Povilas Laurinavičius, Another Who Left Australia, by Daina Pocius, Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskiene

Povilas Laurinavicius worked on his Lithuanian parent’s farm until August 1944. He then was conscripted into the Luftwaffe, the German air force, and taken to Westfalia in Germany.  He was expected to help build fortifications for the Luftwaffe.

He was born in Riga, now the capital of Latvia, on 18 May 1908.  This was during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II when, as in the Soviet era, workers moved wherever they were needed regardless of internal boundaries.

Personal records for members of the extended family are among those of the Palėvenė church, suggesting that the Laurinavičius farm was near this small town in northeast Lithuania.

Povilas’ migration selection record for Australia shows that he had 4 years of primary education and 4 years of secondary.  Again, he was more educated than many of the Lithuanian men selected for the First Transport.  He had no knowledge of English but he did know Lithuanian, Latvian, and something of Russian, Polish and German. 

Povilas Laurinavicius' photo in his immigration selection papers

Source:  NAA:  A11772, 174  

He had 15 years’ experience as a farmer and would be suitable for heavy labouring work.  He had wanted to migrate to Canada.

At the time of interview by the Australian team in October 1947, Povilas’ occupation was described as Lumber Worker.  He had been doing this work for the previous 2 years, that is, from around October 1945.

Heading towards 40 years of age, Povilas was one of the older DPs selected for resettlement in Australia after travelling there on the First Transport.  After arrival,  he was one of the 185 men sent to pick fruit in the Goulburn Valley on 28 January 1948.  He returned to the Bonegilla camp after only 2 weeks, so clearly the experience had not gone well for him. 

Povilas Laurinavicius' 1947 photo on his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA: A2571, LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS 

Then he was assigned to be part of the first group sent to work at Broken Hill Proprietary Limited’s Iron Knob mine in South Australia.  They left the Bonegilla camp on 19 February.

Povilas applied to have his sister, Bronė Minkevičienė, brother-in-law, Vytautas Minkevičius, niece, Regina-Marija, and another female relative come to Australia.  Research by Rasa Ščevinskiene has shown that the other female relative, Alina Bonasevičius, was his brother-in-law’s older sister.

There’s nothing on the sponsorship file apart from the application, which Povilas signed off on 3 November 1948.  The absence of any other paper or comment on the file is strange, but the date of application was only 11 months after he came to Australia.  He had not been in Australia for long enough to lodge a successful sponsorship. 

He needed only to try again after 28 November, marking 12 months’ residence.  Nothing on the file suggests that he was told that or attempted it.

A search for Povilas’ brother-in-law in the Arolsen Archives reveals that the sister, brother-in-law and niece left Germany on 8 August 1951 to resettle in the United States.  They left on the General Muir, a sister ship to the General Stuart Heintzelman.

Povilas’ sponsorship application tells us that he had moved on from Iron Knob to what probably was safer employment and better paying also.  He was still in rural South Australia but at Woomera, working for the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Works and Housing.  He was earning nearly £11 per week (£10/19/10). This was at a time when the minimum wage was only £5/19/-.

We know from the story of Romualdas Zeronas that the pay at Iron Knob was £6/8/- each week. 

An index card recording Povilas’ changes of address and workplace, which had to be reported to the Department of Immigration by any resident alien under the Aliens Registration Act, advises that Povilas’ move to Woomera was on 27 May 1948.  He was released from his contractual obligation to work in Australia for 2 years on the same date as the vast majority of the other Heintzelman passengers, 30 September 1949. 

His next move was to Glenelg in suburban Adelaide, where he lived and worked at the Pier Hotel from 23 January 1950.  The mysterious initials M.W. suggest another change of employer when he changed his residence to Gilles Street, Adelaide, on 4 April 1950.

The Pier Hotel, Glenelg, was clearly on the coast, as was his next move, to Semaphore Road, Semphore, only 4 weeks after moving to Gilles Street, on 1 May 1950.  His records were transferred to the Melbourne office of the Department of Immigration from the Adelaide office on 10 October 1951, marking a move from the State of South Australia to the State of Victoria.  We do not have access to the Victorian records yet.

There is one Victorian record in Mūsų Pastogė, though. In its 23 June 1958 edition, this newspaper included him in a list of people who had donated £1 each to support the elderly, sick and injured Lithuanians who were still in Germany.

