We’ve met Vaclavs many times already in this blog, as the author of a diary which includes his trip to Australia and his first work deployment at a granite quarry at Pyramid Hill.
Details of his life have been sourced from family history as provided by Vaclavs’ sister Erasma (Riga), entries in his 1943-1955 journal, information from the Pyramid Historical Society, family papers and Vaclavs’ photo collection, pieced together with recollections of daughters Tereza Wright, Kris Nash and Monika Kozlovskis.
Vaclavs Kozlovskis was born in Daugavpils, Latvia, on 20 September 1924. He was the ninth child of Tereza Girvičs and Stanislavs Kozlovskis, and the youngest by 10 years.
On 14 June 1941, following an earlier wave of deportations by the Soviets in 1940, over 15,000 Latvians (including 2,400 children under the age of ten) were rounded up, many of them later perishing in the harsh conditions experienced in Siberia. These included people in leading positions in state and local governments, economy and culture, also educators, soldiers, farmers, and their families.
We have explored some of this in the blog already in an entry subtitled, Why We are Here in Australia.
There's more on Latvia specifically on several Websites, namely, June 1941 mass deportations remembered across Latvia, Deportations of 1941 and 1949 and About the Exhibion.
Below is an excerpt from the On Latvia website, specifically, its page headed The occupation of Latvia (1940-1990), with content written by Augustinas Žemaitis.
"The brutality of First Soviet occupation (1940-1941) was such that it has been named the Year of Terror. All Latvian property was nationalized. Some 35,000 were arrested, murdered or expelled to inhospitably cold Siberia – most never to return. One percent of all Latvians (15,000) were expelled to their deaths in Siberia in (the) single night of 14 June 1941, alone.
"So terrible was the Soviet occupation that many Latvians welcomed the new occupation by Nazi German forces in 1941 as a relief. Not the Jews, however, who were the new target set by Nazi Germany. (Over 5,0000 were killed, expelled or fled)."
It is understandable that Vaclavs noted in his memoirs, "I was itching to tackle the hated Russians, who had caused so much pain to the nation and crushed everything sacred under their boots … The start of October 1943 brought me the long-awaited call and on the evening of 5 October, I arrived at Paplakas Estate to begin my soldier’s life."
Stanislavs drove his 19-year-old son to the station, and the last memory Vaclavs had of his mother was looking back to see her still standing, weeping, on the banks of the Daugava.
Training in a newly created Latvian Legion commenced. Vaclavs was selected to be a battle messenger, perhaps because of his shorter stature and youth, which as he wrote later required him to dart amongst the trenches dodging "hurricane fire".
Vaclavs writes that, on 21 March 1945, Major Hazners presented him with an Iron Cross, Second Class, for his bravery during a battle on 7 March near Hill 314, Ostrova district. (The medal certificate still exists.)
Following further battles on the front, starvation, and suffering one of the coldest winters in European history with woefully inadequate equipment, Vaclavs and others avoided capture by the Russians and their firing squads by surrendering to the US army on 2 May 1945.
So began his life as a prisoner. Eventually he transferred to 2227 POW camp in Zedelgem, Belgium, until discharged on 27 March 1946. Vaclavs later referred to it as ‘a bitter cup of sorrow’.
He became an official Displaced Person on the day after discharge and lived at Alt Garge, a camp on the Elbe River, Germany. There he worked as a labourer in forestry, as a photography lab assistant, and occasional interpreter. He and his constant companion Arvids also enterprisingly travelled to other towns for onions and herrings to bring back to sell and barter for cigarettes and coffee, valuable trading items at the time.
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Vaclavs (top right) with Alt Garge forestry workers 1946/47
Source: Kozlovskis collection |
Vaclavs also continued his studies, graduating from the Latvian Gymnasium/High School at Alt Garge on 15 March 1947. At this point he left Alt Garge to pursue his seafaring dreams at the DP Navigation and Sea-Engineering School, Flensburg. He passed his Second-Mate (Foreign-Going) exams on 4 October 1947. Sadly, Vaclavs was never to fulfil his dream of working at sea.
On 30 October 1947, shortly after his twenty-third birthday, Vaclavs joined others on a train from Diepholz to Bremerhaven, from where they boarded the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman and set sail for Australia on the first transport of Baltic immigrants. He kept a daily journal and also photos of the voyage. Vaclavs’ interest in photography was most likely influenced by his older brother, Mikelis, who owned a photographic studio in Riga before the war.
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The journey begins: Diepholz, 30 October 1947
Source: Kozlovskis collection |
The Heintzelman berthed at Fremantle on 28 November 1947, from where Vaclavs had a short stay in the Swanbourne military camp. He arrived at Bonegilla Migrant Camp with the others from the ship on 8 December 1947.
