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203624970, accessed 21 September 2025.

‘CM/1 264719, Family name, Kutka, Citizenship, Lith’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 67941908, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67941908, accessed 21 September 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1967) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, 2 June, p 5863 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241018768, accessed 21 September 2025.

Dainos Choro Valdyba (Daina Choir Board) (1981) ‘Sydnėjuje, Dainos Chore‘ (‘In Sydney, Daina Choir’ in Lithuanian) Tėviškės Aidai, (The Echoes of Homeland) Melbourne, 21 November, p 8 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1981/1981-11-21-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 21 September 2025.

Elektroninio archyvo informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archive Information System, in Lithuanian with some English) ‘Utenos dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Birth register book of churches in the Utena deanery’, in Lithuanian ) (1908, Vyzuonos church, page 113, baptism record number 51, Albinas Kutka) https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267507212/276386482/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=113, accessed 21 September 2025.

Elektroninio archyvo informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archive Information System, in Lithuanian with some English) ‘Utenos dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Birth register book of churches in the Utena deanery’, in Lithuanian) (1899, Gaižiūnai church, page 71, baptism record number 158, Antanas Kutka) phttps://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267506507/276386475/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=71

Find A Grave, ‘Albinas Kutka’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149476069/albinas-kutka, accessed 21 September 2025.

Juodka, Petras, Ivanauskas, Adomas and Albinas Kutka (1949) ‘Drauga Jona Pūsli …’ (‘Friend Jonas Puslis … ’, in Lithuanian) Australijos Lietuvis (The Australian Lithuanian) Adelaide, 23 May, p 22, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280321235, accessed 21 September 2025.

‘Land/Stadt/Kreis Vilsbiburg, Form 10, ITS 247’, 2.1.1 American Zone of Occupation in Germany, DocID: 70255471, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70255471, accessed 21 September 2025.

‘München Kreis, Kategorie III, Form 7’, 2.1.1 American Zone of Occupation in Germany, DocID: 70073263, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70073263, accessed 21 September 2025. [Also at https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/70073530.]

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven)(1954) ‘Sydnėjus’ (‘Sydney’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 27 October, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259359692, accessed 21 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1980) ‘Redakcijos pastaba’ (‘Editor’s Note’) Sydney, 12 May, p 3 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1980/1980-05-12-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 21 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1988) ‘Aukos’ (‘Victims’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 25 October, p 7, https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1988/1988-10-25-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 21 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series, 1926-1952; 82, GENERAL HEINTZELMAN - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 - nominal rolls of passengers, 1947-1952 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196, accessed 21 September 2025.

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 21 September 2025.

Rep (1953) ‘Bankstownas’ (‘Bankstown’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, 3 December, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1953/1953-12-03-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 21 September 2025.

Reisgienė, Martina (trans. Petras Viržintas) (2024) ‘Sydney Lithuanian Women’s Social Services Assoc. Inc‘, SLIC (Sydney Lithuanian Information Centre) https://www.slic.org.au/Community/sydlithwomen.htm, accessed 21 September 2025.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (1984) ‘Australija, Oficialus Lietuvių sodybos atidarymas‘ (‘Australia, Official Opening of the Lithuanian Home’) Mississauga, Ontario, 2 October, p 4 https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1984/1984-10-02-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 21 September 2025.

Valdyba (The Board) (1981) ‘Vainikuota Lietiivių Sodyba’ (‘The Topped-Out Lithuanian Home’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, 5 July, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1981/1981-07-05-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 21 September 2025.

Vinevičius, A. (1992) ‘Mūsų mirusieji, Su Ramovėnu A. Kutka Atsisveikinant’ (Our Dead, Farewell to Ramovė Member A. Kutka’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 28 September, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1992/1992-09-28-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 21 September 2025

Wikipedia, ‘Stade’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stade, accessed 25 September 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Topping Out’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topping_out, accessed 25 September 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Vilsbiburg’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilsbiburg, accessed 25 September 2025.

Stasys Šeduikis (1924–2005), Lithuanian refugee, by Daina Pocius with Ann Tündern-Smith

Stasys Šeduikis was born in October 1924 into the family of Pranas Šeduikis and Elena Graužinytė in the beautiful town of Anykščiai near Utena. He had four brothers and two sisters.

His immigration papers to Australia show his year of birth as 1922. In addition, the year of birth on his application for naturalisation is 1925.  We are accepting the year used in his obituary, which also says that he was 80 years old when he died.

Life in Lithuania

After graduating from Anykščiai elementary school, he entered and graduated from Anykščių secondary school. His selection papers for Australia record only 6 years of primary schooling, however.

During the German occupation of Lithuania, on Lithuanian Independence Day (16 February 1944) General Plechavičius made a radio appeal to the nation for volunteers. Some 19,500 men responded to the appeal. Amongst them was Stasys and his four brothers. Instead of the Germans allowing cooperation, the Lithuanian units disbanded and Plechavičius and his staff were arrested.

Stasys and his brothers were taken to work in Germany. His Australian migration selection papers skip over that, though, recording him as someone who “fled from Russian regime” in August 1944. He had been working as a tailor for 6 years in Lithuania.

Stasys Seduikis' 1947 photograph from his selection papers for migration to Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Life in Germany

After the end of the Second World War, he lived in a Lithuanian refugee camp in Germany. It must have been in the British Zone of Occupation, as it was called Camp Churchill. It was in the Lower Saxony town of Lehrte. Given that this town had become an industrial centre after it became a railway junction in the late 19th century, the camp may have been established in apartments built for factory workers who had been displaced at the orders of the occupiers.  That is certainly how it worked in the American Zone of Occupation.