Cards indicating a move to Tasmania and then New South Wales are available from the National Archives of Australia, however.  They show that on 4 April 1960, he was living on Weld Street, South Hobart and working as a wharf labourer—hard physical work for anyone but especially a man now aged nearly 52. 

By 9 March 1962, he had moved to Elizabeth Street in the middle of Hobart.  Presumably he was working still as a wharf labourer.  The records were transferred to NSW on 26 June 1962, probably after a move to that State.

Povilas left Australia around 1964 and moved to Chicago, Illinois. He was aged only 61 at the time of his death, on 16 November 1969, he was living at 6159 South Artesian Avenue, Chicago.

Povilas had been in America for only five years before his death.  He was mourned by his sister Bronė (Bronislava), her daughter, Regina, and Alina Bonasevičius, of Chicago—the very people he had tried to sponsor to Australia back in 1948.  Another sister, Joanna, and her family were still in Lithuania.

Povilas' death notice

Source:  Draugas, 17 November 1969

Bronė’s husband, Regina’s father, the Vytautas Minkevičius who Povilas had started to sponsor for migration to Australia, had died in New York State on 30 May 1953.  This was less than two years after arriving in the States and he was aged only 53.

His sister, Alina Bonasevičius, had been living at the same address as Povilas according to her death notice in Draugas, around 16 months after it carried the notice for Povilas.  It looks as if Povilas decided that, if rest of the family were settled peacefully in America, he would join them there instead, at 6159 South Artesian Avenue.

Povilas may have died early and overseas, but his name is stamped in Australian philatelic history. Tasmanian Stamp Auctions, in 2023, offered an envelope addressed by Povilas from the Bonegilla camp to ‘Mr’ David Jones (the department store, of course) at the corner of Castlereagh and Market Streets in central Sydney.  The envelope had been damaged when someone had torn off the stamp roughly, but someone else had recognised the value of its clear Bonegilla and nearby Wodonga postmarks.

The envelope had been in private hands, rather than the rubbish bin, for 75 years!  We cannot tell for how much it was sold, but can see that the starting price was $11.00.

Povilas' envelope, a registered letter sent from Bonegilla camp on 16 February 1948

Source:  Tasmanian Stamp Auctions

Namefellows

The only Arolsen Archives records currently available are for another Povilas Laurinavičius, born after ours, on 7 July 1909.  This Povilas Laurinavičius looked different, wore glasses, was a qualified and experienced lawyer, and resettled in the United States after his trip there on the USAT General M L Hersey, leaving Germany on 1 September 1949.

We found also that papers for a later DP immigrant to Australia, Povilas Laurinaitis, date of birth 8 April 1922, had been placed first on the selection papers file for our Povilas Laurinavičius (NAA: A11772, 174).  We have notified the custodian of those papers, the National Archives of Australia.

Sources

Draugas (1969), ‘A.†A. Povilas Laurinavičius’ [‘RIP Povilas Laurinavičius’, advertisement, in Lithuanian] Chicago, Illinois, 17 November, p 5 https://draugas.org/archive/1969_reg/1969-11-17-DRAUGASm-i7-8.pdf accessed 17 May 2025.

Draugas (1971), ‘A.†A. Alina Bonasevičius’ [‘RIP Alina Bonasevičius’, advertisement, in Lithuanian] Chicago, Illinois, 5 March, p 7 https://draugas.org/archive/1971_reg/1971-03-05-DRAUGAS.pdf accessed 24 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (1958) ‘Pinigai gauti’ [‘Money received’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, 23 June, p 5 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge /archive/1958/1958-06-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 17 May 2025.

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A261, Application forms (culled from other file series) for admission of Relatives or Friends to Australia (Form 40) (1953-61); 1948/592, Applicant - LAURINAVICIUS Povilas; Nominee - MINKEVICIUS Vytautas;Bronislarma; Regina- Marijan; BONASEVICIENCE Alima; nationality Lithuanian (1948-48) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7861148 accessed 17 May 2025.

National Archive 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 (1947-47); 174, LAURINAVICIUS Povilas DOB 18 May 1908 (1947-47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1834754 accessed 16 May 2025.

