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.

Jonas Urbonas on This is How the Meetings were Held: The Third Meeting of the Scouts, translated by Rasa Ščevinsienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 1 August 2026.

[Ann Tündern-Smith acknowledges much help from Google Translate for her paragraphs.]

We start the meeting late in the evening by a blazing fire, on the shore of the Lake.*

Twelve scouts gather. We begin the meeting with the troop's official announcements. Once these solemn announcements—sad, yet filled with resolve and love for the Fatherland—have been read, Borisas Dainutis reads a report in which he sheds light on the foundations of the Lithuanian nation and our tasks as scouts in distant Australia. The annoying smoke from the fire does not distract our thoughts and we immediately solve a few questions about the future.

Our leader, Borisas, invites us to repeat the scout's motto. After the subdued voices of the repetition, he invites us to tie a second knot in our scarves, as a symbol of our love for our Motherland and a reminder to sacrifice only for it. And this knot will be untied only when, having made the greatest sacrifices for the Motherland, we return to our dear homeland.

Tomorrow the first swallow will fly away from us into an unknown future. It is Brother (Vytas) Kunčiūnas. By the burning bonfire we say goodbye to him and the other brothers who are preparing to leave this emigrant camp.

Jonas Urbonas was already 26 years old when he left Bonegilla 2 days after Vytas

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Brother Kunčiūnas' words, full of deep sincerity, touch the heart of every Scout. He remembers the last moments spent in the Homeland, the separation from his parents, and the tears rolling down his cheeks do not allow him to finish his farewell speech.

Then we all part ways and leave the gardens of the homeland, hoping to return to the homeland again before the storms of war hit. We are tightly bound by our mutual promises, although the weapons of war do not ring and we are not pursued by the occupiers and our goals have already changed, but we are united by common ideas, we dare to meet in camps and at conventions. Although the vast distances and various obstacles separate us, we press on, wishing our brother Vytas good luck and travel to join others at the Pacific Jamboree. After the traditional words are said, we leave the campfire.

I have no doubt that everyone felt our family togetherness this evening. They felt the bond that binds us tightly with mutual promises. Although only a few meetings have passed by this bonfire, they will become symbolic. These three bonfires will smoulder in us and remind us of the great promise: to God, to the Homeland and to our Neighbour. So, to work, brothers, we are still laden with the tasks of the Homeland.

Let us be prepared!

J. Urbonas, 6 January 1948, Bonegilla

* Ann has evidence from elsewhere that the locals really were very worried about whether the Baltic newcomers would understand how dangerous fire was in their new environment, as reported by Jonas Motiejūnas in the previous entry. Presumably, the fire on the shore of Lake Hume did not get out of control, but we still have to hope that the Scouts, being prepared, had lots of buckets on hand.

SOURCE: Urbonas, Jonas (1948) ‘3. Taip vykdavo sueigos: Trečioji vyčių sueiga’ Skautu aidas (Scouting Echo) Augustdorf bei Detmold, Germany, 15 June, pp 29-30 https://www.spauda2.org/skautu_aidas/archive/1948/1948-Nr05-06-SKAUTU-AIDAS.pdf, accessed 24 July 2026.

Viktoras Žeimys (1914-1997): Footballer, Cook, Telephone Technician, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

More than one year before the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, at Fremantle with 839 Displaced Persons on board, about to settle in Australia, in 1996 the Mūsų Pastogė Australian-Lithuanian newspaper was publishing reminiscences.

One of them was from Viktoras Žeimys, a professional footballer in Lithuania and even in Germany before selection for Australia. Let’s translate what Viktoras wrote from his Lithuanian.

Professional footballer in Germany

“I lived in the Rotenburg DP camp in the British zone of Germany. [Rotenburg is about 45 km west of Bremen, more by road]. At the end of July 1947, when emigration to Australia began, I did not think of emigrating there because I played football for the German team, and the club urged me to stay in Germany — they would give me a good job, I would live closer to my homeland ...

“In the camp, those who wanted to emigrate were examined by Dr Ivinskis. He advised me to emigrate. He said — you will not play football all your life, but there you may find a better life. When I decided to go, he filled out the necessary forms and checked my health.

“After that, they sent me to Hanover to check my health and political past, and after a few weeks, to the Diepholz camp, where they mainly checked my lungs, blood, etc. Later, my health was also checked by Australian emigration and UNRRA officials.

[Viktoras’ selection papers for emigration to Australia have been lost, so we no longer have access to what Dr Ivinskis or the others wrote, nor a photograph of the footballer from those days. Further, we don’t know what the Australian officials recorded about his arrival in Germany or his work there or earlier. We do know that he passed the medical exams or we would not be writing about his now.]

