Alfonsas Sadauskas (1916-1990), my father, by Vidas Sadauskas

Alfonsas was born on 26 September 1916 in Vabalninkas village in Biržai district, Lithuania.  As a young man he worked at various mills his father had rented, cutting lumber and milling grain. 

He volunteered for the Army at 22 and rose to the rank of Warrant Officer.  Towards the end of World War II, after the Lithuanian Army was disbanded, he fought against the Soviet invasion alongside partisans in Belarus. 

He was selected to come to Australia on the USAT General Stuart Heinzelman, arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947.

Alfonsas Sadauskas' photo from his 1948 Application to Register as an Alien

Source:  NAA: MT1078/1, V1959/44899

After initially being sent from Fremantle via Port Melbourne to Bonegilla in Victoria’s North, he was sent back to Western Australia.  His destination was the Mundaring Weir area about 40km east of Perth, cutting timber for his two years’ contracted service.  

He would travel to Fremantle to meet the ships coming from Germany to see if any relatives or friends had made the journey to Australia.  None had but, within a couple of years, he found his brother Bronius via the Red Cross.  He was able to sponsor Bronius' travel from the UK to Australia in 1950.  

On one trip to the docks he met Aldona Gražulytė whom he later married in Melbourne.

They raised three children and the family was active in the Melbourne Lithuanian Community:  Aldona taught at the Lithuanian Sunday school for many years; Alfonsas had stewardship of the Melbourne Scouts’ equipment; Jonas, the eldest child, was a Scout leader and taught folk dancing for a number of years; Dona, the second child also taught at the Sunday school as well as being a Scout leader and long-time folk dancer and choir singer; Vidas, the youngest, danced and was a Scout leader prior to joining the Army.

Alfonsas worked with timber his entire adult life, looking after the various machines at a timber yard until he retired at 65. He died on 24 September 1990, just 2 days short of his 74th birthday, and is buried at the Fawkner cemetery alongside Aldona.

ADDITIONAL SOURCE

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; MT1078/1, European migrants general personal files 1959; V1959/44899, SADAUSKAS, Alfonsas,  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4115588 accessed 5 April 2025.

Vytautas Skidzevičius (1924–1983): Little known brother, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskienė

Unlike his younger brother, Nikodemas, we know only the barest outline of the life of Vytautas Skidzevičius.

He was born on 9 August 1924, 13 months ahead of Nikodemas and in the same place, in Alytus, Dzūkija, Lithuania. Presumably, he too attended Alytus primary school.

Vytautas Skidzevičius from his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA: A2571, SKIDZEVICIUS VYTAUTAS

The Arolsen Archives have two different American Expeditionary Force DP Registration Records for Vytautas.   Insofar as the German-language handwriting on the one dated 1 February 1946 is legible, it appears to be saying that he arrived freely in Germany on 3 August 1944 in order to study.  Soviet troops had captured Vilnius (part of Poland between the two World Wars) on 13 July 1944 and Lithuania's capital city, Kaunas, on 1 August 1944, so Vytautas’ move to Germany was timely.

Perhaps August 1944 was the month in which he left Lithuania rather than the month of arrival in Germany.  That is because one of several documents which state that Vytautas reached Darmstadt through Kaffenberg in Austria has him spending ‘8.44 – 45’ there. Kaffenberg is likely to a spelling error for Kapfenberg.

One of these documents has him reaching Kapfenberg through Vienna, 150 Kilometres to the northeast and still near 2 hours driving in a modern car.  It is possible that the route that Vytautas took to Darmstadt might be as complex as the one Jedda Barber’s father, Valentinas Dagys, took from Lithuania to Germany.

The earlier German records also show him as a student at the Technical High School in Darmstadt, but do not say what he was studying.

We can see that his usual occupation was ‘forester’ on the English-language American Expeditionary Force DP Registration Record, dated 3 September 1945.

Maybe 5 months before the opportunity to migrate to Australia came up, he wrote to the newspaper Naujienos with an interesting request. Rasa’s translation of his letter, which was published on 4 June 1947, says, “I am one of the many Lithuanian DPs in Germany. Having no relatives in America, I would like to correspond with American Lithuanians. Dear Editor, if there are no major obstacles, please place an ad about it in News. I will be forever grateful to you for that.” He included his full street address in the city of Darmstadt.

His selection papers for Australia, dated 14 October 1947, say that he had completed 6 years primary school plus 3 years of technical school to train as an electrical mechanic.   He was one of many who had been applied from a DP camp in Hanau.  Since we know he was living privately only a few months before, maybe he used the Hanau DP camp address to improve his chance of selection.  Maybe he had been able to find accommodation in the Hanau camp because Nikodemas was there already.

He arrived in Australia with Nikodemas on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, and spent one month in the newly opened Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre. Then he was part of the group of 64 or 65 sent to work for South Australia’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS). Their new home was under canvas at Bedford Park in close to primitive conditions, with more details here.

The work that they were expected to do was digging ditches for water pipes.   At least they were not doing this under fire, like the Lithuanian and Latvian men digging trenches between the German and the Soviet forces during World War II.

The recent year of his life might explain why a drunken Vytautas punched an Adelaide policeman in the face and tried to choke him on 8 December 1950. The date just happened to be the third anniversary of his trip from the Kanimbla, berthed in Port Melbourne, to the Bonegilla camp.

On the following day, he wisely pleaded guilty to a charge of resisting arrest and was fined £11/10/– with £1/5/3 costs in addition. The Reserve Bank of Australia says that this punishment was the equivalent of around $785 in 2023. It looks like more than that, however, more like the equivalent of at least two weeks in wages.

Vytautas made good this mistake 4 years later, though, when he asked that a farewell presentation cheque for £3 be given to the Adelaide News’ Pound for Pensioners appeal. When acknowledged the following day, 2 November 1954, the amount actually was £3/3/-, known then as 3 guineas. Guineas were a monetary unit still in commercial use at the time.

