Algirdas Undzenas had been a factory director in his Lithuanian homeland.
He graduated from the Birzai gymnasium (senior high school), then studied at the Klaipeda Trading Institute. With 8 years of secondary education and 3 years of tertiary in addition to the usual 4 years of primary, Algirdas was among the most educated of the Lithuanians to resettle in Australia via the 1947 USAT General Stuart Heintzelman voyage.
He finished his studies in 1938, when he was 24. He then worked in Šiauliai as a deputy director of a factory called Maistas, which is Lithuanian for Food. He continued as a director of this factory until he forced to leave for Germany in 1944.
The Maistas factory had been built in Šiauliai in the 1932. Pigs were slaughtered and processed here, mainly for export.
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| Maistas factory in Šiauliai, Algirdas' workplace,1940 Source: Facebook, Lietuva sensose fotografijose |
He had been born on 4 October 1913, in Klausuciai village, Biržai county. His parents were wealthy farmers, Jonas and Zene Undzenas. (Zene‘s maiden name was Kregzdaitė.)
The Australian selection panel's record of interview with Algirdas says that he was "forcibly evacuated by the Germans". A manager of a factory processing animals into food definitely would have been an asset for the Germans.
There's a discrepancy, however, between "forcibly evacuated by the Germans" and Algirdas' arrival date in Germany, from a record preserved in the Arolsen Archives, of 1 October 1944.
Since the Soviet forces captured Lithuania's capital city, Kaunas, on 1 August 1944, we should expect Algirdas to have been on his way out of what would become part of the Soviet Union by then. All who had experienced the Soviet occupation between June 1940 and July 1941 knew what to expect. In particular, factory managers would have expected nationalisation and their replacement by operatives loyal to the new regime.
We could have expected the German military to retreat more quickly than the two months between 1 August and 1 October. It is possible that "forcibly evacuated by the Germans" was a standard term used by those typing out the interview schedules, at the request of the Australian interviewers, to cover a range of events. It certainly appears on a number of the interview reports if not most of them.
Two of five Arolsen Archives records for Algirdas in Germany after World War II shows him in the coastal town of Norden. This is around 50 kilometres west of Bremerhaven, the port from which he left Germany with 842 others on 28 October 1947. He had arrived in Norden from a larger German town, Oldenburg, on an unknown date. The main document is itself dated 1949.
Both Norden and Oldenburg were in the British Zone of occupied Germany at the end of World War II. As British production of food and other essentials had been damaged by German bombing or reduced due to the workers' absence in the British armed forces, conditions in the British zone were worse than those in the American zone.
Three other records in Algirdas' name have a different birthdate, 19 October 1904 rather than 4 October 1913. It's possible that this date is a type of faulty anagram, with the 13 having been lost in the process. If it is our Algirdas and not a relative with the same name, he was in the Bavarian town of Kitzingen from 8 February 1945 to an unknown date. Two documents recording this have January and August 1948 dates.
The third item is from a card index was initially compiled at the beginning of the 1980s from a large number of smaller card files. These were originals of index cards from various registration offices, employment offices, private companies and from the health sector. His card in this index also has him in Kitzingen from 8 February 1945, but says that he reached Germany on 1 October 1944.
From this card too, it seems that he earned survival money in Kitzingen by working as a gardener. It is not apparent that there was a Displaced Persons camp in Kitzingen, but perhaps Algirdas wanted to join a friend who had managed to settle temporarily in this town.
Depending on how far away from Lithuania Algirdas got together with the Germans, he may have taken a lengthy land route like that of Valentinas Dagys. Alternatively, he may have managed to reach the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, about 160 kilometres west of Šiauliai and still more than 2 hours travel by road. From a landing in coastal Germany, he may have worked his way west by rail or walking to Norden, through Oldenburg, to move away from what became the Soviet zone of occupied Germany.
According to this theory, he then worked his way south to Kitzingen, again through Oldenburg. If trains were running again from Norden to Oldenburg when he left, the journey would have taken at least 90 minutes. To travel by train from Oldenburg to Kitzenen now takes more than 4 hours.
At the time of his interview for Australia in September 1947, Algirdas was living in the Buchholz camp in Hannover. Fortunately for him, this was one of several interviewing points for the Australian selection team. Kitzingen was in the American Zone, so why Algirdas returned to the harsher conditions of the British Zone by moving to the Buchholz camp is another unknown.
At the age of 34, he was ten years older than the average age of the Heintzelman group. He also differed from nearly all the Lithuanians through having been brought up in an Evangelical Reformed family, rather than a Roman Catholic one.
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| Algirdas' Undzenas identity photograph Source: NAA: A2571, UNDZENAS ALGIRDAS |
On his Bonegilla migrant camp card, Algirdas had an official add the name and address of his fianceé in the Address of Next of Kin area. She was Else Frerich from Oldenburg. Algirdas must have spent enough time there after September 1944 to form a relationship with Else which he hoped would lead to marriage. His plans to create a family did not materialise, however.
Algirdas Undzenas spent his first week outside the Bonegilla camp in the Albury District Hospital, from 30 January to 6 February 1948, as did several others from the First Transport. It is likely that they were here for medical checks rather than work. Tuberculosis still was dreaded then, explaining why our Displaced Persons had a chest X-ray as part of the selection process in Germany and another one when they got to the Bonegilla camp. Other illnesses may have displayed themselves.
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| Blackie House, Albury Hospital Source: Facebook, AlburyCity |
Perhaps the Bonegilla X-rays had detected calcification in the lungs which had been missed by the German X-rays. Calcification might be a sign that the patient had had TB previously and might still be at risk to themselves or others.
