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.

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