Updated 17 April 2023.
I have a photograph sent from Australia to Lithuania by my grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas. On the back is a note of one of the men’s names, Julius. I started looking for his last name. Among the Bonegilla migrant camp cards, I found a card for Julius Molis and realised that it was the same person.
I was excited because I thought I could find him or his descendants so I could learn more about my grandfather. This didn’t happen, unfortunately. You will understand why when you read Julius Molis’ story.In this photo from Adomas Ivanauskas, we have Julius first on the left, then Barbara, his wife-to-be, an unknown man, then Beryl and her boyfriend Adomas Source: Rasa Ščevinskienė |
Julius Molis born on 12 July 1923, in Telsiai district of Lithuania. His occupation in Lithuania was labourer. He was among the many who left Lithuania as the Soviet forces invaded it for the second time in 1944.
In Germany, he lived in Displaced Persons camp in the English zone. He left Bremerhaven, Germany for Australia with 842 other Baltic refugees on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947. Like the others in the group of 839 allowed to leave the Heintzelman in Fremantle, Western Australia, he stayed for four days before continuing eastwards on the HMAS Kanimbla. The group then travelled by two chartered trains to the part of Bonegilla army camp set aside for them.
Bonegilla card for Julius Molis, 1947 Source: NAA |
The first mill in the world to produce newsprint from eucalyptus hardwood was opened in the Tasmanian town of Boyer by Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd (APM) in 1941.2 During World War II, it was able to keep ten Australian dailies supplied with their paper, so serious wartime rationing of the major means of news distribution was not needed. In 1947, APM built a town about 50 road kilometres east of Boyer as a base for logging eucalypts in the nearby Florentine Valley. This town, Maydena, is where Julius and others were sent.3
When I started looking for more information about Julius Molis, I found a sad report in the Tasmanian newspaper, the Mercury, from 6 December 1949. The title of the article was Man Found Hanged in Cell. Let’s read what was the report.
‘Molis was arrested at New Norfolk about 10 pm on Sunday on a charge of having attempted to operate a motor cycle while under the influence of liquor.
‘About 8.30 am yesterday a police officer went to the cell and found Molis hanging with his feet about nine inches from the floor. He was dead.
‘An inquest will be opened at New Norfolk today’.4
Julius Molis' photo from his immigration selection papers Source: NAA |
Julius Molis' headstone in the New Norfolk Old Council Cemetery Source: Gravesites of Tasmania |
It is sad that Barbara did not become Julius Molis’ wife and they did not live a long and happy life together. The traumas of World War II had caught up with him.
That was not the end of the matter for officialdom though. International Refugee Organisation (IRO) records now held in the Arolsen Archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany, show that, on 10 May 1950, the Acting Head of the Australian Military Mission in Berlin, asked the IRO to inform the next of kin (NOK) of the deaths in Australia of 7 Displaced Persons or, as he put it, New Australians. Five of the deaths were due to drowning (but not including Aleksandras Vasilauskas) or other accidents, while Julius Molis was one of two suicides. The last item on the file, dated 25 July 1950, is an internal IRO message asking for the status of enquiries about next of kin, as the Australian Government was pressing for a reply.6
FOOTNOTES
2. Boyer Newsprint Mill, New Norfolk, 1941-‘, Engineers Australia,
https://portal.engineersaustralia.org.au/heritage/boyer-newsprint-mill-new-norfolk-1941, accessed 30 January 2023.
3. ‘Australian Newsprint Mills‘, The Companion to Tasmanian History, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/A/Australian%20Newsprint%20Mills.htm, accessed 30 January 2023.4. ’Man Found Hanged in Cell’, The Mercury (Hobart), 6 December 1949, p 8, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26665433, 'Man Found Hanging', The Examiner (Launceston), 6 December 1949, p 5, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/52707905/4676682, ‘Found Hanging in Cell’, The Advocate (Burnie) 6 December 1949, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91766087, all accessed 30 January 2023.
5. 'Family Notices', The Mercury (Hobart), 6 December 1949, p 20, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26665617, accessed 30 January 2023.6. 'Personal file of MOLIS, JULIUS, born in the year 1926, born in TELSIAI', Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/81104345?s=julius%20molis&t=3173288&p=0, accessed 30 January 2023.OTHER SOURCES
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; 808, MOLIS Julius DOB 12 July 1923; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3010055, accessed 6 March 2023.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1182, Personal case files for non-British migrants who are deceased, lexicographical series; MOLIS, Molis, Julius [Lithuanian]; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1923533, accessed 6 March 2023.