Ona Matulionytė was a fully trained nurse with something like 18 years of experience when she came to Australia on the First Transport in November 1947. As she had managed to reduce her age to get on the ship and out of Germany, she possibly was the oldest passenger. Even claiming to be born in 1907 rather than 9 years earlier made her the oldest Lithuanian woman on the voyage. The story of how she got to this point is difficult reading.
When the Soviet military still controlled Lithuania in 1941, Ona was arrested by the NKVD, interrogated, and sent to the Kaunas Hard Labor Prison. After the Germans invaded from 22 June 1941, Ona was released. When the Soviet forces approached for the second time, at the end of the 1944, she knew that she had to flee westwards.
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| Ona Matulionyte's photo from her Bonegilla card Source: Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup |
Ona’s recollection of her arrest by NKVD in the Kaunas Military Hospital on 5 May 1941 and subsequent interrogation is translated here.
Arrest
“The arrest procedure was as follows: on 5 May 1941, at 2 pm, a medical orderly came to inform me that the chief of doctors of the hospital was calling me. When I went, he announced that a catastrophe had occurred and that I would have to go for an operation.
“He did not say how or where. He also did not tell me what instruments to take. When I asked, he replied that I would find everything there. Then I got changed and, together with the chief surgeon of the hospital's surgical department and the hospital commissar Levgeyev, we drove to Vileišis Square in Kaunas.
“Another car was waiting for us there. The commissar got out and talked to them, and when he returned, he told us that there had been a second catastrophe, so we would give the nurse to them, and they would drive on. The second car, having picked me up, took me to the NKVD, where I was immediately interrogated.
Torture
“During the same interrogation, I was tortured. The interrogation lasted from 5 p.m. until 3 a.m. the next day. They wanted to know where the secret radio transmitter was, which Gestapo chief I was recruited to spy for, when, where and how much I received for it, and how many times I had been to Germany.
“I was interrogated 4 times in one month. The last interrogation took place on 6 June. They always interrogated at night. They interrogated me twice in the NKVD palace and twice in prison. While being transported, I was accompanied by 3-4 Russians. There were 5 people interrogating me: 2 Russians, 2 Jews and one Lithuanian.
“The interrogation procedure was as follows: when I answered that I knew nothing in reply to all the questions, a Russian hit me in the temple and someone else hit me in the back of the head. After severe blows, I fell and lost consciousness. When I came to my senses, I felt pain all over my body.
“When they saw that I had moved, they poured water on me and started beating me again with a rubber baton. While I was being beaten like this, I lost consciousness again.
“After that, they took me to the next room, opened the door and windows to create a draft, and made me sit there. They put iron shackles on me and did not allow me to close my eyes or move. When it got cold, I asked my two guards to close the door or window. They replied that they had no right to do this, but they could ask the officer on duty.
“The officer on duty came. When I asked him for closed windows or the door, he smiled ironically and sat me down with a chair in the doorway, where there was an extremely strong draft. I sat like that for 29 hours.
“I was only allowed to eat for the first time four days after my arrest. After that, threatening to shoot me, they took me to prison. In prison, they threw me into solitary confinement, where I spent 5 days.
“From solitary confinement, I was transferred to a sick cell. They brought medicine after two days only, and the doctor after 5 days.
“During the interrogation, they cursed me with the most disgusting words to which no intelligent person should listen.”
Ona's early life
Ona had been born on 21 December 1898 in the village of Antakalniai, in the Utena district of Lithuania. Her parents were Mykolas Matulionis and Ona Matulionienė, whose maiden name was Žvironaitė. Ona was born the third child in a family of 7 children. While their parents were farmers, the children pursued education and became prominent in pre-War Lithuania.
Ona studied at the Kaunas School of Nursing during 1924-26, then worked as a nurse in the operating theatre at the Kaunas Military Hospital until 1943 – apart from the NKVD interrogation and imprisonment with hard labour, from 5 May to 22 June or some days later in 1941.
During 1943 to 1944, Ona worked as a sister at the Kaunas Polyclinic. After moving herself away from the returning Soviets, Ona of course continued nursing in Germany, working eventually in the Hanau DP camp hospital.
Escape to Australia
Her papers must have been falsified to give on the birth year of 1907 and an age of 39 at the time of interview with the Australian team. Soviet forces were not that far away from Hanau at the time, occupying about 40 per cent of the former Germany. The thought of these neighbours must have spurred Ona on to move on as soon as she could. On 28 November 1947, she arrived in Australia on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman.
Bonegilla Camp
One of the early visitors to the newly arrived Lithuanians in the Bonegilla camp was T Kuodis with his wife, later Ona Baužiene. In the Mūsų Pastogė newspaper 30 years later, this Ona recalled how she was taken care of during the visit by her name fellow, Ona Matulionytė.