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series (1946-76); LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS, LAURINAVICIUS Povilas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 (1947-51) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9180525 accessed 17 May 2025.

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1183, Registration cards for non-British migrants/visitors, lexicographical series (1944-76); 16/317 LAURINAVICIUS, LAURINAVICIUS, Povilas born 18 May 1908 - nationality Lithuanian (1947-62) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=60155147 accessed 17 May 2025.

National Archive of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] (1947-56); LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS, LAURINAVICIUS, Povilas : Year of Birth - 1908 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number – 571 (1947-48) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203619595 accessed 17 May 2025.

Tasmanian Stamp Auctions (2023) '(CN1961) VICTORIA · 1948: cover with damaged front bearing a clear strike of RELIEF No.3 used at Bonegilla Immigration and Training Camp and a nice strike of the rubber boxed WODONGA datestamp (3 images)' https://www.tsauctions.com/listing/cn1961-victoria-1948-cover-with-damaged-front-bearing-a-clear-strike-of-relief-no3-used-at-bonegilla-immigration-and-training-camp-and-a-nice-strike-of-the-rubber-boxed-wodonga-datestamp-3-images/15125?fbclid=IwAR0BAnFLvsaiQtpdk8UmkXRRjTDaiv6BdO9qk-pSzIWdyzIq-C0y0XJaP_8  accessed 24 May 2025.

Jonas Jakaitis (1919-2010), Australian Citizen, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskienė

Jonas Jakaitis was one of the 62 men from the First Transport, General Stuart Heintzelman, sent to Bangham in South Australia to work for the SA Railways.  He became an Australian citizen at the same 1953 Adelaide ceremony as his fellow SAR worker, Hugo Jakobsen.  At the time, they were photographed together for posterity by the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper.  What else do we know about him?

Hugo Jakobsen (left) and Jonas Jakaitis (right) at their 15 April 1953 citizenship ceremony

Source:  Adelaide Advertiser, 16 April 1953

Rasa Ščevinskienėhas found an index to the South Australian Railways (SAR) records which shows that, having started with the others at Bangham on 15 January 1948, Jonas left the SAR on 11 July 1952.  He had been released from his work contract earlier though, on 30 September 1949.

From the Adelaide News newspaper of the day after Jonas obtained Australian citizenship with Hugo, 15 April 1953, we know that Jonas now described his occupation as ‘motor mechanic’. 

Jonas was born in Lithuania on 4 July 1919.  Rasa has discovered a 1942 census of Lithuania online, which tells us that he was the oldest of four children fathered by Juozas Jakaitis.  Jonas and his sister Ona, born in 1924, had a mother who had died when they were young. 

Naturally Juozas looked for another mother for his children and married again, in March 1930.  With Agota, he had two more children, Augustinas, born in 1930, and Marijona, born in 1937.

The family lived in the tiny village of Ziliai, which is 7 kilometers from a much larger settlement of Kiduliai.  Ziliai now is about 11 kilometers from the post-WWII border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, between Lithuanian and Poland.  Jonas always stated that Kiduliai was his birthplace, probably because his mother was more likely to find a midwife or other assistance there.

The census took place in April 1942.  It recorded that Jonas, aged about 23, and Ona, aged about 18, were already in Germany.

However, Jonas’ selection documents for migration to Australia say that he arrived in Germany in June 1944.  While this certainly is earlier than the more usual September-October 1944, it is not 1942.  Perhaps Jonas and Ona had returned to Ziliai when circumstances seemed better, only to decide to leave again.

The selection papers record that Jonas had had the basic 4 years of elementary school and was suitable to be a ‘medium labourer’ in Australia.  His occupation at the time of interview, on 24 September 1947, was ‘motor mechanic’ and he had been working at this occupation for the previous 13 months.  He previously had been a driver in Lithuania for 2 years.

His Lithuanian, of course, and German language skills were regarded as fluent, while his English was marked ‘fair’.

Jonas Jakaitis identity photograph from his selection papers

Source:  NAA:  A11772, JAKAITIS Jonas DOB 4 July 1919

Up to the point of his naturalisation ceremony on 15 April 1953,  a card kept in the Adelaide Office of the Department of Immigration records his changed of employer and residential address.  This was required under the Alien Registration Act 1947.

