Viknius brothers: Cyclone Tracy victim and his long-lived brother, Petras and Antanas, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Petras Viknius (1925-1974)

Cyclone Tracy is remembered still as one of the most devastating weather events to impact Australia. Sixty-six people were killed by it, including a First Transport arrival, Petras Viknius. Petras was been injured badly during the cyclone on Christmas Day 1974, and died 6 days later, the last day of the year. He was aged only 49.

Damage caused by Cyclone Tracy in the Darwin suburb of Wagaman:
in the foreground, whole houses have been wiped off their elevated foundations

Source:  National Museum of Australia

He had been born in Kaunas, Lithuania, on 2 October 1925 and recorded as having “fled from (the) Russian regime” to Germany when being interviewed for resettlement in Australia 22 years later. The interview record shows that he had completed 6 years of elementary schooling, plus 4 years of an apprenticeship to become a motor mechanic.

Petras Viknius from his 1947 selection papers for resettlement in Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

From the Bonegilla camp, he was one of the 64 or 65 men sent to Adelaide to work for South Australia’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) in early January 1948. He seems to have escaped from the group’s Bedford Park camp before his “two-year” work contract was over. In June 1949, he was admitted to hospital after his motorcycle collided with a car in the Adelaide suburb of Thebarton. His address in 2 newspaper reports of the accident was given as Cowandilla Road, Cowandilla, another Adelaide suburb.

Cowandilla Road, Cowandilla, also was the address from which he advertised his urgent need for a flat, rooms or a caravan for a young couple with one child in September 1949. The advertisement appeared in the Southern Cross, a newspaper published by the Catholic Church in South Australia. Presumably Petras was the male of the young couple.

If his contract with the Federal Government to work where sent had ended normally, it would have finished on 30 September 1949. We note that the newspaper reports of his accident describe his occupation as motor mechanic. 

It would be nice to think that he had returned to his preferred occupation but, instead, a record card kept by the Adelaide Office of the Department of Immigration suggests that he was employed as a labourer.  His employers, with the date of notification of each omitted, were the Highways Department at Murray Bridge, on the border with Victoria, HW & LG Kiswick of the former Adelaide suburb of Grassmere (now part of Kurralta Park), and Hume Steel of neighbouring Keswick.

By July 1950, Petras had moved to Milner Street, Richmond, and was working for R Mitchell and Company.  Google Maps suggests that the home address should have been recorded as Milner Road, Richmond.

In August 1951, Petras and his motorcycle had another meeting with the authorities. This time he was arrested for riding it “while so much under the influence of intoxicating liquor as to be incapable of exercising effective control”. In November that year, he was fined £30 with £7/16/- costs and suspended from holding a driver’s licence for nine months for the offence. Another charge, of having driven without due care, was dropped.

Just before the court appearance, in October 1951, Petras had reported that he still was living on Milner Street or Road but his new employer was the Wiles Manufacturing Company of Manchester Street, Mile End.  He lived maybe than half a mile (0.8 km) from his workplace.

Since Petras’ occupation at this time was given as Driver, the loss of his licence for 9 months must have had a major effect on his income. It could explain his change of occupation to Tradesman Assistant during January 1952 to November 1954 at Radium Hill, as recorded by Daina Pocius in her Australian Lithuanian History blog.

The Department of Immigration's record card confirms Petras' move to Radium Hill at that time, with a starting date of 29 January 1952.  

Radium Hill was Australia’s first uranium mine, worked between 1926 and 1931 on top of some older activity. After the SA Department of Mines commenced further exploration there in 1946, with a town developed, with a population of 1100 to 1200 peaking in the late 1950s. The mine was closed in 1961 and the town was deserted.

Petras' next move was reported as of 13 January 1955. It was to Hume Steel again — but in Hobart.  The residential address was reported as being on Orchard Grove, Springfield.  The street name and suburb no longer exist, but a Web search tells us that the Hobart suburb was incorporated into West Moonah.  The Hume Steel works were not in suburban Hobart, but 30 minutes drive along the Derwent River in New Norfolk.

The commuting time might have been one reason why this interstate transfer did not work.  There may well have been personal reasons as well.  Petras was back in South Australia only 3 months later or less.  This time his workplace was that of W Brown & Sons in Hindmarsh, where his occupation was noted as furnaceman.  He was living about 10 km away, on South Terrace, Plympton Park, still involving commuting but perhaps only 18 minutes' drive.

In October 1955, it was back to the courts again, this time to be found guilty of being drunk while driving.  This offence was added to the Department of Immigration's record card.

Since this was Australia, the drink driving could be overlooked for a citizenship application.  Petras became an Australian citizen on 5 April 1956, so 8 years after he had arrived.

That’s all we know of Petras’ life in Australia until it was ended by Cyclone Tracy striking Darwin, the Northern Territory’s capital city. In addition to killing 66, it injured hundreds and destroyed about 80 per cent of the city. Those who could left the city in its aftermath. In February 1975, the Australian Government established the Darwin Reconstruction Commission, which rebuilt the city in three years. The near-complete destruction of Darwin led to the introduction of improved building codes across Australia.

The plaque on Petras' burial place in Darwin:
the last line is Lithuanian for Rest in Peace

Source:  nataliegoes on Find A Grave

Presumably Petras’ relationship with the mother of one child had ended some time earlier, since it is only his brother in Hobart who gets a mention of the plaque marking his Darwin burial place.

The brother in Hobart, Antanas Viknius, in a photo supplied for 
his selection to migrate to Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Antanas Viknius (1918-1997)

The brother in Hobart was Antanas, 7 years older, who also came to Australia on the 1947 voyage of the General Stuart Heintzelman. Born in 1918, he was above the average passenger age of 24, which may be why had had to wait until late January 1948 for his first work assignment in Australia. 

We note that Australian documents on Antanas, plus his grave plaque, give his birth year as 1917 or a date of 30 July 1917.  The definitive document is a church record in Lithuania, which clearly shows Antanas being born to Antanas Viknius and his wife, Barbora, on 30 July 1918.

Antanas was one of the fruit-picking team sent to Messrs Dundas Simson of Ardmona.  He lasted there for more than 2 months, returning to the Bonegilla camp on 10 April.  Twelve days later, he was one of the 18 men sent to Railton, Tasmania, to work for the Goliath Portland Cement Company.

Antanas looks much more worn and older than his years
in this photo taken during October-December 1947 for his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

In From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, Ramūnas Tarvydas reports that their initial accommodation was shared huts in Goliath's single men's camp. The company soon built more huts from timber frames clad in “fibro cement” sheets made by Goliath. A folding iron bed, a mattress and a couple of blankets were provided to each man. Goliath then gave the men wood for making more furniture, but no tools. It eventually gave in on the question of tools, after which Antanas Viknius made the first set of furniture, to be copied by the others.