The money had been collected by his colleagues at the Australasian United Paint Company, which he appeared to have left in a hurry. “Sudden disappearance” was the term he used …

Vytautas' generosity as reported in the Adelaide News of 1 November 1954

Source:  Adelaide News in the NLA's Trove

He received a certificate of naturalization as an Australian on 26 July 1956. We’ve noted already that this was more than 3 years before his younger brother, Nikodemas.

Until naturalization, the law treated him as an Alien who was required to register any change of employer or residential address. From that record we can see that he was one of those released from the contract to be employed as directed in Australia on the date specified by the Minister, 30 September 1949.

His next employer had been the “SAHB” of “PtAdel”, presumably the South Australian Harbour Board, for whom he worked in Port Adelaide. The following entry records his employment by the United Paint Company of Port Adelaide, but not a commencement date or departure date from the SAHB. It noted, however, that he was living in the inner Adelaide suburb of Wayville in April 1950 but had moved some 18 Km north-east to the coastal suburb of Semaphore in August 1952.

He stayed with the United Paint Company, as a labourer, through 3 more changes of residential address, until that “sudden disappearance” in November 1954. He then worked in the Print Office of the Adelaide News’ rival paper, the Advertiser, for a few months.

In April 1955, he advised that his employer now was General Motors Holden, of Woodville, an Adelaide suburb between Wayville and Semaphore. He had moved to a residence in the same suburb. Seven changes of residential address in just over 5 years suggest that he was a renter rather than someone who already owned his own home.

In all of his workplaces, his occupation is given as labourer. As senior staff of the E&WS complained, he appears to have been mismatched to possible employment, and from the beginning. Anyone with previous employment as a forester presumably would have been a much better fit with the Department of Woods and Forests South Australia, which Vaclavs Kozlovskis recorded as wanting 33 men. He would also have been a better fit with the various “not yet determined” employers in New South Wales, who turned out to be that State’s forestry department in various locations as well as sawmillers.

Voting is compulsory for Australian citizens, so we should be able to follow any changes in home address and occupation for Vytautas from July 1956.  However, we have been unable to find him on digitised electoral rolls.  We'll try some more digging after his naturalisation papers are digitised.

Rasa has found 3 newspaper articles about V. Skidzevičius taking to the stage. He is said, by Teviskes Aidai, to have been an actor in two short plays performed for the Adelaide Lithuanian Catholic Women's Society in June 1990. However, that was 7 years after his death, so clearly there has been a mistake in the reporting or editing.

The same newspaper had reported the appearance of V. Skidzevičius with the Adelaide Vaidila theatre group in 1978. It was commemorating the 45th anniversary of the flight across the Atlantic of Lithuanians Darius and Girėnas. If the actor was Vytautas, it would have been a one-off appearance. We think that it was another typographic error. Instead, it was much more likely to be Nikodemas presenting the Darius and Girėnas testament, and we have written as much in Nikodemas’ life story.

The third report appeared in the Canadian-Lithuanian newspaper, Teviskes Ziburiai, on 24 August 1978, two months after the Teviskes Aidai report. We suspect that Teviskes Ziburiai picked out the story from Teviskes Aidai and saw no need to factcheck.

Vytautas’ death on 26 May 1983 was notified in the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper. He was only 58 years old. Like his brother afterward, he was interred in the Catholic Section of the Centennial Park Cemetery in Adelaide.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1983) ‘Death Notices’, Adelaide, 28 May.

Arolsen Archives (1945) ‘Skidzevicius, Vytautas’ AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP (Displaced Person) Record, 3 September 1945 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69134315 accessed 22 February 2025.

Arolsen Archives (1946) ‘Skidzevicius, Vytautas’ AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP (Displaced Person) Record, 1 February 1946 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69134314 accessed 22 February 2025.

Arolsen Archives (1947) ‘Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees by Public Institutions, Social Securities and Companies (1939 - 1947) / 2.1 Implementation of Allied Forces’ Orders on Listing all Foreigners and German Persecutees, and Related Documents / 2.1.1 American Zone of Occupation in Germany / 2.1.1.1 Lists of all persons of United Nations and other foreigners, German Jews and stateless persons; American Zone; Bavaria, Hesse (1) / 2.1.1.1 HE Documentation from Hesse / 2.1.1.1 HE 006 Documents from the rural district Darmstadt (SK) / 2.1.1.1 HE 006 LIT Nationality/origin of person listed : Lithuanian / 2.1.1.1 HE 006 LIT 2 Information on foreigners being locally registered (after the war) in the district Darmstadt (SK)’ 14 July https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/70305941 accessed 22 February 2025.

Arolsen Archives (nd) ‘2 Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees by Public Institutions, Social Securities and Companies (1939 - 1947) / 2.1 Implementation of Allied Forces’ Orders on Listing all Foreigners and German Persecutees, and Related Documents / 2.1.1 American Zone of Occupation in Germany / 2.1.1.2 Lists of all persons of United Nations and other foreigners, German Jews and stateless persons; American Zone; Bavaria, Wurttemberg-Baden, Bremen (2) / Lists of names and correspondence pertaining to foreigners who were staying in Darmstadt’ https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/87796675?s=skidzevicius&t=2728209&p=0 accessed 28 February 2025.

Centennial Park, 'Results for" vytautas skidzevicius"' https://www.centennialpark.org/memorial-search/?surname=skidzevicius&firstname=vytautas accessed 1 March 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1957) 'Certificates of Naturalization’, Canberra, 14 March, p 802 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232965688 accessed 20 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-47; 657, SKIDZEVICIUS Vytautas DOB 9 August 1924, 1947-47; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118083 accessed 22 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; SKIDZEVICIUS Vytautas : Year of Birth - 1924 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1031, 1947-48; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203708786 accessed 22 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-76; SKIDZEVICIUS Vytautas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-56; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9210654 accessed 22 February 2025.

Naujienos [News](1947) ‘Nori Susirašinėti Amerikos Lietuviais’ [Wants to Correspond with American Lithuanians] Chicago, Illinois, 4 June, p 2, https://spauda.org/naujienos/archive/1947/1947-06-04-NAUJIENOS-i7-8.pdf accessed 22 February 2025.