“During the last inspection, we had to take off our underwear and raise our hands — they checked whether we had SS signs (tattooed blood groups on our arms, near our armpits). [Lots of the men with whom Ann was able to talk twenty years ago spoke about raising their arms so that they could be checked for the blood group tattoo, but Viktoras is the first so far to put this aspect of the checking for migration to Australia into writing.]

“We received our personal documents, and a few days later we were taken to the port of Bremerhaven, where we boarded the beautiful USAT General Stuart Heintzelman. Goodbye to our homeland, Lithuania, goodbye to Europe!

The Mūsų Pastogė caption for this photograph said that it was taken in Bremerhaven,
just before boarding the Heintzelman, and Žeimys was second from the left:
we think that meant that he's the one in the light-coloured coat with the shrug

Mūsų Pastogė captioned this photograph, "Five future Australians on board": Žeimys was fourth from the left and Teresevičius was next to him, but Žeimys could no longer remember
the other names 49 years later — do you recognise anyone?

Source: Mūsų Pastogė

A Soviet Submarine!

“Upon entering the Red Sea, rumours spread on the ship that a Soviet submarine was following us and, possibly, wanted to sink us. Of course, these were just rumours, and on November 28, 1947, we arrived in the port of Fremantle, Western Australia, having spent 28 days on the journey.

Viktoras Žeimys, identity photography from his 1947 Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

“After spending [nearly] a week in a military camp near Fremantle, on December 5, we boarded the Australian warship HMAS Kanimbla. We were taken to Melbourne. From there we took a train to Bonegilla, Victoria, an emigrant camp set up in a former barracks. I was put to work in the kitchen.

Google's Gemini AI thinks that the man on the far left of this photo of Bonegilla staff,
most of them working in the kitchen, could be Viktoras Žeimas

Source:  Collection of Galina Vasins Karciauskas

From Bonegilla to Bathurst to Tully, Queensland

“A few months later, when an emigrant camp opened in Bathurst, NSW, I was with a group of other workers who were transferred there. I worked as a cook again.

“Later, I worked for a season in the sugar cane harvest in Queensland, but, not having made a fortune, I returned to the kitchen.

“In 1949, I was sent to the Army Cooks School. After graduating, I worked as a cook in an army unit, where I completed my two-year government contract. But even after graduating, I did not give up my job as a cook and worked at the Sydney Yacht Club, and from 1952 to 1979 — at the NSW Post Office.”

Viktoras Becomes an Australian Citizen

The digitisation of Australian Government gazettes by the National Library of Australia’s Trove service shows that Viktoras was amongst the very first from the General Stuart Heintzelman to apply for and be granted Australian citizenship. He received his citizenship certificate on 5 June 1953, only 6 months after he became eligible.

He then lived on Hugh Street, in the Sydney suburb of Belmore. The Australian citizenship means that Ancestry.com allows us to follow any changes of address or occupation until 1980, the year of the last digitised electoral roll. During this period, he and his wife continued to live at the same address, while Viktoras continued to record his occupation as telephone technician. By the time he died, though, the family had moved into the neighbouring suburb of Belfield.

Mūsų Pastogė correspondents have filled in more of Viktoras’ life. “AVK” for example, undertook the sad duty of an obituary after Viktoras died before that 50th anniversary, one month after his 83rd birthday, on 17 July 1997.

Chef? Footballer! Telephone technician ...

AVK pointed out that while Viktoras worked at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron club in Kirribilli, he had the opportunity to cook lunch for Sir Robert Menzies. He received a very large tip from the Prime Minister that afternoon.

AVK explained that Viktoras was a member of the Sydney branch of Ramovė, the organisation for former members of the Lithuanian military. His military speciality had been communications. After completing his military service, he worked for the Lithuanian Post Office and was an active athlete. As a member of the Lithuanian football team, he travelled all over Europe.

[While AVK described Viktoras, apparently also known as "Stasys", as a member of the "Lithuanian football team", we have been unable to find him in any lists of players for Lithuania in the late 1930s.  It looks as if Viktoras was good enough to travel with the squads but never had the opportunity to take to the field in any FIFA-recognised international match for Lithuania.]

Viktoras Žeimys in military uniform

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

We also learn from AVK that Viktoras’ speciality with the Lithuanian and NSW Post Offices was as a telephone technician. Abandoning his cooking career, despite Prime Ministerial patronage, indicates that Viktoras found the challenges of sorting telecommunications problems more to his liking than the challenges of new recipes.