 

From this record, we can see that his first and last reported employment was with car manufacturer, General Motors Holden (GMH), where he was employed as a labourer.  He worked as a machinist at Pope Products from 19 November 1949 and several smaller companies for nearly 5 years.  He obtained the specialised position of fitter and turner with the South Australian Brush Company, better known as SABCO, from 16 August 1952 but only for two months.  He then moved back to GMH, again with the job title of labourer, but maybe because the pay was better.

 

That 19 November 1949 employment date with Pope Products and the later employment information conflict with the SAR record of Jonas staying in its employment until 11 July 1952.  A human error will have occurred with one of the records.  Of the two, the Department of Immigration record is likely to be the more accurate since Jonas would have had to report each change in address or employer in person.

 

We know little about the rest of Jonas’ life in Australia except that, in 1960, he donated £1 to a collection in support of Adelaide’s Lithuanian House.  The Reserve Bank of Australia says that what £1 would buy in 1960 would cost more than $35 now.  Perhaps we could think of Jonas’ donation as putting forward $50 now.

Jonas left a widow, Adele Milita, when he died on 1 April 2010 aged a remarkable 90 years.  His funeral took place on 12 April.  He is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Enfield Memorial Park.  

With a previous family name like Adele Milita Gleichforsch, his widow probably was a Baltic German but she also had been born in Lithuania.  Her German background would explain why a card kept by a Lithuanian Catholic priest lists her and the two older children of the family as ‘Eveng’ or Evangelical Lutheran.

The third child was born 8 years after the previous one.  Given that the oldest was born in 1946, when we understand Jonas to have been single, this could well be a melded family, with Adele bringing into it the two older children from a previous marriage.

Adele also lived to a robust age, 92, dying on 5 July 2015.  The Find A Grave Website photograph of Jonas' plaque in the Enfield Park shows a blank besides his name.  The exact place of burial is not recorded.  Adele’s place of burial is recorded as being within the Catholic section, despite her Lutheran faith.  In all probability, Jonas and Adele now rest side by side.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1953) 'Thrilled To Become Australians' Adelaide, 16 April, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48284822 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

[Church card], ‘Jakaitis, Jonas’, held by Australian Lithuanian Archives, Adelaide.

 

Find A Grave, ‘Adelle Milita Gleichforsch Jakaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202129584/adelle_milita_jakaitis accessed 9 April 2025.

 

Find A Grave, ‘Jonas Jakaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154554810/jonas-jakaitis accessed 9 April 2025.

 

Government of South Australia, State Records (2021) ‘Index, GRS 10638, Record of employment sheets – South Australian Railways’

https://www.archives.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/830188/GRS_10638-index-I-L.pdf  accessed 9 November 2024.

 

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, 1947-47; 93, JAKAITIS Jonas DOB 4 July 1919, 1947-47 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005526 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; JAKAITIS JONAS, JAKAITIS, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number – 493 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620759 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-76; JAKAITIS JONAS, JAKAITIS Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-53

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9187517 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-65; JAKAITIS J, JAKAITIS Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-53 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4077737 accessed 10 April 2025.

'Personal file of JAKAITIS, IONAS, born on 4-Jul-1919, born in KIDULIAI', 3.2.1. / 79213085 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79213085 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator’, https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html accessed 9 November 2024.

 

Šeimos Surašymas 1942 Metais (Family Census in 1942) (Search Results for Jakaitis Jonas) https://eu3.ragic.com/genealogija/census/3/13586.xhtml accessed 9 November 2024.

 

The Advertiser (1953) ‘Thrilled to Become Australians’ Adelaide, 16 April, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48284822 accessed 9 November 2024

 

The News (1953) ‘13 Migrants to Become Aussies’ Adelaide, 15 April, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134289724 accessed 9 November 2024.

 

My family's memories of Juozas Nakas (1923–1975) by Diana Bučiūtė

Diana Bučiūtė, who lives in Lithuania, is a niece of Juozas Nakas. 

Juozas Nakas was born on 17 March 1923, on a Lithuanian farm, as the second of 5 children. This farm was next to the Tapiališkis village in the district of Zarasai. In 1930, the family moved to the village of Velniakalnis, close to the town of Rokiškis. Juozas spent the rest of his time in Lithuania there.