News (1950) 'Tried to Choke Policeman ', Adelaide, 9 December, p 15, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130287711 accessed 22 February 2025.

News (1954) 'Happy Times at Xmas is Wish’ Adelaide, 1 November, p. 12 , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130976622 accessed 22 February 2025.

Pr P (1990) ‘Adelaidė, Šiupinys’ [Adelaide, Medley] Teviskes Aidai [The Echoes of Homeland] Melbourne, 3 July, p 8 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1990/1990-07-03-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator’ https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html, accessed 22 February 2025.

Teviskes Ziburiai [The Lights of Homeland] (1978)'Lietuviai Pasaulyje, Australija' ['Lithuanians in the World, Australia'] Mississauga, Ontario, 24 August, p 4, https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1978/1978-08-24-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.

Vasiliauskas, J. (1978) ‘Gyvas Didvyrių Atminimas, Dariaus ir Girėno Minėjimas Adelaidėje’ [Living Memory of Heroes, Darius and Girėnas Commemoration in Adelaide], Teviskes Aidai, [The Echoes of Homeland] Melbourne, 22 June, p3, https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1978/1978-nr28-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 22 February 2025.

Nikodemas Skidzevičius (1925-1995): Actor and Artist, by Daina Pocius and Rasa Ščevinskienė with Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 21 February and 1 March 2025.

It was theatre that drove Nikodemas, a love of the stage and acting that he never lost.

Nikodemas was born in Alytus, Dzūkija, Lithuania, on 14 September 1925. He attended Alytus primary school and gymnasium.

In 1944, the wave of war swept him to Germany. According to his selection papers for migration to Australia, he was “forcibly evacuated by the Germans”. This sounds like he was rounded up to provide forced labour.

When the war was ending, we find him first in Lübeck, a coastal German city once the capital of the mediaeval Hanseatic League.

By September 1946, he had moved well inland to settle in the Hanau refugee camp. Being a creative spirit, he got involved in the camp theatre activities.

Two American Expeditionary Force (AEF) DP records for Nikodemas, both dated 3 September 1945 but one completed in Lithuanian and one in English, have been digitised by the Arolsen Archives in Germany. In the English language one, he is described as a ‘scholar’, while the Lithuanian one has the equivalent ‘mokinys’. Scholar of what is not explained in either, but something to do with the theatre is a strong possibility.

Nikodemas and his older brother, Vytautas, travelled to Australia on the First Transport, where Nikodemas was a member of the Lithuanian Sea Scouts. They reached Australia on 28 November 1947 after 4 weeks on board and spent time in the Bonegilla camp after a short break in Perth.

Nikodemas Skidzevičius identity photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA, A2571, SKIDZEVICIUS NIKODEMAS

Nikodemas was sent to salt works, south of the Murray River, in South Australia, with 9 others on 13 January 1948. These salt works were run by SA Salt Limited of 91A Victoria Square West in central Adelaide.

The brothers were separated, as Vytautas was sent to work for South Australia’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply. He was one of those who had been sent to Bedford Park camp in suburban Adelaide on 7 or 8 January.

Nikodemas later worked in construction until he started working as a decorator and painter. He worked in Woomera and other country towns.

As early as 30 September 30 1949, Adelaide's Lithuanian Theatre Lovers Group staged The First Call, a three-act comedy, in which Nikodemas had a role. It was the first Lithuanian theatre performance in Australia.

Next, on 25 November 1950, the Adelaide Lithuanian Theatre Group presented Disturbed Tranquility by P. Vačiunas. Nikodemas had a leading role in this production. The play was repeated on 6 January 1951, then again in Melbourne later that month.

The long-established Adelaide Advertiser newspaper reported the large crowd at the November performance, naming Nikodemas among the performers. The popularity of the play might be why Australijos Lietuvis [The Australian Lithuanian] detailed the plot in its ‘English section’ of 1 January 1951.

Juozas Gučius arrived in Adelaide in 1951, establishing the Lithuanian Theatre Studio. Nikodemas joined immediately and participated in its first production, along with the whole ensemble, of Viršininkai, or Brass in English. 

He played several more roles in its productions. He loved the stage so much that he never refused to play even the smallest role.

Although he lived far from Adelaide then, he found time to come to rehearsals. In all the roles he took on, Nikodemas played the parts as deeply and intelligibly as possible.

According to his obituarist, Viktoras Baltutis, one of Nikodemas’ greatest achievements was the role of the Lithuanian artist in the drama Stella Maris by J. Grinius. Baltutis wrote that he gave his whole creative soul here, deeply and sensitively empathising with the character of the artist, with all his nuances.

Nikodemas as the artist in Stella Maris

Source:  Australian Lithuanian Archive

He shone equally in the role of Simas Kudirka in the drama Jump to Freedom written by the obituarist, Baltutis. The playwright thought that complete and unconditional dedication to the characters created by dramaturgy was one of his most striking features as an actor.

The Adelaide News' theatre correspondent, Kevin Crease, reported in August 1954, that Nikodemas was about to make his first appearance in an English-language production. He was in the Adelaide Theatre Group’s production of Crime and Punishment, known to the Group and its audience as ‘Niki’.

In October 1953, the News and its Adelaide colleague, the Advertiser, carried a total of 3 articles mentioning Nikodemus. In the first, the News theatre critic, CB de Boehme, wrote on 13 October that Nikodemas’ Mermeladoff in Crime and Punishment “was an astute and deeply felt study”.

The second review, by Kevin Crease and published on 23 October, was of the Lithuanian Theatre Studio production of three English-language comedies. He wrote that Nikodemas, “as the suitor who had palpitations gave a fine performance”. The News headlined the report, "Lithuanian Group Does Well". It was, reported Crease, the first time the Theatre Studio players had performed in English.

DCB in the Advertiser of 23 October also reviewed the comedies. He reported that “The high point of the evening was The Proposal. This play, dealing with a diffident but proud suitor's attempts to propose to an equally proud woman, is a very human comedy … Skidzevicius, who is pompous and proper as well as a sufferer of palpitations, also act (sic) with great heart.”

