Showing posts with label long life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long life. Show all posts

18 September 2025

Ona Matulionytė Miniotienė (1898-1992): Long-lived torture survivor, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Ona Matulionytė was a fully trained nurse with something like 18 years of experience when she came to Australia on the First Transport in November 1947. As she had managed to reduce her age to get on the ship and out of Germany, she possibly was the oldest passenger. Even claiming to be born in 1907 rather than 9 years earlier made her the oldest Lithuanian woman on the voyage. The story of how she got to this point is difficult reading.

When the Soviet military still controlled Lithuania in 1941, Ona was arrested by the NKVD, interrogated, and sent to the Kaunas Hard Labor Prison. After the Germans invaded from 22 June 1941, Ona was released. When the Soviet forces approached for the second time, at the end of the 1944, she knew that she had to flee westwards.

Ona Matulionyte's photo from her Bonegilla card

Ona’s recollection of her arrest by NKVD in the Kaunas Military Hospital on 5 May 1941 and subsequent interrogation is translated here.

Arrest

“The arrest procedure was as follows: on 5 May 1941, at 2 pm, a medical orderly came to inform me that the chief of doctors of the hospital was calling me. When I went, he announced that a catastrophe had occurred and that I would have to go for an operation.

“He did not say how or where. He also did not tell me what instruments to take. When I asked, he replied that I would find everything there. Then I got changed and, together with the chief surgeon of the hospital's surgical department and the hospital commissar Levgeyev, we drove to Vileišis Square in Kaunas.

“Another car was waiting for us there. The commissar got out and talked to them, and when he returned, he told us that there had been a second catastrophe, so we would give the nurse to them, and they would drive on. The second car, having picked me up, took me to the NKVD, where I was immediately interrogated.

Torture

“During the same interrogation, I was tortured. The interrogation lasted from 5 p.m. until 3 a.m. the next day. They wanted to know where the secret radio transmitter was, which Gestapo chief I was recruited to spy for, when, where and how much I received for it, and how many times I had been to Germany.

“I was interrogated 4 times in one month. The last interrogation took place on 6 June. They always interrogated at night. They interrogated me twice in the NKVD palace and twice in prison. While being transported, I was accompanied by 3-4 Russians. There were 5 people interrogating me: 2 Russians, 2 Jews and one Lithuanian.

“The interrogation procedure was as follows: when I answered that I knew nothing in reply to all the questions, a Russian hit me in the temple and someone else hit me in the back of the head. After severe blows, I fell and lost consciousness. When I came to my senses, I felt pain all over my body.

“When they saw that I had moved, they poured water on me and started beating me again with a rubber baton. While I was being beaten like this, I lost consciousness again.

“After that, they took me to the next room, opened the door and windows to create a draft, and made me sit there. They put iron shackles on me and did not allow me to close my eyes or move. When it got cold, I asked my two guards to close the door or window. They replied that they had no right to do this, but they could ask the officer on duty.

“The officer on duty came. When I asked him for closed windows or the door, he smiled ironically and sat me down with a chair in the doorway, where there was an extremely strong draft. I sat like that for 29 hours.

“I was only allowed to eat for the first time four days after my arrest. After that, threatening to shoot me, they took me to prison. In prison, they threw me into solitary confinement, where I spent 5 days.

“From solitary confinement, I was transferred to a sick cell. They brought medicine after two days only, and the doctor after 5 days.

“During the interrogation, they cursed me with the most disgusting words to which no intelligent person should listen.”

Ona's early life

Ona had been born on 21 December 1898 in the village of Antakalniai, in the Utena district of Lithuania. Her parents were Mykolas Matulionis and Ona Matulionienė, whose maiden name was Žvironaitė. Ona was born the third child in a family of 7 children. While their parents were farmers, the children pursued education and became prominent in pre-War Lithuania.

Ona studied at the Kaunas School of Nursing during 1924-26, then worked as a nurse in the operating theatre at the Kaunas Military Hospital until 1943 – apart from the NKVD interrogation and imprisonment with hard labour, from 5 May to 22 June or some days later in 1941.

During 1943 to 1944, Ona worked as a sister at the Kaunas Polyclinic. After moving herself away from the returning Soviets, Ona of course continued nursing in Germany, working eventually in the Hanau DP camp hospital.

Escape to Australia

Her papers must have been falsified to give on the birth year of 1907 and an age of 39 at the time of interview with the Australian team. Soviet forces were not that far away from Hanau at the time, occupying about 40 per cent of the former Germany. The thought of these neighbours must have spurred Ona on to move on as soon as she could. On 28 November 1947, she arrived in Australia on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman.

Bonegilla Camp

One of the early visitors to the newly arrived Lithuanians in the Bonegilla camp was T Kuodis with his wife, later Ona Baužiene. In the Mūsų Pastogė newspaper 30 years later, this Ona recalled how she was taken care of during the visit by her name fellow, Ona Matulionytė.

Nursing in Melbourne

From the Bonegilla camp, Ona was the only Lithuanian in a group of 6 women sent to work in the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg in Melbourne. Helgi Nirk, whose life has been recorded already by this blog, was another of the 6. At the time, the Hospital was operated by the Australian Government’s Repatriation Department, supporting former military personnel.