Nursing in Melbourne
From the Bonegilla camp, Ona was the only Lithuanian in a group of 6 women sent to work in the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg in Melbourne. Helgi Nirk, whose life has been recorded already by this blog, was another of the 6. At the time, the Hospital was operated by the Australian Government’s Repatriation Department, supporting former military personnel.
The Melbourne Herald newspaper of 5 January 1948 reported that they had begun training as nurses. Helgi’s previous relevant experience was as a student of agricultural science who had her own farm, so her experience at the Austin is no guide to Ona’s. Let us hope that her previous nursing enable Ona to speed through what the Austin was offering.
(The Herald journalist thought that “medical terms may be a tough obstacle in initial lectures”. In fact, they would have been the easiest part of the language challenge, as they are very similar from one European language to another.)
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| Source: Collection of Helgi Nirk, now in Estonian Archives in Australia |
We know nothing more of Ona’s nursing career at this stage but, thanks to the Lithuanian language press in Australia and America, we do know more about her personal life.
Ona's sister arrives
On 15 March 1948, her sister, now Valerija Kuncaitienė, had arrived in Australia with her husband, Justus, and 2 sons, Vytautas and Jaunutis. The port of arrival of their ship, the Wooster Victory, was Sydney, but they moved to Melbourne when they could – probably because Valerija’s sister had settled there already.
Ona joined Melbourne’s Lithuanian Women's Social Welfare Society in 1952, and became a board member. With Valerija, she was one of the most active members of this Society. Forty years later, at her funeral, a then member of the board was to say that the 1950s were a hard time for the group, as there was no Lithuanian House until 1965. Meetings were held all over the city, but Ona did not avoid difficulties and never complained.
We have a Melbourne address for her from when she became an Australian citizen, on 27 January 1959, living in South Oakleigh. Her address was at least an hour’s walk from the nearest railway station. A bus to that station plus the train to a Melbourne landmark, Flinders Street Railway Station still takes nearly one hour. It is 20 minutes at least by tram from the Station to the Lithuanian Club in North Melbourne, plus there’s a walk from the train platform to the tram stop.
Unless Ona had the resourcefulness and money to get herself driver’s training, a licence to drive and a car, she could have felt quite isolated in South Oakleigh. The alternative would be having a Lithuanian with a car and similar interests living nearby. Might this have been members of the Landsbergis family?
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| Ona Matulionytė (standing, third from left) with architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis (fourth from left) and his son and daughter with their families, in Melbourne, 1959 |
An American visit
From the New York-based newspaper Tėvynė, we know that Ona Matulionytė and her sister Valerija spent the northern summer of 1966 travelling around America and Canada. The newspaper guessed that they would have met with their brothers there, Balys and Pranas. Tėvynė was pleased that the visitors had made a point of visiting its premises.
Marriage
Later, Ona married Canberra resident Vladas Miniotas after his wife, Adele, had died in 1967. While living alone, Vladas had met Ona, proposed to her and married her in 1969. Ona was about 71 years old when she agreed to this major change in her life! It seems that they moved back to his former home town, Sydney, another major change. Vladas, born in 1902, had been a police chief in Lithuania.
During her Sydney years, Ona continued her participation in local Lithuanian life. She always conscientiously attended and supported all events in the community and supported youth, scouts, a folk dance group, and the Daina choir financially.
Deaths
After 15 years of marriage, in 1984 Ona’s husband died. Four years after that, and at the advanced age of 90, Ona’s health started to fail. She was invited to live with her sister’s older son, Vytautas Kuncaitis, back in Melbourne. He and his family cared for her until her lack of health meant a nursing home. There she died on 21 August 1992.
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| The grave of Vladas Miniotas in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney Source: Billion Graves |
The funeral mass for Ona was on 25 August in St John’s Church, East Melbourne, adopted by the Lithuanians as their own, followed by cremation in Melbourne’s Fawkner Cemetery. Her ashes were collected, presumably for scattering somewhere else, so she does not have a burial place or plaque.
Conclusion
Surviving the NKVD torture and going on to live 93 years altogether indicate one tough woman. On the other hand, her nursing training and experience also would have taught her healthy living after her WWII experiences.
Ona's brothers
Two of her brothers, Balys and Pranas, were especially well known.
Balys was a medical doctor and a director of the Birštonas Resort. The year that Balys turned 22 was the year in which the Russian Revolution occurred. He had been studying at Petrograd Military Medical Academy. He traveled around Russia, organizing Lithuanian schools and shelters, and represented the People's Party in a Russian Lithuanian parliament in Petrograd.
During 1927–1938, he was the chief physician of the Kaunas Military Hospital and the head of its Physiotherapy Department established through his efforts. In 1938 until 1940, as a colonel of the military medical service, he was a consultant to the Kaunas Military Hospital. He was particularly interested in balneology, the study of the medical use of natural springs, such as that found at Birštonas. He too was arrested and imprisoned by the Communists during 1940-41.