Soon after, an Australian film crew filmed his English language class, and thus he appears in a film reel held by the National Film and Sound Archives, Canberra, repeating the immortal words, "There are more peas in this jar". This reel was randomly discovered by his daughter while viewing an SBS series called Australia in Colour, when Vaclavs’ face unexpectedly appeared on the screen!
On checking his journal, it was noted that he recorded this visit by the film crew on 16 December 1947, which assisted in locating the original newsreel held by the National Film and Sound Archives. The colourised series, Australia in Colour, which includes excerpts from the newsreel, can be viewed on Youtube or SBS on Demand.
(The original newsreel is titled Cinesound Review No 0845, Balts in Camp, New Citizens Learn our Mode of Living.)
In January 1948 Vaclavs travelled to Pyramid Hill, Victoria, to commence the two-year work contract required by the Australian Government. He began as a rock-splitter, progressing to powderman, or blaster. Vaclavs and his fellow Balts were unprepared for the reality of undertaking heavy labour during the ferocity of the Australian summer.
However, Vaclavs enjoyed his introduction to Australian culture and what he saw as its welcoming people, who included him and others in town events like working bees and excursions to the local swimming hole. He relates many after-work trips into town with fellow workers to attend local dances and tennis matches, interspersed with partying, eating at Naschke’s café, and occasional visits to the Catholic church.
St Patrick’s Church was comfortingly familiar to Vaclavs, who wrote that the church accoutrements and priest’s robes were the same as those in Latvia, and that apart from the language spoken, it could even have been the same priest. He recorded that, on 11 January 1948, Father O’Connor spoke glowingly of the 800 Balts who had come to Australia, of their lost homeland, with reference to the seven who had come to work in the quarries.
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A moment of respite at Pyramid Hill:
Vaclavs in on the ground at the far right
Source: Kozlovskis collection |
While at Pyramid Hill, to his great surprise and joy, Vaclavs received a postcard from his sister Erasma in Riga. He’d written faithfully to his family over the years, despite receiving no reply.
When Erasma visited Vaclavs in 1988, she explained that his letters hadn’t been delivered by the local post office in Latvia because of Soviet rules. Then one day a friend of the family happened to be filling in at the post office when another letter arrived, so she surreptitiously delivered it. They now knew he was alive and in Australia.
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Pyramid Hill, 9 November 1948,
with Vaclavs in the centre
Source: Kozlovskis collection |
Following disagreements between the workers at Pyramid Hill and the foreman McDonald and his sons, some of the men including Vaclavs transferred to other workplaces. Vaclavs went to Rocklands Dam, western Victoria, on 26 November 1948, where working and living conditions improved. He received his discharge notice on 3 October 1949, after the work contract was shortened in line with changed government policy.
After Vaclavs left Rocklands Dam, Roberts and Veronika Krims, old family friends from Latvia now living at Picnic Point in Sydney, offered to house him until he was settled. On 22 October 1949, his friends, Peteris and Indrikis, drove him as far as Hamilton, from where he caught a flight to Sydney via Melbourne. From Melbourne the plane flew through a storm, complete with lightning, heavy rain and a strong wind shaking the plane.
Next day Vaclavs visited the employment office and started checking adverts in the Herald, from where he found his first job, at Malleable Castings Ltd in Marrickville. Although it was a heavy job, the wage was good, and he enjoyed the work.
During this period Vaclavs was surrounded by old and new friends and enjoyed many fishing expeditions around Picnic Point.
On 18 January 1950, Vaclavs began work as a tram conductor at the Newtown depot of the Department of Road Transport and Tramways, later moving to lodgings on Cleveland St, Redfern, so as to be closer to his work.
Life took an unfortunate turn only 6 months later, on 20 June 1950, when Vaclavs was struck by another tram while on the job. This left him in a coma for six weeks. He wasn’t expected to survive and so his broken leg wasn’t set.
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Vaclavs saved this photograph and article about his time in hospital in his journal:
the original appeared in the Sydney Sun of 14 August 1950
Source: Kozlovskis collection |
This resulted in further hospital admissions over the years to at least 1955 (when his journal ends), with several surgeries to deal with infections and to remove sections of leg bones, and ever-appearing bone fragments. It involved lengthy stints in hospital and rehab. Fortunately, Vaclavs received workers compensation during this time, with stints on light duties.
The complicating issue was that, as a tram conductor, he was required to run up and down an outside platform on the moving tram, collecting fares, and one of his legs was now significantly shorter than the other. Such duties also caused his leg to swell, resulting in further surgeries and hospitalisations.
