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| 'Jonas Mekas Overlooking Kassel/Mattenberg DP Camp in 1948', a photograph by his brother, Adolfas Mekas. The photograph was part of an exhibition of current art trends, documenta 14, in 2017, held every 5 years in the city of Kassel. |
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| Jonas Švitra's ID photograph, as used on at least two of his migration documents Source: National Archives of Australia |
Despite his farming experience, it looks like Jonas was put to work as a labourer in a mill processing flax at Lake Bolac, near Ballarat. That certainly was where he and his Australian partner were working until a couple of months before their Melbourne eviction hit the news.
Worried by the health of Mabel’s seven-year-old daughter, who has been in a Brighton convalescent home, they moved to Melbourne. At first, they stayed with Mabel’s relatives while they searched for accommodation. The shortage of places to live in Melbourne was then so severe that they finished up in an empty hut in the Camp Pell housing area (Herald 1952a).
Camp Pell had started in early 1942 as a US Army transit camp called Camp Royal Park after its location just north of the Melbourne Central Business District. Its name was changed to Camp Pell after Major Floyd Pell, a member of General Douglas Macarthur’s staff. He had been the first US Army Air Corps member to come to Australia, checking out the suitability of the Darwin area for B-17 bombers. He had been killed during a Japanese air raid on Darwin in February 1942 (Dunn 2020).
By 1946, Camp Pell had become home to around 3,000 people experiencing the post-war housing shortage. Many of these families needed temporary accommodation, having been directly affected by 'slum’ reclamation policies. It was one of at least 4 similar camps in inner Melbourne but the most notorious, with some newspapers nicknaming it 'Camp Hell' (Commonwealth of Australia 2019).
Jonas and Mabel moved into an empty hut, empty because it was condemned, with two of their children. Mabel was working with a dressmaking firm but Jonas had been unable to get work for some time. He was registered with the Commonwealth Employment Service but could not keep in close contact because he had to stay home and mind the baby he had fathered with Mabel.
They moved into the hut on a Friday. On the following Monday, a police constable arrived with four men from the State Accommodation Office, wanting Jonas to open the door. Jonas said he would wait until his wife returned. The door was then broken down and their belongings put out on the ground between the rows of huts.
Mabel said their relatives could not take them back and she did not know where the children would sleep that night. The State Accommodation officer said they were trespassing. Mabel said she had asked him earlier for help but he had refused. The Accommodation official said that he could not remember this (Herald 1952a).
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| The evicted Svitra family Source: The Herald, 13 October 1952 |
That night they took shelter in another empty hut, staying for two days. Then the authorised tenant arrived, and caretakers supervised removal of the family’s belongings to the ground between huts again.
The couple made their home next in a communal laundry at the Camp for several nights before friends found a space for them. Other friends cared for the children (Herald 1952b).
Thanks to the intervention of a Member of the State Parliament, who read about the family in the Melbourne Herald, they were found a home in Ararat. Their savings were down to £10 only, not enough money to get there. Then Jonas gratefully accepted 10 shillings which had been sent to the Herald for him by an anonymous sympathiser. The Herald was the newspaper which had run with the story from its start.
A third reader, a City businessman, paid the fares for the whole family to travel to Ararat. He then took up a collection in the office building where he had his business, to pay for transporting the family's luggage. “I just thought I would like to help them”, Mr K Glynn told the Herald. The newspaper assured its readers that Jonas Svitra would be able to get a job in Ararat, despite his doubts on this score (Herald 1952c).
During this time, the Herald published two letters from readers shocked by the family’s story. “It’s a scandalous way to treat a family with a sick child”, said Mona B Robinson from Deepdene (Robinson 1952). “Whatever Government is elected, citizens have a right to demand that it solve the housing problem”, wrote Mrs Dorothy Irwin from Parkville (Irwin 1952).
On 4 November, the Herald printed a “Thank You” statement from Jonas and Mabel. We want to thank the people of Camp Pell who stood by us in our need; The Herald for its reports about us; Mr Barry, MLA, for finding an emergency hut for us in Ararat: the people who broadcast our story, and the people who read about us, offered to carry our furniture to our new hut, and gave us money to reach our destination. Our experience has shown us that the unkindness of governments is not the will of the people (Švitra 1952).
Jonas and Mabel probably were the type of people who would have been able to make ends meet easily in a fair society, judging from advertisements in the Dandenong Journal (July 1952). This presumably was while they were living with Mabel’s relatives. Jonas was advertising his shoe repair skills while Mabel offered to take orders for hand knitting to any pattern. Both of them gave their address as care of Mr A Hill of Noble Park, a Melbourne suburb within the Dandenong area. It also probably was closer to the convalescent daughter than Camp Pell in Royal Park.
Hill was Mabel’s maiden name, as shown on the certification of her marriage to Jonas on 4 October 1955. Maybe Mr A Hill of Noble Park was a brother.
Their marriage took place after the divorce from her previous husband had come through in August 1953. It was a civil marriage in the Melbourne city office of the Government Statist. Their address was 5 Neylan Street, Ararat, so they had moved from their initial McGibbney Street residence.