The Melbourne Herald newspaper of 5 January 1948 reported that they had begun training as nurses. Helgi’s previous relevant experience was as a student of agricultural science who had her own farm, so her experience at the Austin is no guide to Ona’s. Let us hope that her previous nursing enable Ona to speed through what the Austin was offering.

(The Herald journalist thought that “medical terms may be a tough obstacle in initial lectures”. In fact, they would have been the easiest part of the language challenge, as they are very similar from one European language to another.)

Source:  Collection of Helgi Nirk, now in Estonian Archives in Australia

We know nothing more of Ona’s nursing career at this stage but, thanks to the Lithuanian language press in Australia and America, we do know more about her personal life.

Ona's sister arrives

On 15 March 1948, her sister, now Valerija Kuncaitienė, had arrived in Australia with her husband, Justus, and 2 sons, Vytautas and Jaunutis. The port of arrival of their ship, the Wooster Victory, was Sydney, but they moved to Melbourne when they could – probably because Valerija’s sister had settled there already.

Ona joined Melbourne’s Lithuanian Women's Social Welfare Society in 1952, and became a board member. With Valerija, she was one of the most active members of this Society. Forty years later, at her funeral, a then member of the board was to say that the 1950s were a hard time for the group, as there was no Lithuanian House until 1965. Meetings were held all over the city, but Ona did not avoid difficulties and never complained.

We have a Melbourne address for her from when she became an Australian citizen, on 27 January 1959, living in South Oakleigh. Her address was at least an hour’s walk from the nearest railway station. A bus to that station plus the train to a Melbourne landmark, Flinders Street Railway Station still takes nearly one hour. It is 20 minutes at least by tram from the Station to the Lithuanian Club in North Melbourne, plus there’s a walk from the train platform to the tram stop.

Unless Ona had the resourcefulness and money to get herself driver’s training, a licence to drive and a car, she could have felt quite isolated in South Oakleigh. The alternative would be having a Lithuanian with a car and similar interests living nearby.  Might this have been members of the Landsbergis family?

Ona Matulionytė (standing, third from left) with architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis 
(fourth from left) and his son and daughter with their families, in Melbourne, 1959

An American visit

From the New York-based newspaper Tėvynė, we know that Ona Matulionytė and her sister Valerija spent the northern summer of 1966 travelling around America and Canada. The newspaper guessed that they would have met with their brothers there, Balys and Pranas. Tėvynė was pleased that the visitors had made a point of visiting its premises.

Marriage

Later, Ona married Canberra resident Vladas Miniotas after his wife, Adele, had died in 1967. While living alone, Vladas had met Ona, proposed to her and married her in 1969. Ona was about 71 years old when she agreed to this major change in her life! It seems that they moved back to his former home town, Sydney, another major change. Vladas, born in 1902, had been a police chief in Lithuania.

During her Sydney years, Ona continued her participation in local Lithuanian life. She always conscientiously attended and supported all events in the community and supported youth, scouts, a folk dance group, and the Daina choir financially.

Deaths

After 15 years of marriage, in 1984 Ona’s husband died. Four years after that, and at the advanced age of 90, Ona’s health started to fail. She was invited to live with her sister’s older son, Vytautas Kuncaitis, back in Melbourne. He and his family cared for her until her lack of health meant a nursing home. There she died on 21 August 1992.

The grave of Vladas Miniotas in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney
Source:  Billion Graves

The funeral mass for Ona was on 25 August in St John’s Church, East Melbourne, adopted by the Lithuanians as their own, followed by cremation in Melbourne’s Fawkner Cemetery.  Her ashes were collected, presumably for scattering somewhere else, so she does not have a burial place or plaque.

Conclusion

Surviving the NKVD torture and going on to live 93 years altogether indicate one tough woman. On the other hand, her nursing training and experience also would have taught her healthy living after her WWII experiences.

Ona's brothers

Two of her brothers, Balys and Pranas, were especially well known.

Balys was a medical doctor and a director of the Birštonas Resort. The year that Balys turned 22 was the year in which the Russian Revolution occurred. He had been studying at Petrograd Military Medical Academy. He traveled around Russia, organizing Lithuanian schools and shelters, and represented the People's Party in a Russian Lithuanian parliament in Petrograd.

During 1927–1938, he was the chief physician of the Kaunas Military Hospital and the head of its Physiotherapy Department established through his efforts. In 1938 until 1940, as a colonel of the military medical service, he was a consultant to the Kaunas Military Hospital. He was particularly interested in balneology, the study of the medical use of natural springs, such as that found at Birštonas. He too was arrested and imprisoned by the Communists during 1940-41.

In 1941, he became the director of the Kaunas Tuberculosis Hospital, and also headed the Physiotherapy Department of the Vytautas the Great University Clinics. In 1941–44, he was the governor of the Main Health Board.

He is on record together with the priest Simonas Morkūnas, after a massacre of some 50 Kaunas Jews, of having appealed to Archbishop Juozapas Skvirckas on behalf the Jews of Kaunas on 28 June 1941. He interceded to save about 500 nursing nuns, Sisters of Mercy who had trained his own sister, and about 30 doctors from being sent to the War’s eastern front. He also prevented the murder of patients in the Kalvarija and Vilnius psychiatric hospitals.

Pranas Matulionis was the youngest of the seven, born in August 1909, so 14 years younger Balys. He was only 30 years old when Lithuania found itself being traded between the Soviet Union and Germany, so had not had the same amount of time as his oldest brother to excel.