Thanks to Stephen Niaura, son of Povilas, Ann has a set of what are believed to be notes on the men compiled by Goliath for Ramūnas’ use. They show Antanas as one of 12 men who either “absconded” on a known date or “left of own accord”. Antanas and an Estonian, Endel Uduste, “absconded” on 28 February 1949, perhaps leaving Railton together.

In an earlier entry for this blog on the life of Endrius Jankus, we noted that Ramūnas’ book discusses 5 Lithuanians who decided that they had signed a contract with the Australian Government to work where sent for one year only and were not party to the decision, made while they were sailing to Australia, to change this to 2 years. Ramūnas reports on the 5 Lithuanians who had left Railton early in 1949, to whom presumably Endel Uduste should be added. The Lithuanians are known to have found various new jobs in Melbourne, where they were tracked down by the CES and sent letters directing them to return to Tasmania.

Failure to follow the direction would lead to deportation, the letters said.

Until the National Archives of Australia grants access to the file of papers relating to Antanas’ application to become an Australian citizen, we won’t know the likely details of what happened next.   From another file we do know that the date of grant was 3 October 1955, that is nearly 8 years after Antanas' 28 November 1947 arrival.

At the time of the grant, Anatanas was living in Springfield, presumably the Hobart suburb (there now being another Springfield closer to Launceston), but not at the Orchard Grove address given by his brother earlier in 1955.  Still, Petras might have boarded with his brother and family during his brief stay in Tasmania.

Antanas gave a sanitised account of his life in Australia to a Lithuanian-American newspaper in 1975, so more than 25 years after the events.  At the time, he and a daughter, Barbara, were visiting another brother who had settled in Chicago.  

Bronius Aušrotas in Dirva (Field) reported that “after completing a one-year employment contract”, Antanas got a job with a car company in Melbourne. He had to leave that job and return to Hobart, supposedly due to strikes. He remembered his first difficult years of work, including in a paint factory, until he finally learned a little English and got acquainted with the local business and living conditions.

Being talented and knowing those conditions, Antanas dared to start a risky job as a self-employed house builder. Although he had one setback, he did not lose courage and continued in the same line of work. Finally, he had managed to sell one house after another and earned enough not only managed to provide for his future but also saved enough to "throw away" about 8,000 Australian dollars for this trip.

Since Antanas was travelling with his daughter, that future presumably included a family as well.

We saw above the Antanas’ brother in Australia, Petras, had died at the end of the previous year from the injuries he received during Darwin’s Cyclone Tracy.  Although Antanas gave his reasons for travelling to America as wishing to visit his brother and friends from Lithuanian days, as well as show another country and way of life to Barbara, perhaps there was an element of doing something about his grief in the timing.  He certainly discussed his brother’s accidental death with Bronius.

Another event which doubtless caused some grief but which was omitted for the talk with Bronius was a housefire which Antanas and family experienced in May 1954.  During that fire, he lost his previous identity papers, which explains how we know about it on a Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Office, file.

We already have come across the 1933 visit to Lithuania of the founder of the Scouting movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, with his wife and a contingent of 650 British Scouts and Guides, when we learned about the life of Viktoras Žeimys.  Antanas and a friend he missed from those days, V Bacevičius, now a photographer, were members together of the Darius and Girėnas scout troop in Kaunas.  If you do not remember the story of airmen Darius and Girėnas, we have more in the life of Nikodemas Skidzevičius.

During the Baden-Powell visit, Viknius and Bacevičius had been selected to help with the catering.  They had so much work to do that they could not escape the field kitchen to mingle with the British visitors.  Decades later though, meeting together in the United States, they could reminisce about the day.  They could reminisce about how the President of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona, and the founder of Scouting had drunk together at the Palanga airfield the coffee that Viknius and Bacevičius had brewed.

Scouts reunite 42 years later: 
Antanas Viknius (centre) with V Bacevičius from Cleveland OH
and S Ilgūnas from Rochester, NY

Source:  Skautu Aidas

Photographer Bacevičius recorded another meeting which Antanas had with a friend from 1933, V Kizlaitis.  The emotions at this meeting must have been very mixed, since it took place outside the Cleveland, Ohio, premises of the Dirva (Field) newspaper which had been devastated by fire on 30 July 1975.  The printing press, other equipment, and extensive historical archives of a periodical founded 60 years earlier, in August 1915, had been completely destroyed.

V Kizlaitis with Antanas Viknius in front of the burnt Dirva building, mid-1975

Photographer:  V Bacevičius for Darbininkas (Worker)

Kizlaitis was an employee of the newspaper who lived on the premises, so he too had lost almost everything in the fire. At the time of the fire, Dirva was being published twice a week; we understand that it is still being published on the reduced schedule of twice a month. It did recover from the fire, and we have to hope the V Kizlaitis did also.

Antanas’ Mūsų Pastogė obituary by Steponas Augustavičius, in 1997, discussed his personal life. He had been married already in Lithuania, to Genovaitė Varaneckaitė in April 1939, but his wife and young daughter remained there when he found himself in Germany at the end of WWII.

According to the Dirva interview, Antanas had witnessed the surrender of the German forces to the Allies near Hamburg and found sanctuary in the Hanseatic German town of Buxtehude from 1945 to 1947.  This is contrary to what Steponas wrote, but the account from the man himself should be preferred.

Steponas' obituary noted that Antanas had joined the Lithuanian army when he was aged 20.   After his period of service, he moved to the army reserve as a non-commissioned officer. During the German occupation of Lithuania, he had worked in the Legion Speer as a truck driver.  His employment by the Legion Speer is confirmed by a card now in the Arolsen Archives, which also gives his wife’s address in February 1944.

The Legion Speer was a paramilitary motor transportation corps founded in 1942 and disbanded in September 1944.  The drivers and mechanics who were its members were non-German citizens, recruited in occupied Europe.  They provided motor vehicle transportation and logistical support for Organisation Todt, a civil and military engineering organisation.  While the German word for “death” is “Tod”, in this case, the Organisation Todt was named after its founder, Fritz Todt.

In Germany after the War, he had continued to work as a driver.  This time it was for the relief organisation, UNRRA, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

As Buxtehude was in the British zone of occupied Germany, and Britain had suffered greatly during the War, so that the zone residents were much worse off than those in the American zone, it was no surprise that Antanas grabbed the first opportunity to move on to resettlement during the northern autumn of 1947.