During this time Vaclavs somehow made contact with Elza Nora Gravitis, a young Latvian who had travelled to Australia from Germany with her mother and four other siblings, arriving on 4 March 1950 on the third DP voyage to Australia of the Stuart Heintzelman. Elza, aged 18, and older sister Maija were fulfilling their two-year work contract as nurses' aides at a hospital in Parkville, Melbourne.
By 25 May 1951, Vaclavs and Elza had met three times, no simple feat considering that he lived in Sydney and she was working in Melbourne. On Tuesday, 4 September 1951, Vaclavs flew from Mascot airport to Melbourne on Trans-Australia Airlines, noting that the Melbourne beer served on the flight was superior to that found in Sydney.
Feeling nervous, he proposed to Elza that evening. She later accepted, with the proviso that first she would complete the last six months of her work contract.
They travelled together to Mildura several days later so Vaclavs could meet his mother-in-law-to-be, Alma, a widow. The custom in his family was that a daughter’s suitor would place a bottle of beer on the table in front of his prospective father-in-law. If the father accepted the bottle and poured two glasses for a toast, it signified that the proposal was approved. As Alma didn’t drink, Vaclavs drank it for both of them. And many years later, this custom was revived by some of his four daughters, to his delight.
Vaclavs then discovered that getting married wasn’t as simple as he’d expected, due to the logistics of the ceremony happening in Sydney and also discovering that Elza was Lutheran, unlike himself who was Catholic. He felt strongly the absence of his own family to help with all the arrangements.
Finally, all hurdles were overcome, including Vaclavs secretly having to re-purchase the wedding rings after they disappeared with his wallet on public transport after a visit to the Krims family. He was too embarrassed to tell Elza, who was back in Melbourne by then, and it’s not clear if he ever did.
Vaclavs and Elza married on 12 January 1952 at St Mary’s Catholic Church, North Sydney, with the reception held at a friend’s house in Merrylands.
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Elza and Vaclavs on their wedding day
Source: Kozlovskis collection |
After the wedding and a honeymoon at Katoomba, Vaclavs and Elza lived at Panania, followed by Centennial Park, until finding more suitable accommodation on Toxteth Road, Glebe Point. Elza found work nursing in a nearby psychiatric hospital, possibly at Gladesville.
Vaclavs was naturalised as an Australian citizen on 27 November, 1953. At that time he was once more working as a tram conductor after having received the all-clear from his doctors on 9 September 1952. Once again, this was to prove temporary. At the time of the last entry in his journal, on 24 August 1955, Vaclavs had had further leg surgeries and was contemplating moving to Merrylands, where he lived the rest of his life.
Eventually Vaclavs re-trained, qualifying as an Electric Driver on the 23 March 1955. Another certificate shows attainment of a ‘Tentative Licence’ to drive a Departmental Motor Omnibus. His daughters recall travelling with their mother by train to Central station, where Vaclavs provided an adventure for his little girls by letting them sit in the front at the top of the double-decker bus after his shift, while he took the otherwise empty bus on a spin along his bus route to La Perouse.
Some years later he received a final workers compensation settlement from the Tramways Department. He and Elza then bought a milk run, until, due to the declining health of both, it was sold and Vaclavs retired to casual taxi driving.
Though Vaclavs never returned to Latvia, his sister Erasma visited Australia in 1988 for a heart-felt reunion.
Vaclavs died in 1993 after a long illness and is buried in the Independent section in Rookwood Cemetery. During his illness he had difficulty eating, but translated all the recipes from the Latvian cookbook Ikdienai un Svētku Galdam (For Everyday Life and the Festive Table) by Ņ.Masiļūne, a final gift to his daughters in his neat handwriting, now shaky with illness.
Though the trauma of his past experiences never left him, Vaclavs made the best of the hands that Fate had dealt him. He is remembered by his daughters as an intelligent, kind, sociable man who suffered various misfortunes but still loved a joke and took in any strays, be they human, feathered or four-legged. Rather than kill cockroaches he would throw them over a neighbour’s fence. He loved his family and grandchildren, fishing, playing chess, doing the grocery shopping, and collecting stamps.
REFERENCES
Sun (1950) 'Unconscious 6 weeks, better', Sydney, NSW, 14 August, p 7 (Late Final Extra Edition), http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230931005, accessed 19 October 2026.
Žemaitis, Augustinas (nd) ‘On Latvia, The occupation of Latvia (1940-1990)’ https://www.onlatvia.com/the-occupation-of-latvia-1940-1990-78, accessed 20 October 2026.