Of interest is the occupations ascribed to both on the marriage certificate. Mabel had become a Mental Nurse, while Jonas was described as a Mental Attendant (Victoria, 1955).
Jonas acquired Australian citizenship on 23 September 1957, when he was still at 5 Neylan Street, Ararat (Commonwealth of Australia 1957).
What happened to the family over the next 23 years is not on the public record. The next available record is a death certificate for Jonas, who died on 31 August 1980, in Drummond Street, Carlton, an inner Melbourne suburb with lots of low-cost housing for students of the nearby Melbourne University.
It is clear that Jonas had become an almost anonymous individual, as his name is the only known detail of his life on the death certificate. It records no birth details, no period of residence in Australia, no marriage, no children, no parents. Even the stab at his age, 62 years, was an underestimate by 3 years (Victoria 1980).
What is at least as sad is the manner of his death: “Asphyxia due to aspiration of stomach contents”. We are no doctors, but Ann has come across this previously in another First Transporter who lived and worked in a hotel and who had spent all of his final Sunday morning drinking. Various articles on the Web, for instance, Novomeský et al (2018) and Vadysinghe et al (2022), confirm that this is a rare form of death in a previously healthy individual. It is more common in those who have been consuming alcohol or sedatives. An autopsy found coronary sclerosis also: plaque on the inner walls of the heart arteries. The coroner ordered the burial of Jonas’ body without an inquest, a legal inquiry into the cause of death (Victoria 1980).
More than 3 weeks later, he was buried in a public grave in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery. He was back to his temporary 1952 refuge of Dandenong City.
From the age of 15 years onward, Jonas’ life was one of war and turmoil with temporary moments of calm. May he now rest in eternal peace.
References
Arolsen Archives (nd) 3 Registrations and Files of Displaced Persons, Children and Missing Persons / 3.1 Evidence of Abode and Emigration / 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps / Folder 170: Kassel-Oberzwehren, DocID 81997634, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/81997634, accessed 27 August 2023.
Arolsen Archives (1946) 3 Registrations and Files of Displaced Persons, Children and Missing Persons / 3.2 Relief Programs of Various Organizations / 3.2.1 IRO “Care and Maintenance” Program, Personal file of SVITRA, JONAS, born on 21-Aug-1925, born in LIETUVA, DocID 79803711 – 79803712 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79803711 and https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79803712 accessed 10 September 2023.
Commonwealth of Australia (1957) ' Certificates of Naturalization' Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (National) 3 October p 2958 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232986660 accessed 10 September 2023.
Commonwealth of Australia (2019) 'Victoria – Place, Camp Pell (1946 - 1956)', Find & Connect, https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000676 accessed 10 September 2023.
Dandenong Journal (1952) 'Advertising' 23 July p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222360507 accessed 10 September 2023.
Dunn P (2020) 'Camp Pell, Melbourne, Formerly Camp Royal Park, During WW2' https://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/camppell.htm accessed 10 September 2023.
Irwin D (1952) 'Homeless' The Herald 25 October p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245289176 accessed 10 September 2023.
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 10 September 2023..
National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] (1947–56); SVITRA, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1925 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number - 1037 (1947–56) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203693580 accessed 10 September 2023..
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); 663, SVITRA Jonas DOB 21 August 1925 (1947–47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118086 accessed 10 September 2023.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42) (1937–48); 37/571, SVITRA Jonas born 21 August 1925; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947 (1947–47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7235050 accessed 10 September 2023.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents (1948–65); LITHUANIAN/SVITRA JONAS: SVITRA Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General S Heintzelman 28 November 1947 (1939–72) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30126217 accessed 10 September 2023.
Novomeský, F, M Janík, ST Hájek, F Krajčovič, and L Straka (2018) 'Vomiting and aspiration of gastric contents: a possible life-threatening combination in underwater diving' Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine 48(1): 36–39 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6467823/accessed 10 September 2023.
Papers held in the Lithuanian Archives in Australia, https://www.australianlithuanians.org/uncategorized/adel-arkhives/ accessed 25 May 2024.
Robinson MB (1952) 'Camp Pell Eviction' The Herald, 15 October p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245276695 accessed 10 September 2023.
Švitra J and M (1952) '"Thank You"' The Herald 4 November p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245286315 accessed 10 September 2023.
The Herald (1952a) ‘State Evicts Jobless Migrant’, Melbourne, 13 October p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245298488 accessed 10 September 2023.
The Herald (1952b) ‘Evicted Family Split-Up: Parents in Laundry' Melbourne, 21 October p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245284573 accessed 10 September 2023.
The Herald (1952c) ‘Got help for evicted family' Melbourne, 28 October p 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245279084 accessed 10 September 2023.
Victoria, State of (1955) 'Certificate of Marriage' Jonas Svitra and Mabel Carmen Hill 1236/55.
Victoria, State of (1980) 'Deaths in the State of Victoria' Jonas Svitra 31 August 1980 22400/80.