While in Railton, Antanas fell in love with a 19-year-old local, Beverley Best. He knew that his wife and daughter were alive still in Lithuania, so he could not marry her. Instead, Beverley married another Lithuanian from the First Transport sent to Railton, Henrikas Surkevičius.

Meanwhile, Kazys Alseika asked his shipmate, Antanas, to be groomsman when he married Marcia Ina Paul in Hobart on 5 January 1950.  The wedding made the social pages of the Hobart Mercury newspaper, on 28 February 1950, under the heading of Some Recent Tasmanian Weddings.

After he found out that Genovaitė had died, Antanas married a Scottish migrant to Australia, with whom he had 2 daughters, Barbara and Katrina.

In the Eiguliai cemetery in Kaunas, Lithuania, the 1957 grave of Barbora Viknienė (born in 1873) bears a handwritten plaque which says that her son, Antanas, is grieving for her. It is clear that Barbara is named after her grandmother.

The grave of Barbora Viknienė in Kaunas

The handwriten plaque which informs visitors that 
Antanas Viknius in Australia grieves for his mother

Source for both photographs:  Cemety.lt

Henrikas Surkevičius died quite early, in 1964, after only 16 years in Australia.  We hope to have more about him soon.   Antanas’ second wife died also, after which he and Beverley got together again.  During this time, he was able to visit Lithuania and his daughter there, Regina, after at least 47 years of separation.

As his health deteriorated, Beverly took care of him.  Death came on 9 December 1997. A funeral mass for Antanas in St. Teresa's Church in the Hobart suburb of Moonah was celebrated by Father Terry Bowman.  About 40 of Antanas' friends and acquaintances gathered in the church, near the tricolor-draped coffin.

The farewell words were spoken by Ramūnas Tarvydas, the chairman of the Australian Lithuanian Community, Hobart District, whom we have come across already as the author of From Amber Coast to Apple Isle.  The mass readings were by Judy Tarvydienė.

After the mass, everyone sang the Lithuanian National Anthem.  Antanas was buried in the Hobart Regional Cemetery in Kingston, near several other Lithuanians.  Eleven gathered at the grave.  Father Terry read the funeral prayers, then all poured a handful of earth onto the coffin.  Beverly poured a handful of earth that Antanas had brought back from Lithuania.

Whoever was responsible for the plaque on Antanas’ gravestone seems to have been carried away by his brothers, naming one of them also as Antanas and 2 as Petras.   His mother’s name is not spelled in the Lithuanian fashion but instead as Barbara, while the plaque confirms other sources, such as his birth record, that give his father’s name as Antanas.  The brother Joseph probably is Juozapas or Juozas for short, the one he visited in Chicago in 1975.

Another inaccuracy on Antanas' elaborate grave plaque
is the wrong year of birth
Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

By late 1997, Antanas’ family included not only the 2 daughters and a grandson, Darius, mentioned in his obituary, but also at least one member of the next generation, a great great grandchild.

Omitted was a sister, who got a mention without being named in a March 1989 issue of Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland), when she was visiting from Lithuania.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1951) ‘Law Courts, Country, Mallala, Fined £30’ Adelaide, SA, 20 November, p 11 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45778864, accessed 27 September 2026.

Augustavičius, Steponas (1998) ‘A.a. Antanas Viknius‘ (‘In memoriam Antanas Viknius’) Mūsų Pastogė Sydney, NSW, 19 January, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1998/1998-01-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Aušrotas, Bronius (1975) ‘Nuo Tasmanijos iki Juno Beach Floridoje ...’ (‘From Tasmania to Juno Beach, Florida …’, in Lithuanian) Dirva (Field), Cleveland, OH, 23 July, p 2 https://spauda.org/dirva/archive/n1975/1975-07-23-DIRVA.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Australian Cemetery Index 'Inscription 7789283 - Petras Viknius' https://www.austcemindex.com/inscription?id=7789283, accessed 29 September 2026.

Australian Lithuanian History, Radium Hill 1951 to 1956, ‘Adults of Radium Hill 1951 – 1961’ https://salithohistory.blogspot.com/2008/07/, accessed 27 September 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Antanas Viknius’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203719798, accessed 27 September 2026. [Note that this and other Australian documents give the wrong birth year, which should be 1918.]

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Petras Viknius’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203719799, accessed 27 September 2026.

Cemety ‘Barbora Viknienė’ https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/1667393?type=deceased, accessed 27 September 2026.

Darbininkas (Worker) (1975) [No title] Brooklyn, NY, 22 August, p 4 https://spauda.org/darbininkas/archive/1975/1975-08-22-DARBININKAS.pdf, accessed 28 September 2026.

Draugas (Friend) (1975) ‘Iš Arti ir Toli, Australijoje‘ (‘From Near and Far, In Australia’, in Lithuanian) Chicago, IL, 22 July 1975, p 6 https://draugas.org/archive/1975_reg/1975-07-22-DRAUGAS-i7-8.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Electronic Archives Information System, ‘VIKNIENĖ JURGEVIČIŪTĖ Barbora’ https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext/view/424417841, accessed 27 September 2026.

Elektroninis Archyvų Informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archives Information System), 'Kauno dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Register of Birth Records of the Churches of the Kaunas Deanery’, in Lithuanian), Record 140, 1918.07.30, p 163 https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267358658/280456150/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=163, accessed 27 September 2026.

ePaveldas, (1939) ‘Kauno Švč. Trejybės RKB santuokos metrikų knyga’ (‘Kaunas Trinity Church Roman Catholic Marriage Register’, in Lithuanian) Record 55, 10 April, p 8 https://www.epaveldas.lt/preview?id=1428%2F1%2F74&wr=76, accessed 27 September 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Antanas Viknius’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212745761/antanas-viknius, accessed 27 September 2026.

Kantvilas, Aleksandras (1975) ‘Tasmanijos Padangėje‘ (‘Under the Tasmanian Sky’) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 30 June, p 8 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1975/1975-06-30-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Mail, (1949) ‘Motor cyclist hurt’ Adelaide, SA, 25 June, p 48 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55922859?searchTerm=viknius, accessed 26 September 2026.

Mercury (1950) 'Some Recent Tasmanian Weddings’ Hobart, Tas, 28 February, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26686218, accessed 27 September 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1975) ‘Kronika’ (‘Chronicle’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 3 February, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1975/1975-02-03-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1988) ‘Hobarte‘ (‘In Hobart‘, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 15 August, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1988/1988-08-15-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

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 - 1947; 330, VIKNIUS Petras DOB 2 April 1925, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118036, accessed 29 September 2026.