If Australian copyright law did not prevent the digitisation of newspapers by the National Library of Australia’s Trove service beyond 1954, we might know much more about the general Adelaide public’s reception of Nikodemas’ acting talent. As it is, we are left with the obituarist reporting that he had even gained a role in the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s production of The Museum of Here and Now.

In 19 October 1970, Mūsų Pastogė published a photograph of the Vaidila theatre company, of which Nikodemas was now a member. It advised that the group would be coming as far as Sydney at the end of the month.  On October 31, its members would perform the comedy Bubulis and Dundulis.  On Sunday, November 1, they would perform V. Mykolaitis Putin's historical drama Valdova. A Ukrainian community hall had been hired.

Near the end of the entry, we have a photograph of Nikodemas performing in Bubulis and Dundulis in 1995, 25 years later. If it was the same part, it must have been an integral part of his life by then.

Nikodemas Skidzevičius is third from the left in the back row of this 1970
photograph of Adelaide's Vaidila theatre company

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

In 1983, Mūsų Pastogė announced that Nikodemas, still member of the Vaidila theatre company, was leaving Adelaide for the small town of Robe, to its east, near Mt Gambier. He had been presented with a large national ribbon at a dinner after a performance of the company’s current play, Peilio ašmenimis (Knife Edge in English).

Nikodemas (left) with actor N. Vitkunienė in Knife Edge

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

The reporter wrote that Nikodemas participated in commemorations, parades and other cultural events, whenever a beautifully pronounced Lithuanian word was needed.

In 1990, V Skipzevičius is said, by a Teviskes Aidai reporter using the pseudonym Pr P, to have been an actor, along with  V Nekošius and the playwright, E Buliene, in two plays she had written about life in Australia called Desires and Wishes.  They were performed for the Adelaide Lithuanian Catholic Women's Society in June.  Since Vytautas Skipzevičius had died in 1983, the V must have been a misprint for N, for Vytautas' brother, Nikodemas.

This being the case, there may have been another earlier misprint when J Vasiliauskas reported in the same newspaper in 1978 that V Skipzevičius, a Vaidila actor, had read the testament of Darius and Girėnas at a 45th anniversary commemoration.

Most non-Lithuanians would not be aware of the story of Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas. On 15 July 1933, they attempted a nonstop flight from New York City, USA, to Kaunas, then the capital of Lithuania, in a single-engine plane purchased and rebuilt with the help of funds from other American Lithuanians, the Lituanica.

They crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 37 hours 11 minutes.  Both died when the plane crashed in Germany.  The cause of the crash was said to be poor weather conditions and engine problems.  They had covered a distance of 6,412 kilometres without landing and were only 650 kilometres away from Kaunas.

They have been the subject of Lithuanian stamps, a Lithuanian banknote and memorials in both New York and Chicago (where the Lituanica was rebuilt).  Darius had initiated the building of the first sports stadium in Kaunas which, after renovations, is the largest in Lithuania or the three Baltic States and is named after the two flyers.

Darius and Girėnas left their testament behind in case they did not survive the flight, pledging their patriotism and calling the Lithuanian people to action.

Two months after the first 1978 report, the Canadian-Lithuanian newspaper, Teviskes Žiburiai, carried a similar story, again stating that V Skipzevičius had read the testament at the commemoration.  The later story may well have been sourced from the first.  If V Skipzevičius was Nikodemas' brother, it is the only recorded appearance of Vytautas in front of an audience.  A reporting or editing error is more likely.  Yet another Nikodemas performance is much more likely.

His obituarist, Viktoras Baltutis, reported that he was full of enthusiasm and optimism for theatre, he urged new stage works and invited younger actors to join. He loved theatre and was devoted to it.  He never refused to recite or read poems during commemorations, putting his whole soul in to these too.

He also had been a member of the first Adelaide Lithuanian national dance group, performing around the city showcasing Lithuanian culture to Australians in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.

He studied drawing, painted a few watercolours and later changed to wood sculpture.  His only exhibition of works in wood was in Adelaide's Lithuanian House, jointly with Viliją Petruškevičiūtę-Dundienę’s ceramics, in 1993.  His work was very traditional and religious, featuring a rupintojelis (a pensive christ), crosses, a vytis (the Lithuanian coat of arms, a mounted knight holding a shield and sword) and town crests. 

It gave him a lot of joy and pride, although he himself mentioned that much patience and persistence was needed to create more perfect works.  He had started his wood carving practice in Germany, in 1946, but amazed those in Adelaide who knew him only as an actor with this previously hidden talent.   

He obtained Australian citizenship on Australia Day, 26 January 1960. This was more than 3 years after his brother, Vytautas. Perhaps Nikodemas had been too busy rehearsing and performing to apply.

Nikodemas married and had a son and a daughter. After Lithuania regained its independence, he was able to visit his father in 1991. He was able to visit again, the last time with his grandson.

In 1992, Elena Varnienė, writing in the Chicago-based magazine Ateitis, reported that Nikodemas had taken part in Adelaide’s annual Literature and Song Evening.

The last year of Nikodemas’ life was 1995, but Mūsų Pastogė reported twice that he was engaged in public artistic activities. For the celebration of Independence Day, February 16, he recited a poem, as reported in March. In April, he acted in a production of Bubulis and Dundulis in Melbourne.

Nikodemas (left) in a Melbourne production of Bubulis and Dundulis
just months before his 1995 death

Source: Mūsų Pastogė; photographer: Birute Prasmutaite

His death on 22 August 1995 came 3 weeks short of his 70th birthday. He is buried in the Catholic section of Adelaide's Centennial Park Cemetery.

Sources

Advertiser, The (1950) ‘Lithuanian Play’ Adelaide, 27 November, p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/45671297 accessed 21 January 2025.

Arolsen Archives, ‘AEF DP Registration Record, SKIDZEVIČIUS, Nikodemas’ [completed in Lithuanian] https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69134310 accessed 21 January 2025.

Arolsen Archives, ‘AEF DP Registration Record, SKIDZEVIČIUS, Nikodemas’ [completed in English] https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69134312 accessed 21 January 2025.