In 1941, he became the director of the Kaunas Tuberculosis Hospital, and also headed the Physiotherapy Department of the Vytautas the Great University Clinics. In 1941–44, he was the governor of the Main Health Board.
He is on record together with the priest Simonas Morkūnas, after a massacre of some 50 Kaunas Jews, of having appealed to Archbishop Juozapas Skvirckas on behalf the Jews of Kaunas on 28 June 1941. He interceded to save about 500 nursing nuns, Sisters of Mercy who had trained his own sister, and about 30 doctors from being sent to the War’s eastern front. He also prevented the murder of patients in the Kalvarija and Vilnius psychiatric hospitals.
Pranas Matulionis was the youngest of the seven, born in August 1909, so 14 years younger Balys. He was only 30 years old when Lithuania found itself being traded between the Soviet Union and Germany, so had not had the same amount of time as his oldest brother to excel.
After graduating from a military school in his home province, he started to study medicine in the Lithuanian University but, one year later, transferred to the humanities. One year later again, in November 1930, he joined the Lithuanian Army, attending the Military Academy. On graduation, he was given the rank of Second Lieutenant and became a platoon commander in the 7th Infantry Regiment.
In November 1936, he transferred to military aviation and was promoted to Lieutenant. Two years later, he became head of the Military Aviation Commandant's economic unit.
It may well have been his involvement in aviation which had him in the public eye. Lithuania is the country which still honours the failed 1933 attempt of pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas to reach Kaunas from New York, non-stop, just as Australia honours the efforts of early pilots to fly across wide oceans to this country, and Amelia Earhart who failed. Pranas moved to military aviation only 3 years after Darius' and Girėnas' mission.
Pranas was fortunate to miss out on the fate of many Lithuanian officers during the Soviet occupation. The Germans appointed him mayor of the city of Alytus. His view that the German mobilisation of Lithuanian men in 1943 was illegal led to his arrest for sabotage, however. Balys was able to have him released from prison after several months and placed in a health facility.
Both Balys and Pranas feared the Soviet return and left for Germany in 1944, then emigrated to the USA.
SOURCES
Australian Cemetery Index, ‘Inscription 10423466 - Vladas Miniotas’, https://austcemindex.com/inscription?id=10423466, accessed 17 September 2025.
Baužienė, Ona (1977) ‘Pirmąjį transportą prisimenant‘ (‘Remembering the first transport’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 19 December, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1977/1977-12-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.
Billion Graves, ‘Vladas Miniotas’ https://billiongraves.com/grave/Vladas-Miniotas/36564419, accessed 18 September 2025.
Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Ona MATULIONYTE’, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203611715, accessed 17 September 2025.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1959) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, 11 June, p2055 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240999179/25981104, accessed 17 September 2025.
Dirva (Soil) (1974) [Three death notices for Balys Matulionis 1895.05.21-1974.12.01, in Lithuanian] Cleveland, OH, 4 December, pp 7-8 https://spauda.org/dirva/archive/n1974/1974-12-04-DIRVA.pdf
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, baptism record number 7, parents Mykolas Matulionis and Ona Žvironaitė) https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267506507/276386475/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=6, accessed 17 September 2025
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Meiliūnienė, S. (1992) ‘Laidojant A. † A. Oną Matulionytę Miniotienę atsisveikinimo žodis’ (‘Farewell speech at the funeral of Ona Matulionytė Miniotienė’, Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland), Melbourne, 1 September, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1992/1992-nr34-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.
Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1984) ‘Mirusieji, A.A. Vladas Miniotas’ (‘The Dead, RIP Vladas Miniotas’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 22 October, p 2 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1984/1984-10-22-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.
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Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1992) ‘Musų Mirusieji, Su Ona Miniotiene Atsisveikinant‘ (Our Dead, Saying Goodbye to Ona Miniotiene‘, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 31 August 1992 p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1992/1992-08-31-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.
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Partizanai: istorija ir dabartis (Partisans: History and the Present), ‘Lietuvių Archyvas Bolševizmo Metai IV’ (‘Lithuanian Archives, Year Of Bolshevism IV’, in Lithuanian) https://www.partizanai.org/failai/html/bolsevizmo-metai-IV.htm, accessed 17 September 2025.
Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1992), ‘Is mošų parapijų, Melbournas’ (‘From the parishes, Melbourne’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 28 April page 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1992/1992-nr16-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.
Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1992), ‘Is mošų parapijų, Melbournas’ (‘From the parishes, Melbourne’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 1 September, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1992/1992-nr34-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.
Tėvynė (Homeland) (1966) ‘Viešnios iš Australijos’ (‘Guests from Australia’, in Lithuanian) New York, NY, 2 September, p 3 https://www.spauda.org/tevyne/archive/1966/1966-09-02-TEVYNE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.
Vikipedija, ‘Balys Matulionis’ (in Lithuanian) https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balys_Matulionis, accessed 16 September 2025.