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 - 1947; 849, VIKNIUS Antanas born 30 July 1917, 1947 - 1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4695244, accessed 29 September 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; VIKNIUS PETRAS, VIKNIUS Petras - Nationality: Lithuanian Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7182085, accessed 2 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1184, Registration papers for non-British migrants, lexicographical series, 1949-1966; VIKNIUS A, VIKNIUS Antanas [Antonas] [Lithuanian], 1947-1955 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1915253, accessed 2 October 2026.

‘Part 44’, 2.2.3.1 Card file of the "Organisation Todt" / File cards of foreigners who were deployed by the OT/Speer, 12.7.1934, 16.1.1941, DocID 77189402, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/77189402, accessed 27 September 2026.

Skautu Aidas (Scout Echo) (1975) ‘Po 40 M. Susitiko Buv. Dariaus Ir Girėno Draugovės Skautai‘ (‘Former Scouts of the Darius and Girėnas Troop Reunited After 40 Years’, in Lithuanian) Chicago, IL, September, p 19 https://spauda2.org/skautu_aidas/archive/1975/1975-Nr07-SKAUTU-AIDAS.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

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Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) (1989) ‘Vasario 16-tosios minėjimas Hobarte‘ (’16 February Commemoration in Hobart’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 21 March, p 6 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1989/1989-03-21-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

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Kostas Kuzmickas (1920 - 1989) and Justina (Gustine) Kuzmickienė (Kuzmickas) (1922 -2014), a Yugoslav among the Balts? by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 10 August 2026.

How did a Yugoslav, and a married one at that, get herself into the first group of single, Baltic Displaced Persons – refugees by today’s standards – brought to Australia?

This article will look at what the records tell us, but we can say in advance that it will not come up with a definitive answer.

First, who was the Yugoslav? Justina Čuček or Čiuček was born in Varaždin county, Croatia, on 30 September 1922. Her father was Antun (or Antanas, if the form was completed by a Lithuanian), mother Matilda, formerly Alužan. She had trained as a nurse. She spoke Lithuanian and German according to an American Expeditionary Force (AEF) DP Registration Record completed on 30 August 1945, that is, one month before her 23rd birthday.

Kostas Kuzmikas was 2 years older, although one source has him only 4 months older. He was born in Papiškiai village, Anykščiai district, Lithuania, on 22 May 1920 (or 1922) to Antanas and Apolonija, formerly Misiūnaitė. He last place of residence in Lithuania was Gasčiūnai village in the Šiauliai district. He spoke Russian as well as German and Lithuanian and, according to his Bonegilla card once he had reached Australia, his English also was good. He was tailor or a railway worker (records differ—and, who knows, maybe he tailored railway uniforms) who had married Justina on 27 June 1945 in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. Although both were Catholics, it was a civil wedding in the local registry office. And it also occurred only weeks after the end of WWII in Germany, which was on 8 May 1945.

Kostas and Justina from their Bonegilla cards

Source:  National Archives of Australia and NAA

German officials seem to have Germanised Justina’s name to Gustine Tschtutschek, their phonetic spelling of its pronunciation. This spilled over into a report in the Melbourne Catholic newspaper, the Advocate, in January 1948.

The reporter clearly misunderstood postwar conditions in Germany. They wrote,

At the conclusion of the Mass, the Archbishop blessed the marriage of a young couple named Kostas Kuzmickas and Gustine Tschtutschek. This young pair had already married whilst they were in a concentration camp, but their hostile gaolers would not allow a priest to bless their union, so they had to be content with a civil marriage. Under the circumstances, the marriage was a valid one, but the faith of these good people is so sound that they eagerly sought the blessing of a priest on the union at the first available opportunity. Their fidelity was rewarded beyond their highest hopes, for their civil marriage of the concentration camp was ultimately blessed by an Archbishop.

Archbishop Simonds blesses the Bonegilla marriage between Justine and Kostas

Source:  Advocate

The fact that Justina was regarded as a Lithuanian after her marriage is not a surprise in the context of citizenship and nationality laws (often but not always the same thing) from 75 or more years ago. As a general rule, a woman was seen as having taken on her husband’s citizenship after marriage. Justina had become a Lithuanian in the eyes of anyone who knew about her marriage, and probably under Lithuanian and German law too.

Explaining how a married woman joined her husband in a party supposedly composed entirely of single people is not so easy to understand. Subterfuge was likely to have been involved. Each of the applicants was interviewed individually. Justina would have attended her interview with the 3 Australians on the selection panel without Kostas. Could her Lithuanian language skills have been so good that the interpreter assumed she was a native speaker? Perhaps instead there was a private exchange in Lithuanian with the interpreter, then playing along with Justina’s need to accompany her husband to Australia.

Anyone with a beginner’s knowledge of Lithuanian could see on an alphabetical list of the Heintzelman passengers that a Kuzmikiene had been married to a Kuzmikas — perhaps Kosmas. Maybe the 3 Australians lacked even that basic knowledge, and none of the Lithuanians who were helping the selection process volunteered to inform them.

Further, the story presented to the interview panel on 15 October 1947 was that she was a widow, with the maiden name of Cucek. It would not have mattered that her maiden name was not Lithuanian as, legally, she still held her deceased husband’s citizenship. The panel probably believed this without further questioning. Their focus was a legal one, on people who were unwilling or unable to return to their country of citizenship, of legal protection, not their place of birth.

Justina was well educated too, with 8 years of elementary schooling and 2 years of secondary. Her present occupation was nursing, and she had been doing this for 4 years, that is, from some time in 1943, while war was being waged. The languages in which she claimed fluency were Lithuanian, Slovenian and German.

Note the Slovenian language, not Croatian. We’ve seen above that Justina’s birthplace, was in Croatia, but her last permanent residence was in Celje, Slovenia. Inhabitants of both regions, which became Socialist Republics within Yugoslavia in November 1945, were predominantly Roman Catholic, like the Lithuanians.

She said she had arrived in Germany in April 1941, “forcibly evacuated by the Germans”. Kostas too had been “forcibly evacuated by the Germans”, but not until November 1943. Her presence in Germany from the spring of 1941 increases the possibility that this is where they met.

The thinking behind wanting the first group of Displaced Persons to Australia to be single probably was that it would be easier to place unmarried people in positions that Australians would not take or other areas of great need than to worry about placing the spouse (and maybe family) nearby. However, the 4 marriages in the Bonegilla camp before the end of 1947, including the Kuzmickas marriage blessed by the Archbishop of Melbourne, with another 3 in January, must have made officials have another think.