After graduating from a military school in his home province, he started to study medicine in the Lithuanian University but, one year later, transferred to the humanities. One year later again, in November 1930, he joined the Lithuanian Army, attending the Military Academy. On graduation, he was given the rank of Second Lieutenant and became a platoon commander in the 7th Infantry Regiment.

In November 1936, he transferred to military aviation and was promoted to Lieutenant. Two years later, he became head of the Military Aviation Commandant's economic unit.

It may well have been his involvement in aviation which had him in the public eye. Lithuania is the country which still honours the failed 1933 attempt of pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas to reach Kaunas from New York, non-stop, just as Australia honours the efforts of early pilots to fly across wide oceans to this country, and Amelia Earhart who failed. Pranas moved to military aviation only 3 years after Darius' and Girėnas' mission.

Pranas was fortunate to miss out on the fate of many Lithuanian officers during the Soviet occupation.  The Germans appointed him mayor of the city of Alytus.  His view that the German mobilisation of Lithuanian men in 1943 was illegal led to his arrest for sabotage, however. Balys was able to have him released from prison after several months and placed in a health facility.

Both Balys and Pranas feared the Soviet return and left for Germany in 1944, then emigrated to the USA.

SOURCES

Australian Cemetery Index, ‘Inscription 10423466 - Vladas Miniotas’, https://austcemindex.com/inscription?id=10423466, accessed 17 September 2025.

Baužienė, Ona (1977) ‘Pirmąjį transportą prisimenant‘ (‘Remembering the first transport’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 19 December, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1977/1977-12-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Billion Graves, ‘Vladas Miniotas’ https://billiongraves.com/grave/Vladas-Miniotas/36564419, accessed 18 September 2025.

Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Ona MATULIONYTE’, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203611715, accessed 17 September 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1959) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, 11 June, p2055 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240999179/25981104, accessed 17 September 2025.

Dirva (Soil) (1974) [Three death notices for Balys Matulionis 1895.05.21-1974.12.01, in Lithuanian] Cleveland, OH, 4 December, pp 7-8 https://spauda.org/dirva/archive/n1974/1974-12-04-DIRVA.pdf

Elektroninio archyvo informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archive Information System, in Lithuanian with some English) ‘Utenos dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Birth register book of churches in the Utena deanery’, in Lithuanian ) (1899, baptism record number 7, parents Mykolas Matulionis and Ona Žvironaitė) https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267506507/276386475/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=6, accessed 17 September 2025

Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, 'Deceased Search', https://www.gmct.com.au/deceased and 'Ona Miniotas' https://www.gmct.com.au/deceased/1829650, accessed 18 September 2025.

Liulevičius, Vincas ‘A. A. Pr Matulionis’ (‘RIP Pranas Matulionis’, in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend), Chicago, IL, 13 June, p 6 https://www.draugas.org/archive/1987_reg/1987-06-13-DRAUGAS.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Meiliūnienė, S. (1992) ‘Laidojant A. † A. Oną Matulionytę Miniotienę atsisveikinimo žodis’ (‘Farewell speech at the funeral of Ona Matulionytė Miniotienė’, Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland), Melbourne, 1 September, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1992/1992-nr34-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1984) ‘Mirusieji, A.A. Vladas Miniotas’ (‘The Dead, RIP Vladas Miniotas’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 22 October, p 2 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1984/1984-10-22-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1985) ‘Ligoniu lankymas’ (‘Visiting the Sick’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 1 April, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1985/1985-04-01-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1992) ‘Musų Mirusieji, Su Ona Miniotiene Atsisveikinant‘ (Our Dead, Saying Goodbye to Ona Miniotiene‘, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 31 August 1992 p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1992/1992-08-31-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 September 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, 1947-1947; 770, MATULIONYTE Ona DOB 22 December 1907, 1947-1947.

Partizanai: istorija ir dabartis (Partisans: History and the Present), ‘Lietuvių Archyvas Bolševizmo Metai IV’ (‘Lithuanian Archives, Year Of Bolshevism IV’, in Lithuanian) https://www.partizanai.org/failai/html/bolsevizmo-metai-IV.htm, accessed 17 September 2025.

Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1992), ‘Is mošų parapijų, Melbournas’ (‘From the parishes, Melbourne’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 28 April page 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1992/1992-nr16-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1992), ‘Is mošų parapijų, Melbournas’ (‘From the parishes, Melbourne’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 1 September, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1992/1992-nr34-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Tėvynė (Homeland) (1966) ‘Viešnios iš Australijos’ (‘Guests from Australia’, in Lithuanian) New York, NY, 2 September, p 3 https://www.spauda.org/tevyne/archive/1966/1966-09-02-TEVYNE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Vikipedija, ‘Balys Matulionis’ (in Lithuanian) https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balys_Matulionis, accessed 16 September 2025.

18 July 2024

Veronika Tutins (1911–2006), who disappeared? by Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 4 August 2024

Veronika Tutins was a great friend of two other Latvian women from the First Transport, sisters Irina and Galins Vasins. Evidence of the friendship still exists in the form of 6 photos of Veronika, mostly with Irina and Galina. Suddenly, she vanished. What happened to her?