Arolsen Archives ‘War Time Card File (Registration cards, employees’ record books, individual correspondence) A-Z (SKIDZEVIČIUS, Nikodemas) https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/74921279 accessed 21 January 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis [The Australian Lithuanian] (1951) ‘English Section, Disturbed Tranquility’ Adelaide 1 January, p 10 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280320124 accessed 21 Jan 2025.

Baltutis, Viktoras (1995) ‘Nikodemas Skidzevičius’ Šventadieno Balsas [Sunday Voice] Adelaide, 17 October, pp 4, 6, (copy held in Australian Lithuanian Archive, Adelaide).

Baltutis, Viktoras (1995) ‘Mūsų Mirusieji, Atsisveikinimas su Nikodemu Skidzevičiini, 1925. IX. 14 –1995.VIII.22’ in Lithuanian [‘Our Dead, Farewell to Nikodemas Skidzevičiūs, 14.9.1925 – 22.8.1995] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-09-11-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.

Č-kas, V. (1949) ‘Pirmas lietuviškas vaidinimas Australijoje’ [‘First Lithuanian Play in Australia’] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven], Sydney, 12 October, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1949/1949-10-12-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.

Crease, Kevin (1954) ‘Curtain Call’ News, Adelaide, 25 August, p 16 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131250091 accessed 21 January 2025.

DCB (1954) 'Lithuanians Stage Three Comedies' Advertiser, The Adelaide, 23 October p 17 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47629322 accessed 21 January 2025.

de Boehme, CB (1954) ‘Play Explores Human Spirit’ Advertiser, The Adelaide, 13 October, p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131209992 accessed 21 January 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1970) [Untitled photograph] Sydney, 19 October, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1970/1970-10-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 1 March 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1995) 'Iš A. Rūko "Bubulio ir Dundulio" Pastatymo Melburne' Photo caption in Lithuanian ['From A. Rūkas' Production of "Bubulis and Dundulis" in Melbourne'] Sydney, 17 April p1 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-04-17-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 31 January 2025.

Naras, VS (1995) ‘Vasario 16 d. Adelaidėje’ in Lithuanian [February 16 in Adelaide] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven], Sydney, 6 March, p 3 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-03-06-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-47; 654, SKIDZEVICIUS Nikodemas DOB 14 September 1925, 1947-47; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118081 accessed 22 January 2025.

Poželaitė-Davis, Isolda (1983) ‘Juozui Gučiui Prisiminti’ [‘In Rememberance of Juozas Gučis’] Akiračiai [Horizon] March, p 6. https://spauda2.org/akiraciai/archive/1983/1983-nr03-AKIRACIAI.pdf accessed 27 January 2025

Pr P (1990) 'Adelaide,Šiupinys' ['Adelaide, Medley'] Teviskes Aidai [The Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne, 3 July https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1990/1990-07-03-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.

Prasmutaite, Birute (1995) Photograph:  'Iš A. Rūko "Bubulio ir Dundulio" Pastatymo Melburne' caption in Lithuanian ['From A. Rūkas' Production of "Bubulis ir Dundulis" in Melbourne'] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 17 April, p 1 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-04-17-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 7 February 2025.

Sv Balso and SP (1995) ‘Adelaide’ [‘A†A Nikodemas Skidzevičius’ (RIP Nikodemas Skidzevičius)] Teviskes Aidai [Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne 3 October p 6 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1995/1995-10-03-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.

St (1983) ‘Teatrų Veikloje, Vaidila, ’’Peilio ašmenimis”’ in Lithuanian [‘Theatre Activities, Vaidila, “Knife Edge”’] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 4 April, p 3 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1983/1983-04-04-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.

Teviskes Ziburiai [The Lights of Homeland] (1978)'Lietuviai Pasaulyje, Australija' ['Lithuanians in the World, Australia'] Mississauga, Ontario, 24 August, p 4, https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1978/1978-08-24-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.

Varnienė, Elena (1992) ‘Laiškas iš Australijos’ (‘Letter from Australia’) Ateitis [Eyes], No. 6, Chicago, p 238 https://spauda.org/ateitis/archive/1992/1992-nr06-ATEITIS.pdf accessed 27 January 2025.

Varnienė, Elena (1993) ‘Bendruomenės Darbų Baruose, Keramikos ir medžio drožinių paroda’ In Lithuanian [‘Community Activities, Ceramics and wood carving exhibition’] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 21 June, pp 4, 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1993/1993-06-21-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 27 January 2025.

Vasiliauskas, J. (1978) 'Gyvas Didvrių Atminimas'  ['Living Memory of Heroes'] Teviskes Aidai [The Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne, 22 July, p 3 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1978/1978-nr28-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.

Vibaltis (1983) ‘Adelaidinės pabiros’ in Lithuanian [‘Adelaide droppings’] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 4 April 1983, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1983/1983-04-04-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.

Valentinas Dagys (1927 – 1972): My father, by Jedda Barber

My father was passenger number 137, Valentinas Dagys, on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman that arrived in Fremantle, Australia, on 28 November 1947. He was called Vili by his Lithuanian friends and Bill by his Aussie family and friends. He left his parents and sister in Lithuania at the age of 17 and arrived in Australia aged 20.

An identity card dated 30 March 1943, when my father was 16, and valid until 30 September 1943:  His father's name was Jonas, he was a student and
he lived in Biržai at 6 Agluonos Street

If you click once on this map, you can enlarge it in a separate window of your browser to read the details:  each of the red circles shows places where my father stopped on his journey from Lithuania during the War, while each of the black ovals to the west shows placeswhere he stayed in Germany when the War was over

The details of my father's flight come mostly from letters that were sent from Germany back home to family.

A bundle of letters was hidden in a door frame of the family home and discovered when the new owners renovated around 2010. They gave the letters to the Biržai Regional Museum, Sela.

I assume the letters were hidden because they came from Germany and this would not look good if seen by the occupying Russians.

I learned of their existence when I wrote to a neighbouring address in 2015 after looking at the home through online maps. I noticed an old timer in the garden next door so decided to write to him.

