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

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

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

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

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

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

Vladas Paskevicius colourised photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:  Wikipedia

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:  Patricia C on Find A Grave

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOURCES:

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

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

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

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

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 422, PASKEVICIUS Vladas DOB 22 June 1915, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5162091, accessed 29 July 2026.

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

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

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

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

Lost luggage, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Not all about the Heintzelman voyage was happiness.  Lost luggage spoiled the trip for several.

Nikolajs Bergtals: see below for his 'found' story

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Estonian woman, Salme Pochla, would have had her voyage ruined already when told that she would not be allowed to enter Australia.  She may or may not have been told the reason:  an adverse security report received after the Heintzelman had sailed.

To cap it off, some or all of her luggage, described as “packages", was lost. No trace of it could be found in Fremantle – or Perth presumably, either, since the luggage was transferred there for Customs examination on 29 November.

Then there was Karolis Prasmutas, a Lithuanian man who we have met in an earlier blog entry.  Once he had reached his first employer, the State Electricity Commission at Yallourn in Victoria, he set about making written inquiries.  He described his luggage as a square box made of “tin aluminium” painted blue.  Knowing Karolis from his blog entry, he may well have made the square box himself.

His missing box contained his professional books and tools as well as some clothes and shoes. He suggested that the value of the lost luggage of about £40, around 4 weeks  income when the minimum wage was £5/9/-, less tax.

He wrote to the International Refugee Organisation (IRO) representative in Sydney saying that the luggage had not come off the Heintzelman with him.  Immigration officials had told him that they would let him know about the luggage when he arrived at Bonagilla. However, the Immigration official he talked with at Bonegilla told him that he had no information.

It was the Provisional Committee of the International Refugee Organisation (PCIRO) which had organised the Heintzelman’s voyage from Germany on behalf of the Australian Government.

A member of the Australian Parliament’s upper house, the Senate, got involved. One reason for Senator Donald Grant’s involvement may have been that he was based in Sydney, like the IRO.  He wrote to the company which had handled the Heintzelman’s arrival in Fremantle, the Orient Steam Navigation Company, to say that an IRO staff member had passed Karolis’ letter to him. 

Correspondence on the missing box continued for nearly 6 months, until a senior Immigration official in Canberra advised that no further action was required from the Department’s Western Australia office.  The definitive advice may have been that from the manager of a transport service employed by the Orient Company who wrote that he had inquired of Stuttgart in Germany without getting a reply and had also had a thorough check done of the Perth camps, a warehouse and the Fremantle wharves.

He noted that in this instance the majority of the names on the packages transported were “impossible to read or understand whilst some 200 packages were without marks or numbers". Due to this, the company had relied on the migrants identifying and claiming their luggage at the Graylands camp. 

Although there is no mention of it on the file we have to assume, as the transport manager seems to have done, that Karolis was sent to this camp and not Swanbourne. Either that or the more than 400 at Swanbourne were bussed to Graylands to be part of the scrimmage — a possibility of which there is no remaining evidence.

Having the new arrivals identify their own luggage may well have led to a situation where nice looking luggage was claimed by someone else, especially if it had lost or badly damaged labels.

Karolis Prasmutas was not the only Lithuanian to suffer loss of his luggage. Birute Gruzas, formerly Tamulyte, told me that her luggage had disappeared before she was able to claim it in Perth. As Birute had already lost everything she was carrying when a bomb blew up the bridge she was crossing on her way to refuge in Germany, she was one tough 19-year-old to pick herself up and carry on for the second time in her life.

These are the known cases of lost luggage. How many others were there, if Birute's story is not recorded?

On the other hand, we also have one example of lost articles being found and returned to their owner.

On 5 December 1947, that is 3 days after the Kanimbla had left, a wallet was handed in at the Fremantle police station. Given the contents of the wallet recorded by the police, it may have been more in the nature of a folder or portfolio.

Those contents were a foreign passport in the name of Nikolajs Bergtals, a temporary travel document in the same name, a map of Nord West Deutschland (Northwest Germany), a visiting card, a letter written in a foreign language, two foreign doctors’ prescriptions, six personal references and six photographs. 

The man who had found the wallet had a Russian name, Ivan Estinoff. He was said to be “of the Jeanette Fruit Palace” in High Street, Fremantle, so perhaps its proprietor. Given his presence in Australia, he may well have held similar political views to the new arrivals.