It seems that Justina and Kostas had a religious marriage ceremony before Archbishop Simmons blessed them, as their Bonegilla cards both say that they were married on 20 December by Father JC Awburn. He was the parish priest from Wodonga, who initially looked after the spiritual needs of the Catholics in the Bonegilla camp which the Church looked for a German-speaking priest.

Kostas and Justina finally were found positions together to which they departed on 6 February 1948, after 2 months in the Bonegilla camp. Their destination was Beechworth in rural Victoria, where they were to work for the Zwar Brothers tannery. They were sent along with 2 others, a Lithuanian and an Estonian, on 6 February 1948, so we can speculate that the Commonwealth Employment Service had been having a hard time finding placements for this group. The group must have satisfied the Zwar Brothers’ management though, because another Lithuanian was sent on 15 February and a fifth on 26 February.

There is a detailed history of this business on the Web already.

The Zwar Brothers tannery in Beechworth:
the dominant mode of transport suggests this photo was taken some time before 1948

Source:  Beechworth History Timeline

On 2 August 1957, Kostas and Justina together became Australian citizens, while resident at 66 Ardmillan Road, Moonee Ponds.

We can catch up with Justina and Kostas through a Lithuanian Entrepreneurs profile published in Tėviškės Aidai in June 1959. They owned what Australians call a mixed business, sometimes milk bar or a deli, on Melrose Street, North Melbourne. Sometimes this sort of business is called a corner store, and theirs did indeed stand on a corner.

The older portion of this property housed the Kuzmickas corner store on
Melrose Street, North Melbourne:
the date on the building is 1889, meaning that it was almost 70 years old
when the couple purchased it and perhaps in need of some repairs

Source:  Google Street View

The report is implausible at the point where we are told that Kostas had purchased the shop in early 1948. We already know what Kostas and Justina were doing in early 1948, and it was not amassing a deposit on the purchase of a shop. Given that they were living in the nearby suburb of Moonee Ponds when they became Australians in August 1957, it is possible that “1948” is a typographic error for 1958.

There is no reason to think that Justina had not working under contract like Kostas, perhaps in the Beechworth tannery but perhaps originally providing domestic assistance in the manager’s home. A letter from the Department of Immigration in November 1949, in response to a form notifying intention Justina’s intention to apply for Australian citizenship, was addressed to her at a Department of Mental Hygiene at Beechworth, meaning that she had found employment at the Beechworth Mental Hospital. Justina and Kostas would have been a two-income couple in 1948-49, which certainly would have helped them save to buy property early.

The Tėviškės Aidai report explains that Kostas obtained work in the Hilton Hosiery factory, also in North Melbourne, when they moved to Melbourne after their contracts ended. His Alien Registration file in the Melbourne office of the National Archives of Australia contains his most recent Alien Registration Certificate, a blue-covered, passport-like book. It contains two entries only, to say that Kostas had reported that he was working for Hilton Hosiery only on 10 May 1956, when he lived at an address in East Keilor, in outer Melbourne, not yet allocated street numbers.  We might find out what work Kostas was doing before that date when the National Archives opens more files for this couple.

Owning a shop as well, from early 1958, meant that the family again had a second income, while their daughter Ramunė-Marija, who was two and a half years old, could stay with Justina when her mother worked.

Mrs Kuzmickienė was of Yugoslav nationality, the reporter noted, but spoke Lithuanian perfectly, so that it was impossible to tell from her speech that she was not Lithuanian. The reporter was "introduced" by the older daughter, Ona-Gražina, 7 years old, who also "chattered" Lithuanian beautifully. One could only be surprised and delighted by such Lithuanity of the family, especially now that there were families where both parents were Lithuanian and the children could barely "translate" a Lithuanian word. (The quotation marks are from the original Lithuanian-language text.)

Although the shop was small, both it and the storeroom next to it were overflowing with goods. The store was mainly administered Mrs. Kuzmickienė. Mr. Kuzmickas, on shift work, could only help for a few hours a day during the opening hours. They had hired workforce of one, a young Lithuanian boy still in school. When asked if he was satisfied, Mr Kuzmickas replied: "The profit from trade gives us a second salary. Since my wife, due to her family situation, cannot leave the house anywhere, we feel very well off in this regard."

And indeed they would have been, compared with the many married couples were the wife was following society’s expectations of staying at home without additional paid employment.

Kostas’ employer, Hilton Hosiery, had been founded in Melbourne in 1936 by Len G Smith as Hilton Knitting Mills, which produced women’s stockings in silk, rayon and fine cotton. There was no nylon for nylon stockings available during WWII, as it all was being used in parachutes and their rip cords. The company expanded in 1947 when nylon did become available, moved beyond legwear to undergarments in the mid-1950s, and at times also made socks for men as well as women and fine knitwear.

It's possible that Kostas never used the main entrance to the Hilton Hosiery company premises,
as it may have been reserved for managers and salespeople:
the sawtooth roofline to the left of this photo is the location of the factory with its own entrance

Source:  State Library of Victoria image a19349 via Pittwater Online News

Hilton merged with the British giant, Courtaulds, in 1969 but this company then went through a period of pressure from tariff reductions, increasing foreign imports and rising local costs. It was wound up at the end of the century and the land on which it operated was sold for apartments. The building which replaced the Hosiery business occupies the same footprint and is called Hilton Hosiery Mills. The new building did not have to include the art deco entrance to the old so it, sadly, was demolished.

As men used to qualify for the age pension in Australia when they had their 65th birthdays, it became a de facto retirement age. We do not know if Kostas continued to work with Courtaulds Hilton Limited until he turned 65 in May 1985 or left earlier. Perhaps he and Justina figured before this that they could afford to run the corner store together and still make a good income.

Justine had told a reporter from the Advocate newspaper that she hoped that her future work would take her among children. She worked as a nurse in a kindergarten conducted by the Red Cross in one of the DP camps in Germany. She possibly was nursing, with children as well as adults, at the Beechworth Mental Hospital.  Now with her own young daughters to look after, perhaps her wish had been fulfilled again, at least until they were older.

Kostas was yet another an active Scout leader from the First Transport, who has been entrusted with the duties of head of the district and of district supply department.

Mūsų Pastogė published a special Melbourne edition on 9 May 1962. Among the donors it thanked for supporting the edition were J and K Kuzmikas, who still were running a shop selling fruit, vegetables and confectionery, on Melrose Street, North Melbourne.

Kostas died 27 years later on 10 May 1989, at a relatively young age, 12 days before his 67th birthday. He had been a distinguished volunteer for Lithuanian scouting. He was buried by an Australian priest in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery in southeastern Melbourne.

