Jonas Antanaitis is or was such a common name for Lithuanians that there were 2 of them born on the same date in exile in post-War Germany. They even had fathers with the same name, Antanas Antanaitis. The birthday they had in common was 16 November 1923. Fortunately, we can tell them apart because their mothers had different names.
That’s even though it is obvious that officials in Germany got them muddled. The one whose mother’s maiden name was Stase Gaspariunaitė had been born in Krekenava and wanted to go to Australia (which actually was a rare first choice). His usual occupation was Farmer. He was sent to the United States with his wife and 2 children on 14 September 1950.
The other one gave his first choice for resettlement as “Democratic Lithuania Free From the Occupation”. He had been born in Surviliškis, Kėdainių County, to a mother whose maiden name was Morta Kaspariniukė, but raised by his grandmother. His usual occupation was Agricultural Worker. As an unmarried man, he was lucky enough to be able to leave camp life in Germany in October 1947, on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman bound for Australia. One of his forms has been marked with “his” later departure date for the USA.
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| The wrong Jonas Antanaitis has been sent to the USA in the Displaced Persons records held by the Arolsen Archives Source: Arolsen Archives |
There was an older Jonas Antanaitis, born in June 1908, who came to Australia too. We'll do our best to keep them all separate.
After 5 weeks including Christmas 1947 and New Year’s Eve 1948 in the Bonegilla camp, our Jonas was one of the 26 men, including 12 Lithuanians, sent to work on the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme in northeast Victoria on 14 January. This project has been discussed earlier, but we are yet to find any material on their living and working conditions.
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| Jonas Antanaitis from his 1947 selection papers for migration to Australia Source: National Archives of Australia |
An obituary published more than 60 years after his arrival in Australia says that he was a painter while contracted to the Australian Government to work where sent. “Where sent” included the city of Geelong in Victoria. He moved to the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, even larger than the Kiewa Scheme where he had started and located in southeastern New South Wales. Had he been a native bird, he would have found that flying roughly 150 Kilometres due west from wherever he was in the Snowy Scheme would have brought him back to his eastern Australia starting point, the Bonegilla camp.
On Australia Day 1965, Jonas became an Australian citizen from an address in Cooma, New South Wales, that is, from the nearest town to the Snowy Mountains.
It was while he was living in and near the Snowy Mountains that he often came to the Canberra Lithuanian Club to chat with compatriots over a glass of beer. Eventually he moved to Canberra, in 1968 according to the Canberra Lithuanian Community records.
There he met his Polish friend Stefanie, with whom he lived for over 30 years, until his death on 8 April 2008.
He chose to live in Narrabundah, then a very southern suburb in Canberra and on the highway to the Snowy Mountains. Presumably, return trips were a priority in his thinking.
The Canberra Lithuanians had scant information about Jonas’ life and family in Lithuania, because he was reserved and did not talk about himself. This was confirmed by his life partner, Stefanie. For instance, they thought that he came from Zarasai County, not the birthplace he had nominated on 1945 American forms.
They understood that Jonas was serving in a Lithuanian army unit on the Eastern Front in 1941. As the Germans moved in, his unit withdrew to Romania. After the war, Jonas settled in the Goettingen refugee DP camp in the British zone, according to what was known to the Canberrans. This is interesting, because the documents which the Arolsen Archives have been able to digitise show him in the American Zone, in Assembly Centre 513, Weilheim, as of 20 December 1945.
There are at least 8 places in Germany called Weilheim. ChatGPT is confident that the Weilheim with Assembly Centre 513 was Weilheim in Oberbayern. You can find more details about this historic town in Wikipedia.
The interview for possible resettlement in Australia recorded that he had arrived in Germany in August 1944, presumably ahead of a Soviet advance. His reasons for coming to Germany were summarised as “to avoid Russian occupation of his country”.
He had 5 years of primary education, so one year more than the minimum, and was seen as suitable for work – would you believe, in the light of our 1 July entry – for “medium work” as a Builder’s Labourer. His application form for Australia says that the work he had done included “Building Appra.” (Building Appraisal or Approval?) and Technical Drawing for one year each in Lithuania, and one year of farm work in Germany. He said that he was fluent in Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and German.
After moving to Canberra, Jonas gradually became involved in community and Lithuanian Club events. When the Club needed a painter, it knew where to turn.
In 1982, he joined the Canberra branch of Ramovė, the organisation for former members of the Lithuanian military. In 1990, when the Ramovė members built an Unknown Soldier monument in the garden of the former Lithuanian Clubhouse, Jonas helped with the construction work and painted the wall. He was also on the Club Board from 1993 to 1995.
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| This page 1 photograph celebrating 40 years of the Ramove Canberra branch was published in Mūsų Pastogė 6 weeks after Jonas' death: He is 3rd from the left and the Chairman, Liudas Budzinauskas, is next to him, 4th from the left Source: Mūsų Pastogė |
Jonas was a sincere, friendly, pleasant person to talk to, but at the same time he openly expressed his opinions according to his obituarist, Liudas Budzinauskas, Chairman of the Canberra Ramovė branch.
In 2008, after intestinal surgery, he felt good, but then died unexpectedly on 8 April.
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| The photograph of Jonas published with his obituary shows a much younger man than the one in the Ramove photo Source: Mūsų Pastogė |
In his obituary, Liudas expressed the hope that Jonas Antanaitis would be remembered for a long time. This short biography is another endeavour towards that purpose.
SOURCES
Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection ‘Jonas Antanaitis’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203674045, accessed 3 July 2026.
Budzinauskas, Liudas (2008) ‘In Memoriam, A†A Jonas Antanaitis’ (‘In Memoriam, RIP Jonas Antanaitis’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 30 April p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2008/2008-04-30-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 1 July 2026.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1965) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, p 1670 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241019937?searchTerm=%22Antanaitis%20Jonas%22, accessed 3 July 2026.
Find A Grave ‘Jonas Antanitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/263467192/jonas-antanaitis, accessed 3 July 2026.
Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (2008) ‘Canberros “Ramovei” — 40 metų‘ (‘Canberra Ramove — 40 years old’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 21 May, p 1 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2008/2008-05-21-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 3 July 2026.
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; 11, ANTANAITIS Jonas DOB 16 November 1923, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=5005454, accessed 3 July 2026.
Wikipedia 'Weilheim in Oberbayern' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weilheim_in_Oberbayern, accessed 3 July 2026.