Veronika Tutins, 1947, from her Bonegilla card

All of them were employed initially in Australia at the Bonegilla camp. Irina was employed until February 1951, when the Department of Immigration offered her a transfer to another Reception and Training Centre for new arrivals, at Greta in NSW. Galina had left one year earlier, in February 1950. They certainly could be viewed as long-term Bonegilla employees, having worked there beyond the end of their initial contract  on 30 September 1949.

(L-R) Galina Vasins, Veronika Tutins and Irina Vasins
in the grounds of the Bonegilla camp, 1948
Source:  Private collection

Veronika, however, had ceased duty at Bonegilla on 22 August 1948 and was supposed to commence at the Bedford Park TB Sanitorium in South Australia on 24 August. We know that she wasn’t sent to South Australia as a patient, since any TB cases from Bonegilla were treated in the local Albury Hospital. 

(L-R) Galina Vasins, Irina Tutins and Irina Vasins
in the remains of a tank in the Bonegilla camp grounds, 1948
Source:  Private collection

Perhaps the answer lies in the story of Eduards Brokans, who arrived in Australia on 12 February 1948, on the Second Transport, the General MB Stewart. Due to the West Australian Government’s mistaken idea that all the passengers from the First Transport were to work in its State, the men from the Second Transport were held there pending a work allocation. So Eduards does not have a Bonegilla card. (The women were sent by train across the south of Australia, from Perth to Bonegilla, and do have Bonegilla cards.)

Eduards Brokans, from his 1947 selection papers

Eduards were sent to Bedford Park in South Australia to labour for that State’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS). We don’t know exactly when this happened, as we do with anyone whose Bonegilla card is extant. We can guess that this happened between February and August 1948, so Veronika had arranged to be near him.

It’s unfortunate that she did not tell Irina and Galina about her plans. Irina, for one, was still wondering what had happened more than 50 years later. If Veronika wrote to the Vasins sisters after moving to South Australia, they did not get the letters.

While Veronika's plan was to be near Eduards, both working in the suburb of Bedford Park, the South Australian Government had other plans.  Instead of Bedford Park, that Government sent Veronika to the Belair Sanitorium, 9 kilometres by road from Bedford Park.  That must have made seeing each other at weekends harder than it needed to be.

After Veronika stopped working there, the name was changed to Birralee, a named used previously when the property was a private home.  Belair was the name of the suburb in which the Birralee Sanitorium was located.  Birralee is  the name used by Veronika to describe her workplace when she applied for Australian citizenship.

Her application for citizenship shows that Veronika worked at Belair until December 1949.  My guess is that she left before her marriage.  Extant records in the National Archives of Australia show that Eduards and Veronika Tutins were married in Norwood, South Australia, on Christmas Eve, 1949. He was more than two years younger than his bride, being born on 29 June 1914. Her birthday was 15 November 1911.

Veronika had stayed at her Belair workplace for at least two months longer than required under the conditions of the voyage which brought her to Australia.  As reported here earlier, the first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, decided that the obligation to work as directed should end early, on 30 September 1949.  This was due to “the outstanding contribution they have made to Australia’s labour starved economy”.

Veronika had 6 years of primary education, followed by 4 years of commercial schooling. Eduards had 6 years at primary school only. She had been born in Zvirgzdene, a rural parish in Latvia’s Latgale province. Latgale is the one predominantly Catholic of Latvia’s four provinces: the others are predominantly Lutheran. Veronika advised the Australian selection team that she was a Roman Catholic.

Her registration as a Displaced Person with the American Expeditionary Forces now with the Arolsen Archives recorded that, in late 1945, she knew the Latvian, Russian and German languages. Two years later, when appearing before the Australian selection team, she undoubtedly could add English to the list. She had been selected as a waitress, back in the days when the Australian Government was setting up hostels for its younger, unmarried staff, although whether she waited on tables at Bonegilla is not known. He had been selected as a labourer.

Another Arolsen Archive card records that she had been living in Latvia’s capital, Riga, before fleeing to Germany. While in Latvia, she had worked as a typist, according to her application for Australian citizenship.

In Germany, from 7 December 1944 to 2 March 1945, she had been employed as a metal worker in a Chemnitz factory. Since Chemnitz became part of the zone occupied by Soviet forces, then became part of East Germany, undoubted Veronika was on the move westwards from early March 1945. By October 1947, she was living in a Displaced Persons camp in Esslingen, in south-western Germany.

She told the Australian selection team that she was single, but had one dependent, a sister. The sister was recorded on her Bonegilla card as Olga Zakis, still resident in Esslingen.

By the time of her application for citizenship in September 1958, Veronika had just obtained work as a comptometrist with a long-established Adelaide hardware manufacturer.  Since comptometers have not been used in offices since the 1990s, I suspect that the majority of readers will not know what they were.  

They were mechanical adding machines, which could be used for subtraction as well.  Trained comptometer operators could enter all the digits in a number at once, using up to ten fingers, unlike on modern calculators, where one digit at a time is entered.  This made them exceptionally fast.  Their decline was not due to the invention of modern calculators but to advances in electronic computing.

A comptometer manufactured in the 1950s

Eduards had been born in the Rezekne area, also in Latgale. Like Veronika, he was a Roman Catholic. At the time of interview by the Australian selection team, he gave a street address in Esslingen. It does look like Esslingen could have been where these two met.