The Acting Commonwealth Migration Officer for Western Australia, RW Gratwick, posted the wallet by registered mail directly to Bonegilla on 17 December.  It crossed with a letter from the Acting Commonwealth Migration Officer at the Bonagilla camp, LT Gamble, who enquired on behalf of Nikolajs on 21 December. An undated memorandum from Gamble to Gratwick, but with a December receipt stamp, records the arrival of the package still containing all the articles.

Gamble added, “The articles referred to have been handed to the owner who desires to express his grateful thanks for your action in the matter.”

Its arrival must have been something of a Christmas present.  No wonder we have another thankful new arrival.

SOURCES

Australian Government, Fair Work Commission ‘The history of the Australian minimum wage’ https://www.fwc.gov.au/about-us/history/history-australian-minimum-wage accessed 30 June 2025.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series; 82, General Heintzelman - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 - nominal rolls of passengers https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 27 June 2025.

Algirdas Undzenas (1913 -1979): Lithuanian factory director by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 4-5 July 2026.

Algirdas Undzenas had been a factory director in his Lithuanian homeland.

He graduated from the Birzai gymnasium (senior high school), then studied at the Klaipeda Trading Institute.  With 8 years of secondary education and 3 years of tertiary in addition to the usual 4 years of primary, Algirdas was among the most educated of the Lithuanians to resettle in Australia via the 1947 USAT General Stuart Heintzelman voyage.

He finished his studies in 1938, when he was 24. He then worked in Šiauliai as a deputy director of a factory called Maistas, which is Lithuanian for Food. He continued as a director of this factory until he forced to leave for Germany in 1944.

The Maistas factory had been built in Šiauliai in the 1932. Pigs were slaughtered and processed here, mainly for export.

Maistas factory in Šiauliai, Algirdas' workplace,1940

Source:  Facebook, Lietuva sensose fotografijose

He had been born on 4 October 1913, in Klausuciai village, Biržai county. His parents were wealthy farmers, Jonas and Zenė Undzenas. (Zenė‘s maiden name was Kregzdaitė.)

The Australian selection panel's record of interview with Algirdas says that he was "forcibly evacuated by the Germans".  A manager of a factory processing animals into food definitely would have been an asset for the Germans.  

There's a discrepancy, however, between "forcibly evacuated by the Germans" and Algirdas' arrival date in Germany, from a record preserved in the Arolsen Archives, of 1 October 1944.

Since the Soviet forces captured Lithuania's capital city, Kaunas, on 1 August 1944, we should expect Algirdas to have been on his way out of what would become part of the Soviet Union by then.  All who had experienced the Soviet occupation between June 1940 and July 1941 knew what to expect.  In particular, factory managers would have expected nationalisation and their replacement by operatives loyal to the new regime.

We could have expected the German military to retreat more quickly than the two months between 1 August and 1 October.  It is possible that "forcibly evacuated by the Germans" was a standard term used by those typing out the interview schedules, at the request of the Australian interviewers, to cover a range of events.  It certainly appears on a number of the interview reports if not most of them.

Two of five Arolsen Archives records for Algirdas in Germany after World War II shows him in the coastal town of Norden.  This is around 50 kilometres west of Bremerhaven, the port from which he left Germany with 842 others on 28 October 1947.  He had arrived in Norden from a larger German town, Oldenburg, on an unknown date.  The main document is itself dated 1949.

Both Norden and Oldenburg were in the British Zone of occupied Germany at the end of World War II.  As British production of food and other essentials had been damaged by German bombing or reduced due to the workers' absence in the British armed forces, conditions in the British zone were worse than those in the American zone.

Three other records in Algirdas' name have a different birthdate, 19 October 1904 rather than 4 October 1913.  It's possible that this date is a type of faulty anagram, with the 13 having been lost in the process.  If it is our Algirdas and not a relative with the same name, he was in the Bavarian town of Kitzingen from 8 February 1945 to an unknown date.  Two documents recording this have January and August 1948 dates.

The third item is from a card index was initially compiled at the beginning of the 1980s from a large number of smaller card files. These were originals of index cards from various registration offices, employment offices, private companies and from the health sector.  His card in this index also has him in Kitzingen from 8 February 1945, but says that he reached Germany on 1 October 1944.  