These two images show the front and back of a postcard my Dad sent successfully
from Magdeburg to Biržai while Hitler was still in power, on 5 February 1944

The family home in Agluonos Street, as it looked in 2016

Source:  Collection of Viltis Šalyte Kružas

Scouting and Guiding groups were active among all three nationalities on the First Transport.  They had been set up in the camps in Germany, they formed again on the ship to Australia and remained active in the Bonegilla camp.

Here a clipping from the Lithuanian language weekly newspaper in Australia records those who were part of the first Lithuanian Scouts groups at Bonegilla fifty years previously.

Source:  Tündern-Smith, Bonegilla's Beginnings

This photo is of the Sea Scout group on the ship to Australia;
the grey line in the middle of the left-hand side points to my Dad

Dad was listed as a Sea Scout on the USAT Stuart Heintzelman.  In his home town of Biržai (northern Lithuania), he was part of the crew of the Biržiečių Sea Scouts' yacht "Diver" built in 1938 that reached the Baltic Sea.

Dad at the Blue Lake, Mount Gambier, South Australia, 1948

Vili left the Bonegilla camp on 9 January 1948 for his mandatory two years' work.  He was part of a group of at least 32 sent to the SA Department of Woods & Forests in Mount Gambier for employment as a labourer.

Edward Kurauskas, the former representative player for Lithuania, had arrived in Australia on the Second Transport, the USAT General Stewart, on 13 February 1948.  No doubt he was glad to find the cluster of at least 23 Lithuanians already in Mount Gambier
at the Woods & Forests camp. 

Source:  Border Watch (Mount Gambier) 8 July 1948 via Trove

Vili pretending to play the piano accordion;  he could play the harmonica

After moving to Adelaide, he was involved with the amateur Lithuanian theatre group that performed plays at the Lithuanian House, Norwood, during the 1950s and 60s.

My parents, Bill and Cynthia, on their wedding day in 1958,
at Rosefield Methodist Church, Highgate, South Australia

In Adelaide, Bill had various jobs, including manufacturing electric engines and selling land.

Dad's boat on the Murray River, with his friend William on board

The home that my parents built in 1960 in Secombe Heights, South Australia,
faced west with ocean views and was one of the first houses on the hill: 
we lived there until Dad's death in 1972

REFERENCES

Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 'Want to teach men's basketball', 8 July 1948, p 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/78588215, accessed 8 July 2023 (yes, exactly 75 years later).

Tündern-Smith, Ann, Bonegilla's Beginnings, 2nd ed, Triple D Books, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2014, p 93.

"You Are Welcome in Australia" with Daina Pocius

Daina has found an undated, unsourced news clipping, about the Lithuanian First Transporters' first couple of days in Australia after they disembarked in Fremantle.  Here is her translation.

"You Are Welcome in Australia"

After a long, 30-day journey, on November 28 the first DPs (Displaced Persons) arrived from Germany.  One DP writes about his experiences in the new place.

Our first stop in Australia was Fremantle. Government representatives, press and film correspondents welcomed the arrivals on the shore.  After greetings and some brief information about future goals, we boarded the bus.  Slowly large cars move through the streets of the small seaside town, along the edge of the sea.  The feeling is a little strange, but still good, because we clearly feel that we are no longer illegitimate DPs, but full members of humanity again.

Shed A on Victoria Quay, Fremantle, was where the First Transport passengers encountered their final processing for entry to Australia: identity documents checked for immigration purposes and suitcases checked for quarantine breaches and
any customs payable (likely to be nil).  The shed was one of four built in the 1920s for preparing WA-grown fruit for export.  The 1930s photographer had a high vantage point where the WA Maritime Museum is located now.

Source:  Fremantle Ports

Like in a motley film strip, oleanders are blooming all around, near strange snow-white residential houses with verandas and carefully maintained lawns.  A large palm tree grows near each house, under which lounge chairs sit.  The palm tree here is considered the sanctity of the house and is seen everywhere.  Our first impression is excellent.  After 9 miles of travel, we reach our destination.  Instead of the expected wooden barracks, we are accommodated in beautiful tin houses with 3-4 or 6-7 people in each.  They were built for the soldiers.  The walls are painted white, and the roofs are made of white or red tiles.  The interior of the building is very reminiscent of a hospital.  Beds are covered in two sheets and several blankets.  The organisation is exemplary.

After washing off the travel dust, we go to lunch.  The dining hall is large with self-service equipment.  A pleasant surprise is the Australian government’s written greetings and wishes for each new arrival. Its content is approximately as follows: ‘Australia says welcome.  You are the first European DPs to come to Australia.  You are temporarily without your homeland, and we want to help you as much as we can. If you are kind and obedient, we will do more for you.  You are invited and welcome in Australia.  Signed: Minister of Immigration commissioned by the Australian Government.  After reading these heartfelt lines, tears appear in some eyes.

Then the eating begins.  Our first lunch in Australia consisted of soup, steak with vegetables, fruit compote, pudding, oranges and other fruits.  In reality, we have to say that we have not been interested in eating for quite some time.  This is followed by the message that we are free and can go and do what we want.  We just can't forget that at 6 o'clock, we must return for dinner.

Firstly, we go and explore the city.  We wander the streets and look through the shop windows into full shops.   Almost everything can be bought without ration cards, with the exception of some textile goods, for example, woollen materials, foreign contractor silk, etc.

The Australians have been well informed about our arrival.  Wherever possible, they come and tell us a lot about themselves and how they came to be in Australia.  Many came here with only a few suitcases, but now have a house and car.  Those who want to work and live sensibly will be able to settle comfortably in a short time.  They reassure us not to get dismayed because everything will be fine. Australians are happy to help new migrants.

There is a lot of traffic on the streets.  People are well dressed.  The first night we visited the cinema.  It looked like we would get into the hall, but there was a surprise. The walls of the "Room" were not only lined with rows of living palm trees, but blue clouds were overhead.