His previous occupations were recorded by the Australian team as farmer from 1927 (at the age of 13) to 1937, then ‘worker’ (perhaps labourer) for 1937-40, then office worker for 1940-44 and ‘worker’ again for 1944-47.

Veronika had recently had her 38th birthday at the time of her marriage. Despite this relatively advanced age for childbearing, they had three children together: two girls and a boy, born between 1950 and 1954.

Eduards became an Australian citizen in the Adelaide suburb of Mitcham on 17 October 1955. Very often, a couple make the commitment to Australia by applying at the same time and taking the oath of allegiance in the same ceremony. Veronika waited. She applied in September 1958, she was approved with her certificate sent to South Australia in February 1959, but she did not take the oath to become an Australian citizen until 27 October 1959, also at Mitcham.

Maybe even before this commitment to Australia, the United States became more attractive to them. It might have been economic opportunities, as with some of the other First Transporters who left (like Vytautas Stasiukynas) or it could have been personal reasons, including reunion with family members (see Viktoras Kuciauskas).

The attraction may well have been Eduards’ younger brother, Aleksandrs, born on 19 July 1917. Unlike the older sibling who started working on a farm at the age of 13, Aleksandrs had attended university in Latvia and graduated with a PhD in agronomy from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. He initially resettled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which also became the home of his brother’s family.

Ancestry.com has a digitised passenger list showing Veronika reaching San Francisco from Sydney on the SS Oronsay on 13 June 1960. With Veronika was her husband, a son and two daughters. The daughters were named as Mary and Rita, while the son was Edmunds. ‘Mary’ is likely to be the daughter identified on Geni.com as ‘Mērija Ilze Brokāne’. The names of the other two in their original, non-Anglicised versions, are not spelt out on this Website. 

It is possible that Veronika finally applied for Australian citizenship in order to have a passport for the journey to the United States. The Australian-born children would have been on one of their parents’ passports.

Dr Aleksandrs Brokans died at the age of 100 in 2017 in a Maryland nursing home. The children of Veronika and Eduards are listed among surviving members of his family.

Eduards did not have quite the long life of his younger brother, dying at the age of 86 in December 2000.

Eduards and Veronika Brokans in later life
Source:  Geni.com

Veronika lived on to the respectable age of 94, dying on 10 April 2006. Irina Vasins was still alive then, dying in 2008, while her sister Galina is still alive as far as I am aware. Mind you, it was not as easy 18 years ago to use the Web to solve disappearance mysteries, so I wasn’t able to find the answers in this blog entry while Irina was still with us.

Veronika is buried in the Resurrection Cemetery, West Hanover Township, near her final home of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

SOURCES

Ancestry.com ‘California, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959 for Veronica Brokans, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/10094931:7949 accessed 12 July 2024.

Arolsen Archives ‘DocID: 69544463 (Veronika TUTINS)’ https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69544463 accessed 10 July 2024.

Arolsen Archives ‘DocID: 75443572 (VERONIKA TUTINS)’ https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/75443572 accessed 10 July 2024.

Geni.com ‘Veronika Brokāne’ https://www.geni.com/people/Veronika-Brok%C4%81ne/6000000011861721721 accessed 12 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Australian Customs Service, State Administration, South Australia; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-65; BROKANS Eduards - Nationality: Latvian - Arrived Fremantle per General M B Stewart 12 February 1948, 1948-1955; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4072903 accessed 10 July 2024.

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; 819, TUTINS Veronika DOB 15 November 1911, 1947-1947; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118138 accessed 10 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration Central Office; A11938, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stewart departing Bremerhaven 13 January 1948, 1948-1948; 484, BROKANS Eduards born 29 June 1914, 1948-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4664555 accessed 18 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D400, Correspondence files, annual single number series with 'SA' and 'S' prefix, 1945-1969; BROKANS VERONICA - Application for Naturalisation - [Box 92], 1950-1959; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=202814862 accessed 29 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; TUTINS Veronika - Nationality: Latvian Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 also known as BROKANS, 1947-1949; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7171511 accessed 10 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; BROKANS Eduards - Nationality: Latvian - Arrived Fremantle per General M B Stewart 12 February 1948 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7205717 accessed 18 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; BROKANS Veronica - Nationality: Latvian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 Also known as NEE TUTINS, 1947- 1959; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7205718 accessed 13 July 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria] ; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; TUTINS, Veronika : Year of Birth - 1911 : Nationality - LATVIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1187, 1947-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203711044 accessed 10 July 2024.

Star-Democrat (2017) ‘Obituaries: Dr Alexander Brokans’ Easton, Maryland, USA, 28 November, p A6 https://www.newspapers.com/image/353165191/?match=1&terms=edmunds%20brokans accessed 12 July 2024.

Vasins, Irina (2000-2007) Personal communications.

Vintage Calculators Web Museum,  Calculator Companies (2024) 'Comptometer' http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/comptometer1.html accessed 31 July 2024.

Wikipedia 'Comptometer' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptometer accessed 31 July 2024.

20 March 2024

Flaavi Hodunov (1927–2023): SAR Train Driver, by John Mannion

Updated 5 April, 12 May and 26 October 2024.

Estonian-born Flaavi Hodunov was another of the 18 with good English selected at the Bangham camp to be sent to be Peterborough. My three previous blog entries, on Australia's post-WWII displaced persons' program, Peterborough in general and Paul Deimantas in particular, refer. 