From this card too, it seems that he earned survival money in Kitzingen by working as a gardener.  It is not apparent that there was a Displaced Persons camp in Kitzingen, but perhaps Algirdas wanted to join a friend who had managed to settle temporarily in this town.

Depending on how far away from Lithuania Algirdas got together with the Germans, he may have taken a lengthy land route like that of Valentinas Dagys. Alternatively, he may have managed to reach the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, about 160 kilometres west of Šiauliai and still more than 2 hours travel by road.  From a landing in coastal Germany, he may have worked his way west by rail or walking to Norden, through Oldenburg, to move away from what became the Soviet zone of occupied Germany.

According to this theory, he then worked his way south to Kitzingen, again through Oldenburg. If trains were running again from Norden to Oldenburg when he left, the journey would have taken at least 90 minutes. To travel by train from Oldenburg to Kitzenen now takes more than 4  hours.

At the time of his interview for Australia in September 1947, Algirdas was living in the Buchholz camp in Hannover.  Fortunately for him, this was one of several interviewing points for the Australian selection team.  Kitzingen was in the American Zone, so why Algirdas returned to the harsher conditions of the British Zone by moving to the Buchholz camp is another unknown.

At the age of 34, he was ten years older than the average age of the Heintzelman group. He also differed from nearly all the Lithuanians through having been brought up in an Evangelical Reformed family, rather than a Roman Catholic one.

Algirdas' Undzenas identity photograph

Source:  NAA:  A2571, UNDZENAS ALGIRDAS

On his Bonegilla migrant camp card, Algirdas had an official add the name and address of his fianceé in the Address of Next of Kin area. She was Else Frerich from Oldenburg.  Algirdas must have spent enough time there after September 1944 to form a relationship with Else which he hoped would lead to marriage.  His plans to create a family did not materialise, however.

Algirdas Undzenas spent his first week outside the Bonegilla camp in the Albury District Hospital, from 30 January to 6 February 1948, as did several others from the First Transport. It is likely that they were here for medical checks rather than work. Tuberculosis still was dreaded then, explaining why our Displaced Persons had a chest X-ray as part of the selection process in Germany and another one when they got to the Bonegilla camp.  Other illnesses may have displayed themselves.

Blackie House, Albury Hospital

Source:  Facebook, AlburyCity

Perhaps the Bonegilla X-rays had detected calcification in the lungs which had been missed by the German X-rays. Calcification might be a sign that the patient had had TB previously and might still be at risk to themselves or others.

The most modern building on the Albury District Hospital campus had been open for only one year. Blackie House, opened in February 1947, was a maternity unit was funded by money from the will of John Blackie, a local pharmacist. [Golly, thinks Ann Tündern-Smith, it probably was where my mother gave birth to me and where other Bonegilla babies were born in 1948 and maybe later!]

Back at Bonegilla, Algirdas was sent to work with the State Electricity Commission (SEC) at Yallourn, Victoria, on 12 February 1948.  He probably worked in Yallourn Power Station. His friend, Karolis Prasmutas, worked there too.

The first group of 48 for Yallourn from the First Transport, led by English-speaking Arnold Siinmaa, had left the Bonegilla camp on 15 January, so Algirdas was nearly one month late. Josef Šeštokas’ Welcome to Little Europe book focuses on the first 48, so Algirdas gets only a passing mention. 

He was included on a list of those attending English-language classes organised by the SEC at Arnold’s suggestion, a list which Arnold still had when he moved house during 2007.  This was though the selection team back in Germany had described his knowledge of English as "very fair", probably the highest grade they were prepared to give.

The index card on which staff of the Melbourne office of the Department of Immigration recorded Algirdas' employment and residential movements, as required under the Aliens law, has been digitised for the public to see.  We have included the scan of the back of the card below.

Rear of Department of Immigration record card for Algirdas Undzenas

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The front of Algirdas’ card tells us his date of birth and date of arrival in Australia. Additionally he received his first Alien Registration Certificate, a passport-like book, on 1 January 1948 (like everybody else still in Bonegilla most likely) and was released from his work contract on 14 October 1949. (This last date is hard to read because more data has been written and stamped on top of it.)

“Labourer” has been typed on the top left of the card and never altered. It looks like this was the former factory assistant manager’s role for the remainder of his working life in Australia, although he might have become a manager again without reporting it.

