Diana Bučiūtė, who lives in Lithuania, is a niece of Juozas Nakas.
Juozas Nakas was born on 17 March 1923, on a Lithuanian farm, as the second of 5 children. This farm was next to the Tapiališkis village in the district of Zarasai. In 1930, the family moved to the village of Velniakalnis, close to the town of Rokiškis. Juozas spent the rest of his time in Lithuania there.
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| Juozas Nakas (right rear) with his family, 1937-38 Source: Private collection |
In Rokiškis he attended school and later worked as a manager of the Lietūkis shop, Lietūkis being the Lithuanian Association of Agricultural Cooperatives.
In 1940, Lithuania was occupied for one year by Soviet forces. They were repelled in June 1941 by the forces of Nazi Germany. According to memories of Juozas’ elder brother, Osvaldas, in 1943, “The Germans wanted some military help and Lithuanian politicians probably considered that a Lithuanian military unit would be useful for reestablishing Lithuanian independence. So, our famous Plechavičius made a deal with the Germans to draft Lithuanians who could be used only within Lithuanian borders. About 12,000 men volunteered.
"The Germans broke the agreement and started to round up the men for paramilitary work in Germany and other places. When news of round up spread, the majority of men escaped. The Germans caught only around 3000, but they including my brother”.
Juozas' sister Birute is 95 years old and still lives in Lithuania. She remembers that she went to see her brother when he was imprisoned in the Rokiškis primary school building. Juozas came to the window, and she spoked with him from outside. It was the last time when she saw her brother.
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| Juozas Nakas in Lithuania, 1940 Source: Private collection |
In 1944, war swept Juozas’ brother, Osvaldas, to Germany. According to his memories, he was trying to find out where Juozas might be, so on 3 February 1945 he went to Berlin, to the Lithuanian information centre (Central Stelle) on Friedrich Strasse, but he found no address for his brother. “And then a Fliegeralarm [air raid siren] sounded, so everybody on the streets started to run to hiding places ... I went to my U-bahn [subway] station. Later I found out that this was the biggest bombing of Berlin, with a thousand planes participating”.
Like other refugees, Osvaldas lived in Displaced Persons (DP) camp. He had the job of camp leader. “A big part of the job was to screen and accept new applicants for living in our camp. One new applicant, when he came in, asked me whether I had a brother named Juozas (Joseph).
"He told me that Juozas was hospitalised in Norway with a fracture of spine. The accident happened when soldiers were transported from Norway to Germany and cargo fell on him when he pretended to be brave and did not move from a dangerous area. I had not known where my brother was for about 2 years since he had been taken away by the Germans as a member of General Plechavičius' army.
"Now I had a chance o get in touch with my brother, but no mail was allowed to other countries. So I asked Major B for help. He sent my letter to a Consul in Norway, asking him to locate my brother. I received my brother’s address, in a hospital. My brother had registered as a civilian.
"Soon all foreign or German refugees were transported to Germany, including my brother when his fractures had healed. The rule was that you could claim your relative if you could support him. So I wrote a statement that said I am Juozas' brother and, as a camp leader, I can guarantee his support. I needed to travel to to the city of Kiel to pick him up. It was a great reunion.”
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| Juozas in Germany, 1945 Source: Private collection |
As Osvaldas wrote in his letter to his sister Birutė from Düsseldorf, dated 12 June 1947, he corresponded with Juozas from January 1946, and in the [northern] summer of 1946 they met at last and settled together.
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| Osvaldas (left) with Juozas in Germany Source: Private collection |
Osvaldas was accepted into the Academy of Medicine in Düsseldorf. In letters written in 1947 to his sisters he mentioned that he visited Juozas in the city of Stade.
In his memoir he wrote, “My brother was quite restless in the DP camp and he signed up for emigration to Australia, England and Canada, but Australia was the first one to accept him, so he emigrated to Australia before I graduated. He used to send me some money from Australia.”
Osvaldas graduated in 1948 with a MD [Doctor of Medicine] degree, and emmigrated to the US in 1949.
Juozas Nakas arrived to Australia on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, on 28 November 1947, aged 25. After a few days' stopover in Perth, Western Australia, he travelled with the other 838 DPs accepted for resettlement to eastern Australia on an Australian navy ship, the Kanimbla. On 8 December, the group arrived at the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre in northern Victoria, where they lived until a decision was made on where they would work under the contract they had signed in return for resettlement.
Juozas was one of ten men selected to work for a timber company, CJ Row Webb & Anderson, leaving Bonegilla on 14 January 1948. The company was headquartered in the suburb of South Melbourne, but its forestry operations were in central Victoria. Even today, the road trip between Bonegilla and Thornton takes more than two and a half hours. There is no other means of travel between these two small places.
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| Juozas (right) with CJ Row, Webb & Anderson colleagues at Thornton in 1948; Lithuanians Edvardas Lapinskas at left and Bernard Matkevičius in the truck cabin look on, while the man in the white shirt is an Estonian, probably Helmut Nurmsalu Source: Private collection |
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| Back then you could have your photograph printed onto the other side of preprinted postcard paper, which Juozas has done in this instance, although it looks like the message to Osvaldas was sent inside an envelope Source: Private collection |
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| Juozas (left) with Alice and a friend, Melbourne Source: Private collection |
For more than ten years, Osvaldas in USA, as well as his parents and two remaining sisters in Lithuania had no news about Juozas. In 1974, Osvaldas met a woman from Australia in Chicago who had known Juozas earlier. She promised to try to find him. This woman found Juozas, called him and gave him Osvaldas' address. So Osvaldas at last received a letter from Juozas and informed his sisters, “He writes that he is well, he still works at the port, he has his own house, already fully paid for, he has four children” (letter to Birute, 16 December 1974).
Osvaldas let Juozas know that their parents had passed away. On Christmas Eve in 1974 he called Juozas, and they had their first conversation in 27 years.
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| Juozas in Melbourne, a photograph sent to Osvaldas in 1974 Source: Private collection |
Osvaldas and his sisters were very happy at last to have news from their brother but he was already ill and passed away in Melbourne on 21 January 1975, aged only 52. He was buried in Springvale Cemetery.
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| Juozas' name has been added to the Welcome Walls of migrants who came by sea through Fremantle, at the West Australian Maritime Museum which is located there Source: Private collection |
OTHER SOURCES with Rasa Ščevinskienė
‘Bonegilla migrant experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, Juozas Nakas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203717189 accessed 17 March 2025.
Commonwealth of Australia (1964) ‘Gazette’, Canberra, 7 May, p 1675 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241032399/25999342 accessed 17 March 2025.
Find A Grave, ‘Joseph Nakas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231347053/joseph-nakas accessed 17 March 2025.
Find A Grave, 'Alice Patricia Nakas‘ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231347052/alice-patricia-nakas accessed 17 March 2025.
Government of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum Welcome Walls, 'NAKAS, Juozas (Joseph), Fremantle Panel 132‘ https://museum.wa.gov.au/welcomewalls/names/nakas-juozas-joseph accessed 17 March 2025.
‘Nakas, Juozas, AEF DP Record’ [‘American Expeditionary Forces Displaced Persons Record’] 3.1.1.1 / 68379412 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68379412 accessed 17 March 2025.
‘Nakas, Osvaldas, Refugee/Displaced Person Statistical Card’ 3.1.1.1 / 68379417 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/68379417 accessed 17 March 2025.
Wikipedia, Povilas Plechavičius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Povilas_Plechavi%C4%8Dius accessed 26 March 2025.