We will leave Fremantle by boat in a couple of days for Melbourne, where we will be assigned work.  Today, the first Australian commission arrived and will inform us about the working conditions.  The authorities are very polite, and you can speak to them openly.  They ask what we did in our homeland, in Germany, and what we would like to do in Australia.  They did say we may not be happy about the work at first not corresponding to our professions. (LZ)

Searching both the National Library of Australia's Trove and a Lithuanian-language equivalent, Spauda.org, produces no results for this article.  Can you help us source it?

About the author:  The two passengers on the General Stuart Heintzelman, the First Transport, with the initials 'LZ' were both Latvians.  Tracking down the author may be even harder than pinpointing the publication details.

Notes:  1.  About the 30 days for the Heintzelman to sail to Australia being "long", it was in fact something of a record short journey.  Most ships sailing to Australia from northern Europe at that time were taking something like 6 weeks for the same journey.

2.  Click on either image to see enlarged versions of them.

Viktoras Kuciauskas (1929-2008): Not All Stayed, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 5 December 2023.

A small number of the First Transporters moved to third countries after their initial settlement in Australia.  Broadly, their reasons for leaving were reunion with family who had settled successfully elsewhere or being able to practise their professions when this was denied to them without "retraining" in Australia.

One who left was Viktoras Kuciauskas.  He stayed in Australia long enough to obtain citizenship here in 1953.  He was the only recipient of citizenship at his ceremony in Burnie, Tasmania, on 17 July, but the event was seen as so important that he had to listen politely to at least 6 speeches.  He was surrounded by around 20 very important people, according to the local newspaper.

In 1954, the Burnie Advocate newspaper carried a photograph of him as the radiographer in charge of a mobile X-ray unit (part of the then national campaign against tuberculosis).  A short article in the local Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, reports that he was deputy chairman of the Lithuanian community in Hobart in early 1956 as well as the rapporteur for its audit committee.  

Victor Kuciauskas as radiographer in charge of a mobile Xray unit
in Burnie, Tasmania, October 1954

Source: Burnie Advocate, 20 October 1954

Yet only one year later, he was entering the United States via Canada, to reside there for the rest of his life.  

Born in Marijampolė County on 8 April 1929, he was only 18 when he arrived in Australia.  This age makes it unlikely that he had qualified as a radiographer already, but perhaps he had undertaken some relevant studies which made qualifying here easier.  His Bonegilla card records his English as 'fair':  it must have quickly become good enough for him to complete technical studies successfully maybe less than 5 years later.

Bonegilla card for Viktoras Kuciauskas

Source:  NAA

The Bonegilla card shows that he stayed in the camp until 28 January 1948, so he had nearly 2 months there to attend English classes and improve his language skills.  On 28 January, he and others were sent to HE Pickworth in Ardmona in Victoria to pick fruit.  He spent more than 2 months there, returning to the camp at the end of the fruit-picking on 1 March.  Only 4 days later, on 5 March, he was part of a group sent as labourers to the Electrolytic Zinc Company in Rosebery, Tasmania.

Viktoras Kuciauskas is third from the left in the front row in this photograph
taken at the burial of Aleksandras Vasilauskas in Albury's Pioneer Cemetery, 5 January 1948

Source: Collection of Endrius Jankus

Rosebery was the site of the Electrolytic Zinc Company's mine.  Mining is skilled work, so it is unlikely that the group of recent arrivals sent from Bonegilla were employed to do that.  The general labouring that they probably did still would have been very hard work, especially for young men who had been not particularly well fed during their 3 years in Germany.  Viktoras and the others would have been very relieved when notified in September 1949 that they were no longer required to work in Australia.  They had been free to leave their employers at any time so long as they sought the assistance of the Commonwealth Employment Service to find 'other work as directed', but the 2 years of employment in Australia often got interpreted as 2 years with only one employer.

Records digitised by Ancestry.com show that Viktoras travelled to the United States in 1955. He was on the RMS Orion, an Orient Line ship which berthed in San Francisco on 18 April 1955. By this time, his father was living in the US, in New York, while his mother was somewhat closer to San Francisco, in Omaha, Nebraska. His daughter, Victoria Siliunas, has advised that while visiting his mother, he went on a blind date with the woman who was to become his wife. 

His application for US citizenship shows that he arrived in the US again on 7 February 1957. This time, he had travelled from Sydney to Vancouver on another Orient Line ship, the SS Oronsay. His date of arrival in Vancouver is not yet public, but he reached Honolulu en route on 30 July 1956. 

Modern cruise ships take 9 to 13 days to travel from Honolulu to Vancouver, so Viktoras probably arrived in Vancouver before the end of August 1956. Between September and January 1957, did he stay in Vancouver with his sister, Stase, or did he drop into the US on visits to the special new woman in his life? If those records have been kept, they are not yet public. 

Less than one year after his second arrival, on 25 January 1958, he married Regina Parulis (Parulyte in Lithuanian), who had been born in Tauragė, Lithuania. By the time of the citizenship application they had a son, born in December 1959, and were to have another child, their daughter Victoria.

Based on decades of prior experience as a country of mass immigration, the US naturalization application form provided for applicants to change their name at this point in their lives.  Viktoras made use of this opportunity:  henceforward, he wished to be known as Victor Kucas.  

Victor's occupation is recorded as 'X-ray' on the application form.  An obituary written by a friend since school days, Edvardas Šulaitis, says that Victor obtained an additional nuclear medicine technician's qualification in the US.  Victor became the head radiographer in the Frank Cuneo Memorial Hospital, Chicago, for the more than 30 years that this hospital operated from 1957.

Ancestry.com has collected some information about Victor Kucas' life in the United States, mainly in the form of addresses from 1996 onwards.  They reveal that he was living in Lockport, Illinois, a city some 50 Km southwest of Chicago.

More is revealed in the Šulaitis obituary, published in Draugas, a Chicago-based newspaper which has been the only Lithuanian-language daily published outside Lithuania.  Having been a scout in childhood, Victor led the Lithuanian scout troop Lituanicas in Chicago and, during 1960-1963, was a member of the Council of the Lithuanian Scouts Union.  He edited the children's magazine, Eglutė, during 1994-2003, and for six years edited the Pasaulio lietuvio magazine.  He was active in a number of other organisations.