On 13 February 1948, he was sent to Yallourn North in Victoria’s Gippsland. We knew that already: it is confirmation of what was recorded on the Bonegilla card.

The next three entries are changes of residence every nine or 12 months in Melbourne from May 1950 to July 1952. These addresses seem to relate to employment at the Nelson electrical factory in Fitzroy. There’s no further information about this employer at this time in the digitised newspapers in the National Library’s Trove, nor elsewhere on the Web.

A change of employer occurred in March 1960, when the card notes that he is now working for the Springvale Filtration Works in outer, southeastern Melbourne. These were the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works sewage treatment works that operated just south of Springvale during the 1950s and 1960s, the Braeside Treatment Works.

The same handwriting which recorded his moved to the Springvale Filtration Works noted that he had moved to the adjacent suburb of Clayton. Eight months later, he had moved further away, to East Malvern.

Three years on, he moved to the outer northern suburb of Reservoir. This is so far away from Clayton and Springvale, still 40 minutes at least by car and perhaps hours by public transport, that we can only assume that Algirdas, probably “Al” to his fellow workers, had given up the sewage treatment job.

Further address changes were noted in 1965, 1966 and 1967. This time they were to eastern suburbs of Melbourne, to Hawthorn and North Caulfield, although the 1966 address was within Melbourne’s Central Business District and at a club. He may have found employment there.

In 1968 to 1970, rubber stamps note that he had told the Department of Immigration that there had been no change to his circumstances.

There the recording ends, although we have no evidence of Algirdas becoming an Australian citizen. What might have stopped the record?

Ann’s guess is that staff in the Department of Immigration’s Melbourne office probably told Algirdas that they were abandoning it. This was because not many of the estimated 1.15 million migrants in Australia were reporting as required, so the process no longer was a useful way of keeping track of so many people. Indeed, senior officials and politicians may well have been asking why it was necessary to keep track of law-abiding people 25 years after the end of the security issues during World War II.

In fact, Australia’s Federal Parliament repealed the Aliens Act two years later, during 1972.

This means that the next public record we have for Algirdas is from 29 June 1978. On that day, he was seriously injured in a traffic accident in Melbourne. He walking from a public library with books and was hit by a car while crossing the street.

Left unconscious, he was taken by ambulance to the Austin Hospital. During more than nine months, however, he rarely regained consciousness despite the great efforts made by doctors. During all the time he was in the hospital and in a convalescent home, friends Aleksandra and Vytautas Bieliauskas did what they could to look after him.

Algirdas died 9 months later, on 9 April 1979. At the Tobin Brothers Chapel on 12 April, he was farewelled in prayer by Fr P Vasaris.  Karolis Prašmutas, who had come to Australia with him on the First Transport, provided an eulogy. He was buried that day in the Fawkner Cemetery, accompanied by a large number of Lithuanian people.

By a twist of fate, this Protestant is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery.  That is likely to be so that he can lie with his fellow Lithuanians in exile.

Algirdas was unmarried and had no relatives in Australia. In occupied Lithuania, he still had two living brothers: Petras, born in 1904, with his family, and Jonas with his. Another brother, Konstantinas, born in 1905, and a sister, Ona, born in 1911, both had died in 1916, suggesting some sort of epidemic in wartime conditions.

Algirdas’ parents, Jonas and Zene, his sister, Onutė (or Ona), and brother, Kostas (or Konstantinas), are buried in Klausuciai village cemetery in the Birzai district of Lithuania. His father died in 1959 and his mother in 1962. This means that after Algirdas left Lithuania, his parents did not see their son again.

In Australia, Algirdas kept aloof, with his truest friend being a book, according to Karolis Prašmutas. He did care for Lithuanian community life though, so when the Melbourne Lithuanians bought their own building, he donated £100 to the cause.

Sources

Albury City, 'Nurse on Call' https://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/leisure/museum-and-libraries/exhibitions/nurse-on-call accessed 7 March 2025.

'IRO (BZ) Form 102, Family Name, Undzenas' 2.1.2.1./ 69554139 / ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives  https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69554139 accessed 10 March 2025. 

'Kategorie III, Form 7, Gemeinde Kitzingen [Category III, Form 7, Kitzingen Community] List of all allied Nationals and all other Foreigner, German Jews, and stateless etc. who were temporarily or permanently stationed in the community, but are no longer in residence, Nationalität, Litauen [Nationality, Lithuanians]' 2.1.1.1. / 69975936 / ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/69975936?s=undzenas&t=548522&p=0 accessed 10 March 2025. 