Juozas Nakas (right rear) with his family, 1937-38

Source:  Private collection

In Rokiškis he attended school and later worked as a manager of the Lietūkis shop, Lietūkis being the Lithuanian Association of Agricultural Cooperatives.

In 1940, Lithuania was occupied for one year by Soviet forces. They were repelled in June 1941 by the forces of Nazi Germany. According to memories of Juozas’ elder brother, Osvaldas, in 1943, “The Germans wanted some military help and Lithuanian politicians probably considered that a Lithuanian military unit would be useful for reestablishing Lithuanian independence. So, our famous Plechavičius made a deal with the Germans to draft Lithuanians who could be used only within Lithuanian borders. About 12,000 men volunteered.

"The Germans broke the agreement and started to round up the men for paramilitary work in Germany and other places. When news of round up spread, the majority of men escaped. The Germans caught only around 3000, but they including my brother”.

Juozas' sister Birute is 95 years old and still lives in Lithuania. She remembers that she went to see her brother when he was imprisoned in the Rokiškis primary school building. Juozas came to the window, and she spoked with him from outside. It was the last time when she saw her brother.

Juozas Nakas in Lithuania, 1940

Source:  Private collection

In 1944, war swept Juozas’ brother, Osvaldas, to Germany. According to his memories, he was trying to find out where Juozas might be, so on 3 February 1945 he went to Berlin, to the Lithuanian information centre (Central Stelle) on Friedrich Strasse, but he found no address for his brother. “And then a Fliegeralarm [air raid siren] sounded, so everybody on the streets started to run to hiding places ... I went to my U-bahn [subway] station. Later I found out that this was the biggest bombing of Berlin, with a thousand planes participating”.

Like other refugees, Osvaldas lived in Displaced Persons (DP) camp.  He had the job of camp leader. “A big part of the job was to screen and accept new applicants for living in our camp. One new applicant, when he came in, asked me whether I had a brother named Juozas (Joseph). 

"He told me that Juozas was hospitalised in Norway with a fracture of spine.  The accident happened when soldiers were transported from Norway to Germany and cargo fell on him when he pretended to be brave and did not move from a dangerous area.  I had not known where my brother was for about 2 years since he had been taken away by the Germans as a member of General Plechavičius' army. 

"Now I had a chance o get in touch with my brother, but no mail was allowed to other countries. So I asked Major B for help.  He sent my letter to a Consul in Norway, asking him to locate my brother. I received my brother’s address, in a hospital. My brother had registered as a civilian. 

"Soon all foreign or German refugees were transported to Germany, including my brother when his fractures had healed. The rule was that you could claim your relative if you could support him.  So I wrote a statement that said I am Juozas' brother and, as a camp leader, I can guarantee his support. I needed to travel to to the city of Kiel to pick him up. It was a great reunion.”

Juozas in Germany, 1945

Source:  Private collection

As Osvaldas wrote in his letter to his sister Birutė from Düsseldorf, dated 12 June 1947, he corresponded with Juozas from January 1946, and in the [northern] summer of 1946 they met at last and settled together.

Osvaldas (left) with Juozas in Germany

Source:  Private collection

Osvaldas was accepted into the Academy of Medicine in Düsseldorf. In letters written in 1947 to his sisters he mentioned that he visited Juozas in the city of Stade.

In his memoir he wrote, “My brother was quite restless in the DP camp and he signed up for emigration to Australia, England and Canada, but Australia was the first one to accept him, so he emigrated to Australia before I graduated. He used to send me some money from Australia.”

Osvaldas graduated in 1948 with a MD [Doctor of Medicine] degree, and emmigrated to the US in 1949.

Juozas Nakas arrived to Australia on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, on 28 November 1947, aged 25.  After a few days' stopover in Perth, Western Australia, he travelled with the other 838 DPs accepted for resettlement to eastern Australia on an Australian navy ship, the Kanimbla.  On 8 December, the group arrived at the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre in northern Victoria, where they lived until a decision was made on where they would work under the contract they had signed in return for resettlement.

Juozas was one of ten men selected to work for a timber company, CJ Row Webb & Anderson, leaving Bonegilla on 14 January 1948.  The company was headquartered in the suburb of South Melbourne, but its forestry operations were in central Victoria.  Even today, the road trip between Bonegilla and Thornton takes more than two and a half hours.  There is no other means of travel between these two small places. 