The most modern building on the Albury District Hospital campus had been open for only one year. Blackie House, opened in February 1947, was a maternity unit was funded by money from the will of John Blackie, a local pharmacist. [Golly, thinks Ann Tündern-Smith, it probably was where my mother gave birth to me and where other Bonegilla babies were born in 1948 and maybe later!]
Back at Bonegilla, Algirdas was sent to work with the State Electricity Commission (SEC) at Yallourn, Victoria, on 12 February 1948. He probably worked in Yallourn Power Station. His friend, Karolis Prasmutas, worked there too.
The first group of 48 for Yallourn from the First Transport, led by English-speaking Arnold Siinmaa, had left the Bonegilla camp on 15 January, so Algirdas was nearly one month late. Josef Šeštokas’ Welcome to Little Europe book focuses on the first 48, so Algirdas gets only a passing mention. He was included on a list of those attending English-language classes organised by the SEC at Arnold’s suggestion, a list which Arnold still had when he moved house during 2007.
Algirdas appears not to have sought Australian citizenship, so we do not have a public record of his movements from 1948. The Melbourne Office of the Department of Immigration kept a card recording his changes of residence and employment, insofar as he reported them, but this is yet to be digitised.
This means that the next public record we have for Algirdas is from 29 June 1978. On that day, he was seriously injured in a traffic accident in Melbourne. He walking from a public library with books and was hit by a car while crossing the street.
Left unconscious, he was taken by ambulance to the Austin Hospital. During more than nine months, however, he rarely regained consciousness despite the great efforts made by doctors. During all the time he was in the hospital and in a convalescent home, friends Aleksandra and Vytautas Bieliauskas did what they could to look after him.
Algirdas died 9 months later, on 9 April 1979. At the Tobin Brothers Chapel on 12 April, he was farewelled in prayer by Fr P Vasaris. Karolis Prašmutas, who had come to Australia with him on the First Transport, provided an eulogy. He was buried that day in the Fawkner Cemetery, accompanied by a large number of Lithuanian people.
By a twist of fate, this Protestant is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery. That is likely to be so that he can lie with his fellow Lithuanians in exile.
Algirdas was unmarried and had no relatives in Australia. In occupied Lithuania, he still had two living brothers: Petras, born in 1904, with his family, and Jonas with his. Another brother, Konstantinas, born in 1905, and a sister, Ona, born in 1911, both had died in 1916, suggesting some sort of epidemic in wartime conditions.
Algirdas’ parents, Jonas and Zene, his sister, Onutė (or Ona), and brother, Kostas (or Konstantinas), are buried in Klausuciai village cemetery in the Birzai district of Lithuania. His father died in 1959 and his mother in 1962. This means that after Algirdas left Lithuania, his parents did not see their son again.
In Australia, Algirdas kept aloof, with his truest friend being a book, according to Karolis Prašmutas. He did care for Lithuanian community life though, so when the Melbourne Lithuanians bought their own building, he donated £100 to the cause.
Sources
Albury City, 'Nurse on Call' https://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/leisure/museum-and-libraries/exhibitions/nurse-on-call accessed 7 March 2025.
'IRO (BZ) Form 102, Family Name, Undzenas' 2.1.2.1./ 69554139 / ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69554139 accessed 10 March 2025.
'Kategorie III, Form 7, Gemeinde Kitzingen [Category III, Form 7, Kitzingen Community] List of all allied Nationals and all other Foreigner, German Jews, and stateless etc. who were temporarily or permanently stationed in the community, but are no longer in residence, Nationalität, Litauen [Nationality, Lithuanians]' 2.1.1.1. / 69975936 / ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/69975936?s=undzenas&t=548522&p=0 accessed 10 March 2025.
'Kategorie III, Form 7, Landstadt Kreis Kitzingen, Gemeinde verachiedene [Category III, Form 7, Country Town District, Different Communities] List of all allied Nationals and all other Foreigner, German Jews, and stateless etc. who were temporarily or permanently stationed in the community, but are no longer in residence, Nationalität, Litauen [Nationality, Lithuanians]' 2.1.1.1. / 69975941 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69975941?s=undzenas&t=548522&p=0 accessed 10 March 2025.
Cemety, Jonas Undzėnas, born: 1875, died, 1959 https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/1442572?type=deceased accessed 6 March 2025.
National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; UNDZENAS ALGIRDAS, UNDZENAS, Algirdas : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number – 706, 1947-48 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203721886 accessed 6 March 2025.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series, 1926-52; 82, GENERAL HEINTZELMAN - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 - nominal rolls of passengers, 1947-52; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 6 March 2025 (page 10).
Find A Grave, Algirdas Undenas,https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140678679/algirdas-undzenas accessed 6 March 2025.
JP (1979) Algirdas Undzėnas Musu sparnai [Our Wings] Chicago, Illinois, June, p 76 https://spauda.org/musu_sparnai/archive/1979/1979-nr46-MUSU-SPARNAI.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.
Prašmutas, K (1979) ‘AA Algirdas Undzėnas’ [‘RIP Algirdas Undzėnas’] Tėviškės Aidai [Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne, 5 May, p12 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1979/1979-nr17-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.
Prašmutas, K (1979) ‘Mirusieji, Mirtis Eismo Nelaimėje’ [‘The Dead, Death in a Traffic Accident’] Mūsų Pastogė Sydney, 7 May 1979, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1979/1979-05-07-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.
Šeštokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe Sale, Victoria, Little Chicken Publishing, pp 118-9, also available in part from Google Books, eg, https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Welcome_to_Little_Europe/PqDgc5KKfvIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=karolis+prasmutas&pg=PT231&printsec=frontcover, accessed 16 April 2023.
Wikipedia, Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Evangelical_Reformed_Church accessed 7 March 2025.