Flaavi's ID photo taken in Germany before departure to Australia --
Source:  Tatyana Tamm collection
Flaavi Hodunov's ID photo from his Bonegilla card
clearly a mistake has occurred!

Flaavi was a keen railway man and eager to learn. He recalls the ‘Roundhouse Rat’, a V-class steam shunting engine that was fired with big lumps of coal thrown into the firebox by hand.

'The little engine that could', the Roundhouse Rat, is on the left of this photo;
built in 1877, it was already at least 70 years old when the First Transporters met it
for the first time; it is now on display in a Naracoorte park

He spent over three years at Peterborough and celebrated his 21st birthday at the Railway Institute. Eventually he moved to Adelaide and built his own home. 

He recalled that a few weeks after the arrival of the ‘very first’ Balts at Peterborough, another group arrived, followed by many more. Many families were separated as a result of the work contract and accommodation. 

Flaavi and another Estonian, Artur Klaar, moved out of the hostel and found private board with the Linke family, through the Lutheran Church, on a dairy farm at Peterborough West. 

Two Baltic boarders, standing and kneeling on the left, with the Linke family
Source:  John Mannion Collection

The first means of transport for the Balts was on foot, push-bike and motor-bike. 

The push bikes could be used for recreation too;
here we have Juozas or 'Joe' Donela on the left with friends
Source:  John Mannion collection

It was difficult at first but these men later recalled the acceptance they received from Peterborough railway men including Ray Schell, Dave Rosser, the Brennan brothers, Lionel Noble, Peter Smallacombe and many others. 

Flaavi's girlfriend, Walya [Wasylisa Proszko], came to Australia with her parents and sister [on the Wooster Victory, in May 1949]. They too stayed at Bonegilla. She had to wait until Flaavi found her a job as a domestic with the Casey family on a farm east of Peterborough. 

Walya's Bonegilla card, with that assignment to the Casey family

Walya recalls that, while she was at Bonegilla, some of the locals came to see what these Balts look like, just out of curiosity. The general opinion was that they ‘looked just like us!’ 

Walya remembered being given clothing, in particular a bright pink raincoat. ‘When you don't have much, you remember things like that’ she told me. 

Men and women were in separate accommodation at Bonegilla. 

Everybody had to work for two years so, in order for the couple to marry, the authorities agreed for Walya working near Flaavi. According to Flaavi, when they married, Walya's contract was cancelled. 

Walya's family were reunited after they came over from Sydney for the wedding at Peterborough Lutheran Church [on 26 December 1949] and found work in Adelaide. 

Walya recalls the trip from Bonegilla to Peterborough well. She was given a packed lunch of sandwiches and a couple of eggs. ‘All I had was a suitcase and a handful of papers. I was unable to speak a word of English’. She reckoned that she has never waited so long for a train. 

On arrival at Adelaide station, she could not ask questions, but a Lutheran priest advised her in German how to get to Peterborough. Walya remembered that the train trip to Peterborough was in the dark, so she couldn't see where she was going, but when she did arrive, there was no platform. This was unheard of in Europe. 

The Peterborough Railway station, 1974, still without a raised platform

‘I expected a street with houses and shops on both sides of the street but found a very, very poor street, very scary, with one big hotel dominating the long Main Street’. 

The Hotel Peterborough would have dominated Walya's first view of
Peterborough's Main Street
Source:  John Mannion collection

Peterborough's Main Street, with
a hotel in the distant centre, around 1950
Source:  Lionel Noble photographer, John Mannion collection

Many of the migrants, including Walya, didn't like country life, but Flaavi reckons he would still be in the bush if not for Walya. 

According to the men I spoke with, Heini Koch, a descendant of the original Petersburg settlers, did a lot of work for the ‘lads who could not speak very well English’. 

Before they married, Walya would visit Linke's on weekends. As a married couple, the Hodunov's rented a little tin house that Flaavi had renovated for the new bride, near the hostel on Telford Avenue. They eventually rented a railway cottage. 

Flaavi found out that it was very hard to get transferred to city, but once he did, he excelled on the job and was the first 'Balt' to graduate as an SAR driver at Mile End.

Flaavi's achievement of locomotive driver status was celebrated in the New Australian,
a monthly publication for migrants from the Department of Immigration, in its August 1952 issue; the fettler work actually was when he was based at Bangham, near Wolseley,
the cleaning job was after redeployment to
 Peterborough and initial training there
Source:  New Australian, August 1952


Flaavi (right) on the job as a fireman, before his 1952 promotion to driver
Source:  John Mannion collection

He liked his job in the railways and worked freight trains back to Peterborough after the broad gauge was extended from Terowie to Peterborough in 1970. 

He spent 37 years on the job, 37 years of shift work, and agreed that it was not easy for the women being alone when men away on shift work.

Flaavi and Walya in 2003
Source:  John Mannion collection

Flaavi was born in Estonia's easternmost coastal city of Narva on 21 September 1927, so was 20 years old on arrival in Australia.  He died in Adelaide very recently, on 27 November 2023, aged a hearty 96.  Walya predeceased him, in March 2014, just after her 84th birthday.