Juozas (right) with CJ Row, Webb & Anderson colleagues at Thornton in 1948;
Lithuanians Edvardas Lapinskas at left and Bernard Matkevičius in the truck cabin look on,
while the man in the white shirt is an Estonian, probably Helmut Nurmsalu

Source:  Private collection

Back then you could have your photograph printed onto the other side of
preprinted postcard paper, which Juozas has done in this instance,
although it looks like the message to Osvaldas was sent inside an envelope

Source:  Private collection

On 4 May 1955 in Melbourne, Juozas married Alice Patricia Pierce, of Irish origin. He wrote to his brother that he was happy to have a hardworking, serious, honest wife and that they had bought a house in Richmond, Victoria. He became an Australian citizen on 26 January 1964, Australia Day.

Juozas (left) with Alice and a friend, Melbourne

Source: Private collection

For more than ten years, Osvaldas in USA, as well as his parents and two remaining sisters in Lithuania had no news about Juozas. In 1974, Osvaldas met a woman from Australia in Chicago who had known Juozas earlier. She promised to try to find him. This woman found Juozas, called him and gave him Osvaldas' address. So Osvaldas at last received a letter from Juozas and informed his sisters, “He writes that he is well, he still works at the port, he has his own house, already fully paid for, he has four children” (letter to Birute, 16 December 1974).

Osvaldas let Juozas know that their parents had passed away. On Christmas Eve in 1974 he called Juozas, and they had their first conversation in 27 years.

Juozas in Melbourne, a photograph sent to Osvaldas in 1974

Source:  Private collection

Osvaldas and his sisters were very happy at last to have news from their brother but he was already ill and passed away in Melbourne on 21 January 1975, aged only 52. He was buried in Springvale Cemetery.

Juozas' name has been added to the Welcome Walls of migrants who came by sea through Fremantle, at the West Australian Maritime Museum which is located there

Source:  Private collection

OTHER SOURCES with Rasa Ščevinskienė

‘Bonegilla migrant experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, Juozas Nakas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203717189 accessed 17 March 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia (1964) ‘Gazette’, Canberra, 7 May, p 1675 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241032399/25999342 accessed 17 March 2025.

Find A Grave, ‘Joseph Nakas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231347053/joseph-nakas accessed 17 March 2025.

Find A Grave, 'Alice Patricia Nakas‘ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231347052/alice-patricia-nakas accessed 17 March 2025.

Government of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum Welcome Walls, 'NAKAS, Juozas (Joseph), Fremantle Panel 132‘ https://museum.wa.gov.au/welcomewalls/names/nakas-juozas-joseph accessed 17 March 2025.

‘Nakas, Juozas, AEF DP Record’ [‘American Expeditionary Forces Displaced Persons Record’] 3.1.1.1 / 68379412 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68379412 accessed 17 March 2025.

‘Nakas, Osvaldas, Refugee/Displaced Person Statistical Card’ 3.1.1.1 / 68379417 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/68379417 accessed 17 March 2025.

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

Algirdas Undzenas (1913 -1979): Lithuanian factory director by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

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.

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 Zenė Undzenas. (Zenė‘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.

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.

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. 

'Liste der in der Kreigszeit in Norden wohnhaf gewesen Ausländer [List of foreigners residing in Norden during the war]' 2.1.2.1./ 70708684 and 70708685/ ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70708684 and https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70708685 accessed 6 March 2025.

Arolsen Archives (1980s) 2 Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees by Public Institutions, Social Securities and Companies (1939 - 1947) / 2.2 Documents on the Registration of Foreigners and the Employment of Forced Laborers, 1939 - 1945 / 2.2.2 Various Public Administrations and Companies (Documents related to individuals)

Cemety, Jonas Undzėnas, born: 1875, died, 1959 https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/1442572?type=deceased accessed 6 March 2025.

Evangeliku_reformatu_abecelinis_sarasas_XIX_a_pab-XX_a_II_puses [Alphabetical list of Evangelical Reformed people from the 19th century to the 2nd half of the 20th century] http://88.119.255.35:8888/metrikai/Evangeliku_reformatu_abecelinis_sarasas_XIX_a_pab-XX_a_II_puses.pdf accessed 6 March 2025 [p341].

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.