'Kategorie III, Form 7, Landstadt Kreis Kitzingen, Gemeinde verachiedene [Category III, Form 7, Country Town District, Different Communities] List of all allied Nationals and all other Foreigner, German Jews, and stateless etc. who were temporarily or permanently stationed in the community, but are no longer in residence, Nationalität, Litauen [Nationality, Lithuanians]' 2.1.1.1. / 69975941 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69975941?s=undzenas&t=548522&p=0 accessed 10 March 2025. 

'Liste der in der Kreigszeit in Norden wohnhaf gewesen Ausländer [List of foreigners residing in Norden during the war]' 2.1.2.1./ 70708684 and 70708685/ ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70708684 and https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70708685 accessed 6 March 2025.

Arolsen Archives (1980s) 2 Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees by Public Institutions, Social Securities and Companies (1939 - 1947) / 2.2 Documents on the Registration of Foreigners and the Employment of Forced Laborers, 1939 - 1945 / 2.2.2 Various Public Administrations and Companies (Documents related to individuals)

Cemety, Jonas Undzėnas, born: 1875, died, 1959 https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/1442572?type=deceased accessed 6 March 2025.

Evangeliku_reformatu_abecelinis_sarasas_XIX_a_pab-XX_a_II_puses [Alphabetical list of Evangelical Reformed people from the 19th century to the 2nd half of the 20th century] http://88.119.255.35:8888/metrikai/Evangeliku_reformatu_abecelinis_sarasas_XIX_a_pab-XX_a_II_puses.pdf accessed 6 March 2025 [p341].

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 310, UNDZENAS Algirdas DOB 4 October 1913, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118019, accessed 5 July 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B77, Alien Registration Cards, 1948-1972; UNDZENAS/A, UNDZENAS, Algirdas - Alien Registration Card, 1948-1970 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=15660711, accessed 4 July 2026.     

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series, 1926-52; 82, GENERAL HEINTZELMAN - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 - nominal rolls of passengers, 1947-52; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 6 March 2025 (page 10).

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; UNDZENAS ALGIRDAS, UNDZENAS, Algirdas : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number – 706, 1947-48 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203721886 accessed 6 March 2025.

Find A Grave, Algirdas Undenas,https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140678679/algirdas-undzenas accessed 6 March 2025.

JP (1979) Algirdas Undzėnas Musu sparnai [Our Wings] Chicago, Illinois, June, p 76 https://spauda.org/musu_sparnai/archive/1979/1979-nr46-MUSU-SPARNAI.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.

Prašmutas, K (1979) ‘AA Algirdas Undzėnas’ [‘RIP Algirdas Undzėnas’] Tėviškės Aidai [Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne, 5 May, p12 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1979/1979-nr17-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.

Prašmutas, K (1979) ‘Mirusieji, Mirtis Eismo Nelaimėje’ [‘The Dead, Death in a Traffic Accident’] Mūsų Pastogė Sydney, 7 May 1979, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1979/1979-05-07-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.

Šeštokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe Sale, Victoria, Little Chicken Publishing, pp 118-9, also available in part from Google Books, eg, https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Welcome_to_Little_Europe/PqDgc5KKfvIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=karolis+prasmutas&pg=PT231&printsec=frontcover, accessed 16 April 2023.

Wikipedia, Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Evangelical_Reformed_Church accessed 7 March 2025.

Alfonsas Ragauskas (1914–1988): First Transporter Who Overcame Obstacles by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 9 February and 6 April 2025

Alfonsas, known as Alf, was born on 19 January 1914 in Šiauliai, in the Lithuanian district of Joniskis, where he spent his youth. Life was not easy for him, so he emigrated to Germany in 1935.

Alfonasas Ragauskas' identity photo on his migration application form, 1947

Source:  Sestokas, Welcome to Little Europe

There he lived in even more difficult conditions, working hard until 1947, when he immigrated to Australia on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman.

At least that is what his anonymous obituarist in the Teviskes Aidai edition of 17 May 1988 had been led to believe.  Teviskes Aidai was a national Australian Lithuanian Catholic newspaper published weekly in Melbourne; it now is published fortnightly.