Justine or Justina Frances Kuzmickas lived another 25 years, to the good age of 91, but died on 4 April 2014. She too was buried in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery, with her husband.

A relationship which had started when both were in their very early 20s, and which had been tested by the requirements for early migration to Australia from the chaos of post-WWII Germany, had certainly stood firm through other tests until Kostas’ death 45 years later. Despite that subterfuge to get Justina into Australia with Kostas, the couple had contributed to their new home through their work, to the North Melbourne community through their shop, and to the future through their 2 daughters.

CITE THIS AS: Ščevinskienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Kostas Kuzmickas (1920 - 1989) and Justina (Gustine) Kuzmickienė (Kuzmickas) (1922 -2014), a Yugoslav among the Balts?'

SOURCES:

Advocate (1947) ‘300 Catholics Among Baltic Immigrants, Lithuanians Attend First Mass at Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre‘ Melbourne, Vic, 27 December, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/172493478, accessed 7 August 2026.

Advocate (1948) 'Joyous D.P.’s Greet Bishops at Bonegilla', Melbourne, Vic, 8 January, p 7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/172493804, accessed 7 August 2026.

‘American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) DP Registration Record, Kuzmickas, Kostas’ 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File, Postwar Card File (A-Z), Cards extracted from files subsequently, DocID: 87900627, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/87900627, accessed 5 August 2026.

‘American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) DP Registration Record, Kuzmickiene, Justina’ 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File, Postwar Card File (A-Z), Names in "phonetical" order from KR, DocID: 67949088, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67949088 and https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67949089, accessed 7 August 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Kuzmickas, Kostas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203625136, accessed 7 August 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Kuzmickiene, Justine’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/2036251367, accessed 7 August 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, 24 April, p 1255 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240891861, accessed 7 August 2026.

Elektroninis Archyvų Informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archives Information System), Ukmergės dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga' (Ukmerge deanery church birth register book', in Lithuanian [1920 Kavarskas church birth record Nr. 76]) p 87, https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267626965/280278724/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=87, accessed 7 August 2026.

Find a Grave, ‘Justina Frances Kuzmickas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231320325/justina_frances-kuzmickas, accessed 7 August 2026.

Find a Grave, ‘Kostas Kuzmickas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231320326/kostas-kuzmickas, accessed 7 August 2026.

‘Heiratsurkunde, Eisenbahnarbeiter, Kostas Kuzmickas und Rotkreuzschwester, Gustine Tchutschak’ (‘Marriage Certificate, Railway worker, Kostas Kuzmickas and Red Cross Nurse, Justina Cucek, in German’ 2.2.2.2 Official Certificates (marriages and deaths), western zones, general, Official Certificates (marriages and deaths), western zones, general https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/76792919, accessed 5 August 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1962) ‘Melbourno numeris‘ (‘Melbourne number’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 9 May, p 1 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1962/1962-05-09-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 6 August 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration (Central Office); A435, Class 4 correspondence files relating to naturalisation, 1944-1950; 1949/4/4865, KUZMICKAS Justine – Lithuanian, 1949-1949 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=6965090, accessed 7 August 2026.

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, 1947-1947; 575, KUZMICKAS Kostas DOB 22 May 1920, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005810, accessed 7 August 2026.

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, 1947-1947; 752, KUZMICKIENE Justina DOB 30 September 1922, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005911, accessed 7 August 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents, 1948-1965; 1957/KUZMICKAS K, KUZMICKAS Kostas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per USAT General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1957 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4275356, accessed 7 August 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KUZMICKAS, Kostas : Year of Birth - 1920 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 949, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203625136, accessed 7 August 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KUZMICKIENE JUSTINE, KUZMICKIENE, Justine : Year of Birth - 1922 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1121, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203625137, accessed 7 August 2026.

Pittwater Online News (2012) ‘Hilton Lingerie – Slips’ 21 -27 October https://www.pittwateronlinenews.com/collectors-corner---hilton-lingerie---slips.php, accessed 7 August 2026.

Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) (1959) ‘Lietuviai Verslininkai, Kuzmickų Kolonialinių Prekių Krautuve‘ (‘Lithuanian Entrepreneurs, Kuzmickas Corner Store’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 10 June, p 4 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1959/1959-06-10-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 6 August 2026.

Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) (1989) ‘Is Mūšų Parapijų‘ (From Our Parishes‘, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 23 May, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1989/1989-05-23-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 6 August 2026.

Victorian Government Gazette, G37 (2014), 'Estates of Deceased Persons' Melbourne, Vic, 11 September, p 2037 https://resources.reglii.com/VGG.2014.9.11.G37.pdf, accessed 8 August 2026.

Vladas Paškevičius (? – 1953), early death for a coal train driver, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskienė

Vladas told Australian officials that he born on 22 June 1915. His selection documents for migration to Australia from post-WWII Germany say that he had completed 3 years of primary school and 8 years of secondary education.

Such a lengthy secondary schooling normally would mean some sort of specialisation, but there are no further hints in his selection papers. In his book on the Baltic refugees sent to the Latrobe Valley, Welcome to Little Europe, Josef Šeštokas says that Vladas had acquired a university education in Kaunas, but presumably was not himself given further details.

Vladas had the standard “Forcibly evacuated by the Germans” explanation for coming to Germany in his selection interview report. He must have been doing some work of value to the German military when it was decided to retreat.

At the time he applied to migrate to Australia, he was in Camp Riga in Lübeck in coastal Germany. Judging by its name, its main inhabitants were Latvians.

Once he got to Australia on the First Transport and to the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre, he nominated his brother Bronius as his next of kin. Bronius was living in a different DP camp to that of Vladas but also in Lübeck.

Vladas Paskevicius colourised photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Vladas was seen as an appropriate choice for working the Moe brown coal deposits with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, headquartered in Yallourn in Victoria’s southern Latrobe Valley. He left the Bonegilla camp on 15 January 1948.

His first accommodation outside the Bonegilla camp probably was little different to the Bonegilla camp in its comforts. It was the North Camp in the town of Yallourn North. Josef Šeštokas goes into more detail about the camp in his book.

By 1953, Vladas had moved on the Eastern Road Hostel, Yallourn East. Josef says that he was known to have high blood pressure. While showering at the end of his afternoon/evening shift, on 24 February, he suffered what was thought to be a cerebral haemorrhage.

He was found around 7 am the next day, and taken to the Latrobe Valley Community Hospital. He died there at 11 am without regaining consciousness. That was only 5 years after arriving in Australia and when Vladas was aged only 38, according to the date of birth given to Australian officials.