POSTSCRIPT by Ann  

Flaavi's life before his voyage to Australia is encapsulated in the document below, a DP Registration Record created in the American Zone of occupied Germany.  In addition to confirming his place and date of birth, it tells us that his parents were Teodor Hodunov and Liidia Kolk, that his usual occupation when the record was created in maybe 1945 was motor-car locksmith, and that his first choice for resettlement was Canada.

From one of Flaavi's daughters, Tatyana Tamm, I now know that those parental given names were misrecorded.  Flaavi's father actually was Feodor while his mother was Leida-Bižarde Kolk.

Flaavi's name has intrigued me since I first saw it on the Heintzelman passenger list 25 years ago.  Although his Estonian birthplace means that he had Estonian nationality until the time during WWII when that no longer had practical meaning, the name is not Estonian.

The -ov ending of Hodunov indicates clearly a Slavic family name.  The most likely source of Slavic names in Estonia is Russia, but a Russian would spell this name with an initial G, as in Mussorgsky's opera, Boris Godunov, about an early Tsar of Russia.  

A Ukrainian friend has confirmed that this is indeed a Ukrainian spelling of the name, where the initial G gets transliterated as an initial H.  It happens with many Slavic names.  An example is the female first name Halina, diminutive Halya, in Ukrainian, which become Galina and Galya in Russian.  I've used this example because I can tell you that this name sounds just the same in Estonian, but is spelt Galja.

Flaavi, my friend said, absolutely was not Ukrainian, so more research was required.  I found that Flavi is known to be a first name used in Rumania, derived from the Latin name Flavius, meaning 'golden'.  Rumania still has many links in its language to the Roman occupation some 2,000 years ago, starting with the name of this nation-state being derived from Rome (or Roma in Latin and Italian).

Flaavi with two a's is a typically Estonian spelling, lengthening the initial vowel sound in Flavi and adding to the normal stress on the first syllable of Estonian words.  The name turns out to be quite multicultural, even before this concept was invented by the Canadians.

As reported above, Flaavi's mother's family name was Kolk, which translates from Estonian into English as an out-of-the-way place or, a dangling piece of wood.  Regardless of the reason for its application to his mother's family in the 1830's, when Estonians first got family names, it is authentically Estonian.  Her first name, Leida, is authentically Estonian too, but Google Search has never come across Bižarde in any nation.  Geni.com, a genealogy Website much used in the Baltic States, can find only Flaavi's mother with with this given name.

Starting with a B as it does, Bižarde is likely to be an import from another language, but from where? Does it help to know that the name transliterates into Бизарде in Cyrillic?  If you know more, dear reader, please feel free to comment below.

A family like her's, living in eastern Estonia as Flaavi's daughter, Tatyana Tamm, has found (specifically, Unipiha village, Nõo parish, Tartu county) would have been exposed to a lot of Russian cultural influences.

Tatyana also has found that Flaavi's Hodunov grandfather, Efim, was born in the village of Tverdyat', which is southeast of Narva and 110 Km distant by road.  Flaavi's great grandfather, Nikolai, was a farmer there.  That's long way from Ukraine, let alone Ukraine's border with Rumania.

Mixing ethnic groups up by translocation was a deliberate policy of the Soviet Union, in an attempt to reduce nationalism developing, but it occurred as well in Tsarist Russia, probably for economic reasons.

Efim was born in 1869, so Nikolai probably was born in the 1840's or 1830's.  It may be that the family was moved to Tverdyat' from elsewhere in the Tsarist Russia when Nikolai was young or even earlier.

As for the motor car locksmith trade, another of the First Transporters, a Lithuanian, called himself an 'engine locksmith' when interviewed by the Australian press in December 1947.  Did motor car and engines (perhaps pulling trains) have different locks to houses in the 1940s and earlier?  Who knows about this?  Please feel free to comment below if you do, reader.

A later entry on Flaavi, by one of his daughters, Tatyana Tamm is at https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2024/05/more-about-flaavi-hodunov.html.

American Expeditionary Forces Displaced Persons Registration Record
for Flaavi Hodunov in Germany
SOURCES

Arolsen Archives, 'Folder DP1475, names from HODIONENKO, ANNA to HOFFEINS, Marija (2)'
https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/67368899?s=hodunov&t=2738137&p=0, accessed 20 March 2024.

'Lionel Noble Photo Collection, Peterborough Station', https://lionelnoble.com/station/ accessed 20 March 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947–1956; HODUNOV, Flaavi : Year of Birth - 1927 : Nationality - ESTONIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 920, 1947–1948.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947–1956; PROSZKO, Wasylisa : Year of Birth - 1930 : Nationality - UKRAINIAN : Travelled per - WOOSTER VICTORY : Number - 85482, 1949 –1949.

'Railway transport: Locomotives and rolling stock 3'6" narrow gauge [B58892/492]', photograph, State Library of South Australia, https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+58892/492, accessed 20 March 2024.

Tamm, Tatyana (2024) Personal correspondence.

'V 9, The oldest steam loco in South Australia', http://www.australiansteam.com/V%209.htm, accessed 19 March 2024.


17 March 2024

Povilas Deimantas (1917-2009): A Peterborough Balt, by John Mannion

Born in Lithuania, Povilas Deimantas was already 30 years old when he boarded the General Stuart Heintzelman for the longest trip of his lifetime, from Germany to Australia. 