Return to Lithuania

In 1991, Viktoras returned to Lithuania for the 4th World Lithuanian Games. Mūsų Pastogė published 3 articles about this visit. The first was based on an interview in the Mūsų Pastogė office and appeared on 1 July 1991.

The footballer about to return to Lithuania

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

Viktoras was asked what prompted him to return to Lithuania. To that he replied, love of one’s native land, youthful memories, the desire to participate in the 4th World Lithuanian Games, and also the opportunity to meet with footballing friends. He hoped to renew acquaintances about whom he had dreamed in exile for more than forty years.

Viktoras explained that he started to play for the Žemaitis team in his home town, Kretinga, when he was only 13 years old. Given that he was born on 14 June 1914, this would have been in 1927. Three years later, he was invited to join the Klaipėda team, Švyturis. That was in 1936, he said, meaning that 6 years were lost somewhere in the explanation.

in 1938, the chairman of Kaunas football club, Kovas, asked him to join this team. He played there until the war began.

Viktoras had been told that former sports people in independent Lithuania were invited to participate in the opening of the 4th World Games in Kaunas. He was waiting excitedly for that day and hour.

The second article in Mūsų Pastogė, on 23 September, repeated an article in the Klaipėda city newspaper, which also was called Klaipėda. Their honoured visitor had started a Sydney football team in 1954, later coached Australian football players [meaning members of the national team?], and then coached juniors. However, he had said goodbye to active football completely in 1971, when he was 56 or 57.

The third report was published on 2 December 1991. During the opening ceremony for the Games in Klaipėda, 77-year-old sports veteran Viktoras Žeimys walked onto the field, knelt down and kissed the green grass. Before the War, he had played there many times with his father, he told Robertas Mackevičius, who was responsible for the stadium’s maintenance.

When he left, Viktoras handed Robertas 100 dollars and told him, "Tidy up our field, I really want everything to be beautiful here like before."

Robertas Mackevičius did not spend this money on the maintenance of the grass. When it was necessary to pay salaries to the stadium employees one month later, and “the winds were whistling through the bank account”, he took those dollars to the bank and exchanged them for roubles. Mentally thanking the Australian Lithuanian, he paid modest salaries to his small group of colleagues.

Robertas consoled himself with the thought that he still had 38 light bulbs left in the storeroom.

Still supporting Kovas at 80

In April 1995, the sports reporter for Mūsų Pastogė noted that Viktoras was still involved in sports. He was always present when the Sydney team, Kovas, trained. He always supported the athletes with donations and took care of their problems. He was unable to attend to the 1995 World Lithuanian Games but he had donated $50 to the athletes who were going and wished them good luck. [The Reserve Bank of Australia advises that, 30 years later, $50 would buy a basket of goods and services worth nearly $110.]

Viktoras the Scout

Two years later, after Viktoras’ death, an initial report in Mūsų Pastogė noted that he also had been a scout in his youth. In 1933, on 17 August, he had participated in a massive rally in Palanga, Lithuania, which brought together Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Lady Olave Baden-Powell, and a contingent of 650 British Scouts and Guides with nearly 2,000 Lithuanian Scouts and Guides. The British delegation was received by the President of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona, at his official summer residence in Palanga, and a street was named in Baden-Powell‘s honour.

The end, and the family

Viktoras was not well in the last few years of his life, so he was rarely seen at Lithuanian events in Sydney — apart from training sessions for Kovas, it would seem. His cause of death was a heart attack.

Viktoras Rufinas Žeimys was buried on 21 July 1997 in the Lithuanian section of Rookwood Cemetery after a funeral service conducted by Fr Jonas Girdauskas. The chairman of the Sydney Ramovė branch, Antanas Vinevičius, farewelled him on behalf of his comrades. We note that his name was Australianised for the burial: Victor Rufin Zeimys.

He met and possibly married his younger wife, Anna Katerina in Germany. She died 14 years after him and is buried with him.

We know that they had at 3 children, 2 daughters and a son. That’s because a daughter accompanied Viktoras on his 1991 return to his homeland and the 4th World Lithuanian Games. Sadly, the son, John Phillip, born in March 1954, lived for only 63 years, dying in March 2017. His ashes rest in a wall among other Lithuanians in Rookwood Cemetery. We hope that the 2 daughters, named as Anna and Elizabeth in the obituary by AMK, are doing well.

The father with whom he played football on the grass of the Klaipėda field was Juozas, who had married Marijona Zmidaitė according to the details on an American Expeditionary Forces DP Registration Form completed for Zeimys somewhere in the south west of Germany in October 1945. That form also reports that he left in December 1945 for a DP camp in Freiburg in the French Zone of Occupation. Perhaps he had heard that the Displaced Persons there were keen on football.

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