What the obituarist wrote contrasts with the more usual story that Ragauskas gave to the Australian three-man panel selecting Displaced Persons for the first voyage to Australia.  The paper record from his interview says that he arrived in Germany in December 1943, having been "forcibly removed by the Germans".

The two versions are not incompatible, if Alf in 1935 was the equivalent of a modern backpacker.  Aged only 21 in 1935, Alf would have missed his family and friends.  He possibly stayed in Germany long enough to make good money, then returned home.  We have to hope that he did this before September 1939, when the German military invaded Poland,  the nation between his temporary residence and his homeland.

Alternatively, Alf may have learnt the back story expected of the DPs being interviewed for Australia before his turn came.  In this case, he had to remember the story -- or forget the previous German residence -- in future dealings with Australian officials.

None of this prevented Alf from becoming an ideal settler in Australia and contributor to his new home.  And there is no mention of time in Germany before 10 December 1943 in Alf's application for Australian citizenship, lodged on the first available date, 1 December 1952.  Any time in Germany in 1935 must have been too brief to mention (or forgotten).

In addition, Alf had been so keen to become an Australian citizen that he was one of those who first enquired in September 1949, as soon as he was freed from his contract to work here.

Alfonasas Ragauskas' identity photo on his Bonegilla card, 1947

Source:  NAA, A2571, RAGAUSKAS, Alfonsas

His first job was in the State Electricity Commission of Victoria’s Yallourn open-cut brown coal mine. Later he became an electrician in the power plant, then a pump operator until retirement.  

Alf was a resident of Yallourn North when he applied for Australian citizenship.  He renounced previous allegiances and was granted Australian citizenship there on 23 July 1953.  The ceremony, the first to be held outside the colder atmosphere of a local courtroom, was described in detail on the front page of the local newspaper, the Morwell Advertiser, during the following week.

In Josef Šestokas’ book, Welcome to Little Europe: Displaced Persons and the North Camp , Josef’s father, Juozas, writes about the Yallourn camp where both he and Alf lived initially, “All were single men. They were accommodated in tents under pine trees behind the school. Local people were friendly and welcoming.”

Alf wrote in Juozas’ autograph book, presumably in Lithuanian, in 1955, “Really we are happier here, but you could only appreciate that if, having lost your country and your people, you were so hospitably welcomed as victims of war.”

While working at Yallourn, Alf met his wife, Agota and they married in 1962. They later moved to Kew, Melbourne. Josef Šestokas reports that they were thought not to have had children.

Alf led a quiet life, keeping dairy goats and chickens in his large backyard. He was remembered in his obituary as a fun, friendly and helpful. Although his life he was full of difficulties and surprises, he was able to overcome all these obstacles.

Alf died at Box Hill Hospital in Melbourne on 28 April 1988, aged 64, and is buried in Kew Cemetery, now known as Boroondara General Cemetery. Agota was buried with him when she died 4 years later.

Headstone on the grave of Alfonsas and Agota Ragauskas, 
Boroondara General Cemetery, Melbourne

Source:  Boroondara General Cemetery

References

Anon (1988) ‘AA Alfonsas Ragauskas (in Lithuanian)’ Tėviškės Aidai [The Echoes of Homeland] Melbourne, 17 May, p 7.

Boroondara General Cemetery, Grave Locator, <Ragauskas>, https://boroondaracemetery.discovereverafter.com/ accessed 23 January 2025.

Morwell Advertiser (1953) 'Four Naturalised at Impressive Yallourn Ceremony', Morwell, Vic, 30 July, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/66139061, accessed 22 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A435, Class 4 correspondence files relating to naturalisation, 1939-50; 1949/4/4224, RAGAUSKAS Alfonsas - born 19 January 1914 - Lithuanian, 1949-53 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=6944679 accessed 9 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, 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; 245, RAGAUSKAS Alfonsas DOB 19 January 1914 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005655 accessed 6 April 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947-1956; RAGAUSKAS, Alfonsas : Year of Birth - 1914 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 641, 1947-1948, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203913539 accessed 24 January 2025.

Sestokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe, Displaced Persons and the North Camp, Little Chicken Publishing, Sale, Victoria, pp 1, 87, 261. [This now is out of print but a digitised version can be read at https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Welcome_to_Little_Europe/PqDgc5KKfvIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Welcome+to+Little+Europe&pg=PT58&printsec=frontcover accessed 24 January 2025.