After emigration began in 1947, Stasys initially indicated his desire to move to the USA but found himself on the First Transport to Australia, on the ship General Stuart Heintzelman. His brothers returned to Lithuania.

Stasys works in Australia

Stasys completed his contract to work in Australia at the brown coal open cut mine in Yallourn, Victoria, living in the North Camp there, which means that he gets a place in Josef Šeštokas’ book, Welcome to Litte Europe. Josef says that he was “remembered by his North Camp peers for playing soccer, having simple tastes and modest ambitions”.

Stasys is second from the right in the middle row of this group of Lithuanians
pictured in the North Camp at the end of their day's work

Source:  Welcome to Little Europe, p 123

Josef adds that, “after operating a milk bar in Carlton he worked at General Motors Holden Fisherman’s Bend plant, for 30 years or so, as a toolmaker”.  We know that he worked there until his retirement.

Newspaper reports have him living Yarraville, a western suburb of Melbourne, though Josef writes that he lived in West Footscray. In reality, they are the one neighbourhood, although an 8-lane highway now slices through diagonally

Marriage, Family, Citizenship

He married fellow Lithuanian, Ona Utaraitė, on 17 May 1952, in the church of St John the Evangelist, on Victoria Parade, a church which the Catholic Lithuanians had adopted as their own.

Ona had completed medical school and worked in Australia as a nurse in northern Melbourne’s Greenvale Geriatric Centre.  Stasys’ occupation at the time of his naturalisation application was described as machinist.  Toolmaker or machinist, that would have been with the car manufacturer, General Motors Holden as previously mentioned. 

They had five children, two daughters and three sons.  Life was harmonious and happy for them.  After the children grew older, they had eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Stasys was naturalised, granted Australian citizenship, in the suburb where he and his family lived, Footscray, on 12 February 1970.  At a guess, the person granting him the citizenship would have been the mayor of Footscray.

Stasys' Later Years

On 3 October 1988, Ona passed away from a sudden heart attack, at the age of 60 and after 36 years of marriage.  Stasys then became lonely, but met Elena Petrulienė, a Lithuanian widow who had arrived recently in Australia.  They married on 20 January 1990, with fellow First Transport arrival, Benediktas Kaminskas, as Stasys’ best man.

Stasys developed lung and heart disease and had to stay in hospital for a long time. Elenutė, his wife, cared for him until his weakened heart stopped beating.  He died of heart disease and pneumonia in hospital in the early morning of 16 February 2005.

The mourning mass was offered by Fr. Algis Šimkus at a church to which the Lithuanians had moved, St. Mary Star of the Sea in West Melbourne.  The Melbourne parish choir and soloists Rita Mačiulaitienė and Birute Kymantienė sang at the mass.

Stasys' children, paying their last respects to their father, carried the coffin on their shoulders. He was buried next to his first wife, Ona, in Altona Cemetery. After the funeral, the participants were invited to Melbourne’s Lithuanian House for the wake.

The two sisters survived from his large family in Lithuania.

SOURCES

Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, St Patrick’s Cathedral, ‘Saint John the Evangelist East Melbourne’ https://www.cam1.org.au/cathedral/en-au/History/Saint-John-the-Evangelist-East-Melbourne, accessed 26 September 2025.

Funeral card, ‘Stasys Seduikis’, Australian Lithuanian Archive.

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; 266, SEDUIKIS Stasys born 10 October 1922 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4260285, accessed 27 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B44, Immigration case files, annual single number series with 'V' [Victoria] prefix, 1955-; V1969/48207, Seduikis, Stasys, 1948-1970; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=25979622, accessed 26 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B44, Immigration case files, annual single number series with 'V' [Victoria] prefix, 1955-; V1969/48208, Seduikis, Ona, 1948-1970; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=25979623, accessed 26 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; MT848/1, General Personal Files, 1955-1955; Seduikis, V1955/42471: Seduikis, Ona born 1928, 1955-1955; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9546663, accessed 26 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; SEDUIKIS STASYS, SEDUIKIS, Stasys : Year of Birth - 1922 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 662, 1948-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203696971, accessed 26 September 2025.

Šeštokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe, Displaced Persons and the North Camp, Sale, Vic, Little Chicken Publishing, pp 91, 123.

Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1988) ‘A.+A. Ona Šeduikienė’ (‘RIP Ona Seduikis’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 8 November, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1988/1988-11-08-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 26 September 2025.

Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1989) ‘Iš Mūsų Parapijų’ (From our Parish’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 7 November, p 7, https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1989/1989-11-07-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 25 September 2025

Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1990) ‘Iš Mūsų Parapijų’ (From our Parish’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 30 January, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1990/1990-01-30-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 25 September 2025.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (2005) ‘Australija, A.A. Stasys Šeduikis’ (Australia, In Memoriam Stasys Seduikis) Mississauga, Ont, 26 April, p 7 https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/2005/2005-04-26-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 26 September 2025.

Wikipedia, Lehrte, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehrte, accessed 25 September 2025.

Wikipedia, Povilas Plechavičius, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Povilas_Plechavi%C4%8Dius, accessed 26 September 2025.

Wikipedia, St Mary Star of the Sea, West Melbourne, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary_Star_of_the_Sea,_West_Melbourne, accessed 26 August 2025.

Žmona Elena, Stasio Šeduikio vaikai (Wife, Elena, Stasys Šeduikas’ children) (2005) ‘Padėka’ (‘Thanks’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland) Melbourne, 30 March, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/2005/2005-03-30-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 26 September 2025.