The report on his passing in the Lithuanian language Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) says, however, that he was aged 47 at the time. This started Rasa on a hunt through Lithuanian births recorded in church registers. In the Pumpėnai registers, she found a record for Bronius, born in 1896, and his brothers, Stanislovas (1899) and Aleksandras in (1901). A sister, Vanda, was born in 1908. There was no record for Vladas, either in the Pumpėnai books or those for Raudondvaris, where the Australijos lietuvis obituary said he had been born.

We have looked in the Arolsen Archives as well. They have digitised records relating to Bronius, but the two men called Vladas Paskevicius are distinguished by different details. One has different parents to Bronius and our Vladas, while the other was a tailor on a ship to America with his wife.

Our Vladas is included in an Arolsen Archives document about Bronius and his family, this time with the 1915 birthdate of 6 April. Rasa has conducted a search based on that date too, but again without results.

Rasa has added the siblings’ details, including Vladas’ name, to a record for Bronius in Geni.com, in the hope that another genealogist one day will add Vladas’ accurate birth details, supported by documentation.

Vladas would have been driving a train like one of these two,
shown being loaded by a coal dredge at the Yallourn open cut mine,
photographed by someone unknown in 1948 or earlier

Source:  Wikipedia

He must have been an astute saver because, according to Josef Šeštokas, before his death he had bought a house in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood for his mother and 3 brothers, whose migration he had sponsored.

Bronius would have been one of them, as we know from Vladas’ own Bonegilla card. He had arrived in Melbourne on the General AW Greely, sister ship to our General Heintzelman, on 12 May 1950, with his wife, Elena, and sons, Rimautas and Bronius. The Henrikas Paškevičius who arrived on the Anna Salen on 30 July 1950 with his wife, Irena, may well be the Henrikas who was the son of Bronius and Elena.

There are no files in the National Archives of Australia’s Record Search for Bronius and Vladas’ brothers, Stanislovas and Aleksandras, nor their mother, Teodora. Josef Šeštokas was relying on what he was told by North Camp residents still alive when he was researching about 20 years ago, as well as the accessible National Archives files. It is looking like the house which Vladas generously bought in Collingwood was not for his mother and 3 brothers but for one brother, Bronius, along his wife and 3 sons, one of whom also had a wife.

Bronius, in his turn, looked after Vladas, arranging for his body to be transported to Melbourne and buried in the Roman Catholic Section of Melbourne’s Fawkner Memorial Park, two days after his death.

Elena died only one year after her brother-in-law, Vladas, also at a young age, this time 45. Bronius had her buried in the same plot as Vladas. Sadly, there is now a small stone recording Elena’s life but nothing for Vladas. Probably commemorating his wife was all that Bronius and his family could afford at the time. The need to record Vladas’ burial in the same plot probably was overtaken by other events.

The grave of Pladas (sic) Paskevicius and his sister-in-law, Elena,
in Fawkner Memorial Park

Source:  Patricia C on Find A Grave

Bronius, is should be noted, was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Lithuanian Army who had been responsible for two major victories in Lithuania’s war of liberation, in 1919, earning 2 Vytis crosses for his actions.

Vladas’ obituary describes him as sensitive to every Lithuanian cause, a generous donor and a zealous subscriber to the Lithuanian press. Leading a sober and orderly life, he was only interested in politics, theatre and music.

His innate modesty, self-absorption, and perhaps a sense of sudden death, it was said, did not allow him to express himself in local Lithuanian cultural and social life, although undoubtedly he had the abilities and intellectual qualities for this. He lived quietly in his last years and died quietly.

He had been an active member of the Riflemen's Union and its choir in Lithuania. In exile in Germany, he was as an administrative worker in a Displaced Persons camp.

A fellow First Transport arrival, writing about life in Yallourn ten years later, noted that both Vladas and another early death, Antanas Pranauskas, were sensitive and generous to Lithuanian affairs and passionate lovers of the Lithuanian press.

The death certificate for Vladas, and documents for Bronius, name different parents to those nominated for the other Paskevičius on the First Transport, Zigmas. These two were distantly related only, if at all. Gemini.ai says that Paskevičius is relatively frequent surname across Lithuania, while not in the top ten. It is widely distributed throughout the country, with notable concentrations in larger urban centres.

CITE THIS AS: Tündern-Smith, Ann and Ščevinskienė, Rasa (2026) ‘Vladas Paskevičius (? – 1953), early death for a coal train driver’ https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2026/08/vladas-paskevicius-1953-death-for-coal-train-driver.html.html.

SOURCES:

AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP Registration Record, ‘Paškevičius, Bronius’, Folder DP3032, names from PASKES, ALEXANDER to PASMIONKA, Stanislaw (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from P, ITS/Arolsen Archives, DocID: 68537817 (Bronius PAŠKEVICIUS (sic)) https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68537817, accessed 29 July 2026.

Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1953) A†A Vladas Paškevicius (In memoriam Vladas Paskevicius, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, SA, 18 April, p 8n https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280312301, accessed 29 July 2026.

Find a Grave, ‘Pladas (sic) Paskevicius’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212502440/pladas-paskevicius, accessed 29 July 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1959) ‘Gyvosios Mozaikos Gyvos Ištrupėlės (Pirmųjų Transportų Lietuviai Yallourne)’ [Living Mosaics Living Bugs (First Transport Lithuanians in Yallourn) in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 13 February, p 2 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1959/1959-02-13-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 29 July 2026.

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, 1947-1947; 422, PASKEVICIUS Vladas DOB 22 June 1915, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5162091, accessed 29 July 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956, PASKEVICIUS VLADIS, PASKEVICIUS, Vladis (sic) : Year of Birth - 1915 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 802, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203724932, accessed 5 August 2026.

‘Personal file of PASKEVICIUS, BRONIUS, born on 10-Jan-1896, born in PANEVEZYS and of further persons’ 3.2.1.1 CM/1 Files originating in Germany, CM/1 files from Germany, A-Z / Files with names from PARZYCH, DocID: 79569041, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79569041, accessed 5 August.

Šeštokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe: Displaced Persons and the North Camp, Sale, Vic, Little Chicken Publishing, p 82.

‘Vladas Paskevicius’ 1953, Death certificate of Vladas Paskevicius, 25 March 1953, Reg. no. 19671/1953, digital download, [Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria] (https://bdm.vic.gov.au), Melbourne.