Povilas (Paul) Deimantas in 1947,
ID photo from his Bonegilla card
Source:  National Archives of Australia

He was a subject of the newspaper reports I told you about in my first blog entry.

He recalls that after several weeks at the Bangham camp, 18 were selected to transfer in the South Australian Railways (SAR) system to Peterborough, midway between Adelaide and Broken Hill. He had no bloody idea where Peterborough was! 

Those selected had a good grasp of the English language and were largely self-motivated with the prospect of becoming engine drivers in 'loco' or as station staff in 'traffic'. Paul explained to me that these were the fortunate ones and that he planned to become ‘a big man’ in the railways! 

Back to the Balts: when Deimantas disembarked from the Heintzelman at Fremantle in November 1947, his first impression of Australia was one of disappointment — it was so ugly! The first things he noticed were the dry yellow grass and the dead trees — nothing like Lithuania (which was green and densely forested) — the public drinking and the Italian migrants. 

He didn't find Bonegilla in north-east Victoria much better — he disliked the intense summer heat as well as peeling potatoes, which he had to do in the camp for two weeks. 

At Bangham on the Wolseley to Mount Gambier railway line, the 62 workers slept in tents and water was in short supply.  At Peterborough, the men first lived in tents and later Nissen huts and other 'prefab' buildings which were relocated from Loveday Internment [WWII] Camp in the Riverland. 

Then a migrant hostel was built on Telford Avenue adjacent the railway workshops and ‘loco’.  Initially designed to house only single men, in the 1950s with the influx of German and Polish migrants, families were admitted.  Up to 200 people at as time lived at there.  The hostel operated on and off  from 1948 until 1972. 

Peterborough migrant hostel in 1952, in its quiet location next to the railway yards;
the 
still-standing Nissen hut is on the left of the buildings
Source:  John Mannion collection

In 1975 the hostel was demolished and removed by tender. Very little is known of who bought it and where the buildings went. Now the only remaining building left on the site is a Nissen hut that served as a recreation room. 

Despite only staying at Peterborough for four years, Povilas and his colleagues are still remembered by many in Peterborough for their manners, behaviour and appearance, particularly by the young girls of the 1950s. By now, Povilas would have been using the English form of his name, Paul. 

Paul Deimantas (centre) and friends
at the Peterborough Town Hall about 1949
Source:  John Mannion Collection

Although there was general acceptance, life was often difficult for these and other new Australians at Peterborough or other locations within the Peterborough Division of the SAR. At times they had to put up with some racial discrimination, the most common being called a 'Bloody Balt' or told to 'Speak English you bastard'. 

However, it is surprising that despite the influx of over 300 European migrants into a country town where Australians had heard virtually no foreign languages on their streets, there was little prejudice. This is attributed to the fact that Peterborough was a working class town with a very transient population. 

There was some fear of these 'strangers’ however, particularly among the youngsters. A 15-year-old girl who moved from Marree to Peterborough for schooling and lived with her grandparents in 1950 recalls that although she had been exposed to Afghans and Aborigines, she did not know what to make of the 'Balts' with their long pushed-back hair. She would not go near them, convinced they ‘would take me away’. 

Another girl who grew up at Peterborough during the ‘Balt’ era relates how they would not even leave the pegs on the line in case the ‘Balts’ stole them. 

It has been said that friendships were difficult to establish at Peterborough, as ‘you didn't know where your mate might be next week’. This did not detract from some firm friendships however, with quite a few long-term railway families staying in the town. 

Paul relates a story about the time at Bangham when the ganger phoned the railway storeman at Mt Gambier for a bag of fish-plate bolts to be sent up, only to be told ‘You've already got 60 bloody Balts up there, isn't that enough?’ 

Learning English was not always easy: from whom were they supposed to learn English? Was it the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish, the English or Australians? The other difficulty in learning English was that they were often put to work in track maintenance gangs with a number of their own countrymen, thus making it easier to communicate with each other, but not the ganger in charge. 

However, those who wanted to ‘get on' watched, listened, asked questions, carried notebooks and learned. Paul was curious as to what a ‘water bag’ was — he had heard of a water tank and water bottle, but could not picture a ‘bag of water’. 

A canvas water bag from about 1950,
Collection of the Kiewa Valley Historical Society

A young migrant railway worker heads for the Peterborough hostel with
 a) a tucker box at the left and b) a water bag on the right
Source:  Harry Piers/John Mannion collection

The other thing was the dust. Paul felt that it took him five years to get used to the heat, dust and flies. 

After shifting to Mile End in 1952, Paul met and married his Australian-born wife June. He clearly was more than acceptable to at least one Australian now.

Paul died on 13 November 2009, at the respectable age of 92, having been born on 6 October 1917.  June, having been born in Adelaide on 25 November 1931, died on 29 July 2018, also at a respectable age, 86.  They have been buried together in the Dudley Park Cemetery, Adelaide.

SOURCES

Dudley Park Cemetery Search Records, https://search.dudleyparkcemetery.com.au/ accessed 17 March 2024.

National Archives of Australia,National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947–1956; DREIMANTAS [sic], Povilas : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 911, 1947–1948, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203662951

Victorian Collections, From the Collection of the Kiewa Valley Historical Society, Bag Canvas Water Circa 1950, https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/507df2be2162ef014495f50f