Edvardas Šulaitis described his friend as 'hard-working, calm-mannered' and added that 'Viktor remained in my memory as a quiet but accomplished person who paid tribute not only to his family, but also to the entire Lithuanian community.'

A portrait of Victor in later life on display at his funeral

Source:  Draugas

Sadly, Victor's life had ended in 7 months of pain after an accident in his home in December 2007.  He died on 17 July 2008, aged 79 years old, but he did live long enough to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary earlier that year.  His ashes were buried in a Chicago cemetery under the names of both Kuciauskas and Kucas.

Victor Kucas is buried with his father and wife in the St Casimir Catholic Cemetery,
Chicago, Illinois

Source:  FindaGrave

His wife, Regina, born on 24 January 1929, died 7 years later on 9 December 2015, aged 86.  She is buried with Victor.

The original burial in this plot would have been that of Pranas Kuciauskas, Victor's father.  His name appears on a nominal roll of Displaced Persons Departing From Resettlement Repatriation and US Migration Center Butzbach on 6 May 1949, held by the Arolsen Archives.  The Archives also have digitised a record which shows that Pranas was in Hanau, Germany, with his two children.  Why then did the three of them settle in three different countries?  Was the absence of any next of kin on Victor's Bonegilla card an oversight, or was it deliberate?

Others who asked the selection team for the First Transport if their relatives could come too were assured that they could follow.  In at least one instance that I am aware of, the relative came on the Second Transport.  Why was Victor not declaring that he had family and arranging for them to join him in Australia?

Pranas at the time of his migration to the US was aged 52, his occupation was given as Caretaker and his marital status was signified with a D, presumably for Divorced.  Somehow he was travelling independently when everyone else on his page of the nominal roll had a sponsoring organisation.  He was headed for Henry Street in Kings Park, Suffolk County, on New York State's Long Island.  Who did he know there?

Born on 4 June 1897, Pranas died on 1 October 1962 aged 65.  He died in Cook County, Illinois, so he was living with or near his son in Lockport.

The simple answer to many of the questions raised above might be that the young Victor was as adventurous as any other 18-year-old, maybe even more so given his scouting background.  When he heard about the possibility of moving to Australia, it may have seemed also like a quick way out of the previous 7 years of war and deprivation. 

Viktoras Kuciauskas is third from the left in the front row of this 1944 photo
of the fifth form students of the Kybartai Gymnasium in Lithuania

Source:  Collection of Edvardas Šulaitis via Draugas

If there were other young people from the same refugee camp answering Australia's call, that would have added to the pull factor.

Victor clearly did well in Australia.  It's likely, however, that he realised that he needed Australian citizenship for the passport to travel to reconnect with family members who had resettled in North America.  He must have been earning enough money through his responsible job in Australia to make not one, but two trips to North America. 

Returning to the US was a wise personal decision for Victor, not only for marriage and children but he was able to achieve more qualifications and a job which probably gave give security and satisfaction for the rest of his working life.  His move was Australia's loss, though.

I thank Jonas Mockunas for drawing attention to Edvardas Šulaitis' Draugas obituary, which has filled in gaps in Victor's life in the US.

Sources

'Documents from AIDUKAS, ADOLFAS, born on May 20th, 1895, born in LAUCIUNISKE and from other persons', Arolsen Archives, DocID 78869128, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/78869128.

'Draugas' (1 February 2023), in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draugas, accessed 8 April 2023.

'Hobartas, Nauja apylinkės valdyba' (Hobart, New community board), Musu Pastogė, (Sydney, NSW), 8 February 1956, p 4, via Trove, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259359765, accessed 31 March 2023.

Jankus, Endrius, personal communication, 25 September 2009.

'Migrant Culture Praised at Naturalisation Ceremony', Advocate (Burnie, Tas),  18 July 1953, p 6, via Trove,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69481268, accessed 25 March 2023.   

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration; Kuciauskas, Viktoras: Year of Birth - 1929: Nationality - LITHUANIAN: Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN: Number – 941; accessed 27 March 2023. 

'Naturalisation ceremony at Burnie on Friday ... ',  Advocate (Burnie, Tas), 20 July 1953, p 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69481365, accessed 25 March 2023.   

[Pranas Kuciauskas], Arolsen Archives, Document ID: 81711918, Correspondence and nominal roles [sic], done at Butzbach: means of transport train, plane; Transit countries and emigration destinations: Australia, Italy, Canada, USA, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/81711918.

Pranas Kuciauskas, in Cook County, Illinois, Death Index, 1908-1988, Ancestry.com, accessed 31 March 2023.

'Pranas Kuciauskas', Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/239782705/pranas-kuciauskas, accessed 25 March 2023.

'Regina T. Parulis Kucas', Petkus & Son Funeral Homes (Lemont, Illinois), [December 2015], https://www.petkusfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/Regina-T-Parulis-Kucas?obId=2585224, accessed 25 March 2023.  

'Regina Kucas', Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/239782753/regina-kucas, accessed 25 March 2023.

Siliunas, Victoria, 2023, personal communication, 17 April.

Šulaitis, Edvardas, 'Dar Viena Skaudi Netektis, Atsisveikinta Su A. A. Viktoru Kuču' (Another Painful Loss, Goodbye Said to Viktoras Kučas RIP), Draugas (Chicago, IL), 20 August 2008, p 8, https://www.draugas.org/key/2008_reg/2008-08-20-DRAUGASo.pdf.

'Viktoras Kucas', Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/239782738/viktoras-kucas, accessed 25 March 2023. 

'Victor Kuciauskas, in the California, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959', Ancestry.com, accessed 31 March 2023.

'Victor Kuciauskas, in the Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959', Ancestry.com, accessed 31 March 2023.

'Viktoras Kuciauskas, in the Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991' Ancestry.com, accessed 31 March 2023.

'X-ray unit', Advocate (Burnie, Tas), 20 October 1954, p 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69880102, accessed 25 March 2023.