Jonas Antanaitis (1923-2008), the Canberra one, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Jonas Antanaitis is or was such a common name for Lithuanians that there were 2 of them born on the same date in exile in post-War Germany. They even had fathers with the same name, Antanas Antanaitis. The birthday they had in common was 16 November 1923. Fortunately, we can tell them apart because their mothers had different names.

That’s even though it is obvious that officials in Germany got them muddled. The one whose mother’s maiden name was Stase Gaspariunaitė had been born in Krekenava and wanted to go to Australia (which actually was a rare first choice). His usual occupation was Farmer. He was sent to the United States with his wife and 2 children on 14 September 1950.

The other one gave his first choice for resettlement as “Democratic Lithuania Free From the Occupation”. He had been born in Surviliškis, Kėdainių County, to a mother whose maiden name was Morta Kaspariniukė, but raised by his grandmother. His usual occupation was Agricultural Worker. As an unmarried man, he was lucky enough to be able to leave camp life in Germany in October 1947, on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman bound for Australia. One of his forms has been marked with “his” later departure date for the USA.

The wrong Jonas Antanaitis has been sent to the USA
in the Displaced Persons records held by the Arolsen Archives

Source:  Arolsen Archives

There was an older Jonas Antanaitis, born in June 1908, who came to Australia too.  We'll do our best to keep them all separate.

After 5 weeks including Christmas 1947 and New Year’s Eve 1948 in the Bonegilla camp, our Jonas was one of the 26 men, including 12 Lithuanians, sent to work on the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme in northeast Victoria on 14 January. This project has been discussed earlier, but we are yet to find any material on their living and working conditions.

Jonas Antanaitis from his 1947 selection papers for migration to Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

An obituary published more than 60 years after his arrival in Australia says that he was a painter while contracted to the Australian Government to work where sent. “Where sent” included the city of Geelong in Victoria. He moved to the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, even larger than the Kiewa Scheme where he had started and located in southeastern New South Wales. Had he been a native bird, he would have found that flying roughly 150 Kilometres due west from wherever he was in the Snowy Scheme would have brought him back to his eastern Australia starting point, the Bonegilla camp.

On Australia Day 1965, Jonas became an Australian citizen from an address in Cooma, New South Wales, that is, from the nearest town to the Snowy Mountains.

It was while he was living in and near the Snowy Mountains that he often came to the Canberra Lithuanian Club to chat with compatriots over a glass of beer. Eventually he moved to Canberra, in 1968 according to the Canberra Lithuanian Community records. 

There he met his Polish friend Stefanie, with whom he lived for over 30 years, until his death on 8 April 2008.

He chose to live in Narrabundah, then a very southern suburb in Canberra and on the highway to the Snowy Mountains.  Presumably, return trips were a priority in his thinking.

The Canberra Lithuanians had scant information about Jonas’ life and family in Lithuania, because he was reserved and did not talk about himself. This was confirmed by his life partner, Stefanie. For instance, they thought that he came from Zarasai County, not the birthplace he had nominated on 1945 American forms.

They understood that Jonas was serving in a Lithuanian army unit on the Eastern Front in 1941. As the Germans moved in, his unit withdrew to Romania. After the war, Jonas settled in the Goettingen refugee DP camp in the British zone, according to what was known to the Canberrans. This is interesting, because the documents which the Arolsen Archives have been able to digitise show him in the American Zone, in Assembly Centre 513, Weilheim, as of 20 December 1945.

There are at least 8 places in Germany called Weilheim. ChatGPT is confident that the Weilheim with Assembly Centre 513 was Weilheim in Oberbayern. You can find more details about this historic town in Wikipedia.

The interview for possible resettlement in Australia recorded that he had arrived in Germany in August 1944, presumably ahead of a Soviet advance. His reasons for coming to Germany were summarised as “to avoid Russian occupation of his country”.

He had 5 years of primary education, so one year more than the minimum, and was seen as suitable for work – would you believe, in the light of our 1 July entry – for “medium work” as a Builder’s Labourer. His application form for Australia says that the work he had done included “Building Appra.” (Building Appraisal or Approval?) and Technical Drawing for one year each in Lithuania, and one year of farm work in Germany. He said that he was fluent in Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and German.

After moving to Canberra, Jonas gradually became involved in community and Lithuanian Club events. When the Club needed a painter, it knew where to turn.

In 1982, he joined the Canberra branch of Ramovė, the organisation for former members of the Lithuanian military. In 1990, when the Ramovė members built an Unknown Soldier monument in the garden of the former Lithuanian Clubhouse, Jonas helped with the construction work and painted the wall. He was also on the Club Board from 1993 to 1995.

This page 1 photograph celebrating 40 years of the Ramove Canberra branch was published
in Mūsų Pastogė 6 weeks after Jonas' death:  He is 3rd from the left and
the Chairman, Liudas Budzinauskas, is next to him, 4th from the left

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė 

Jonas was a sincere, friendly, pleasant person to talk to, but at the same time he openly expressed his opinions according to his obituarist, Liudas Budzinauskas, Chairman of the Canberra Ramovė branch.

In 2008, after intestinal surgery, he felt good, but then died unexpectedly on 8 April.

The photograph of Jonas published with his obituary shows a much younger man
than the one in the Ramove photo

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

Jonas Mockūnas, Chairman of the Lithuanian Community of Canberra, and Liudas Budzinauskas, both spoke at his funeral in the Tobin Brothers chapel, Kingston. They expressed their deepest condolences to Stefanie, her family, friends and relatives.

His body subsequently was cremated, so his ashes now rest in the Sister Kenny Wall in Norwood Park in Canberra.

In his obituary, Liudas expressed the hope that Jonas Antanaitis would be remembered for a long time. This short biography is another endeavour towards that purpose.

SOURCES

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection ‘Jonas Antanaitis’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203674045, accessed 3 July 2026.

Budzinauskas, Liudas (2008) ‘In Memoriam, A†A Jonas Antanaitis’ (‘In Memoriam, RIP Jonas Antanaitis’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 30 April p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2008/2008-04-30-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 1 July 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1965) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, p 1670 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241019937?searchTerm=%22Antanaitis%20Jonas%22, accessed 3 July 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Jonas Antanitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/263467192/jonas-antanaitis, accessed 3 July 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (2008) ‘Canberros “Ramovei” — 40 metų‘ (‘Canberra Ramove — 40 years old’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 21 May, p 1 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2008/2008-05-21-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 3 July 2026.

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, 1947-1947; 11, ANTANAITIS Jonas DOB 16 November 1923, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=5005454, accessed 3 July 2026.

Wikipedia 'Weilheim in Oberbayern' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weilheim_in_Oberbayern, accessed 3 July 2026.