Australian Lithuanian History

The Adelaide Lithuanian Museum has been collecting material since the 1950’s. It has become a unique storage house of items brought from Lithuania and items made in Australia by people of Lithuanian heritage; mainly art, craft and printed material. As early as 1961, the Adelaide Community Council appealed to the community for historical items relating to Lithuania. Jonas Vanagas, founder of the Lobethal museum on his own initiate had already begun to collect material. After the opening of the Lobethal museum, Vanagas found himself collecting printed material and clippings from Australian newspapers that made mention of Lithuania. Jonas Vanagas was appointed curator of the would be Museum and Archives. The initial aim of the museum was to gather and protect Australian Lithuanian material and other documents relating to life in Australia. It was envisaged a museum could help the youth become familiar with their history and culture. A purposely built museum and archives were construc...

Eduardas Zakis was born 20 April 1904 in Krasniskiu village, Birzai. He attended the Zemelis school and in 1923 enrolled in the Military school. On 7 th September, Eduardas was promoted to Lieutenant. 1927 09 30 Completed the physical education courses at the Senior Officers of DLK Vytautas. 1928 02 22 Assigned to a squadron as an officer. 1928 11 23 promoted to Chief First Lieutenant. 1930 04 30 appointed to the regiment of physical training as Assistant Manager. 1931 11 14 moved to 3rd Squadron. 1931 12 15 Regiment of Education appointed an Assistant Manager. 1933 01 08 sent to courses, appointed to the Sixth squadron. 1933 09 25 severely injured in a bomb explosion. 1933 10 09 graduated from the Weapons of air intelligence course. 1935 01 18 appointed liaison team chief officer. October 1935 moved to the Third Cavalry Regiment, designated as Engineering Squadron commander. 1935 10 24 passed exams to gain a higher degree, promoted to Captain. 1939 ...

J. Jasevicius, J. Pyragius, Lendraitis Lithuanian Air force Major Born on 29 December 1901 or Jan 1 1902 in Birziai, coming from a farming family. In 1919 he entered the Lithuanian Army. In 1920 he enrolled in military school, by the end of that year he was promoted to artillery lieutenant and assigned to the Engineering division of the armoured vehicle. In 1922 he graduated from the High Officers Course and assigned to the armoured vehicle command. In 1923 he was promoted chief First Lieutenant. In November that year he was a ssigned as Platoon Commander of an armoured division. In 1924 moved to Naval aviation, and in June 1925 became a pilot of the fourth air squadron. On the 13 th of February he was promoted to Major. 1932 10 appointed Squadron Commander. June 1940The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania and Jonas fled to Germany. During the German-Soviet war, he returned to Lithuania, led the rebellion against the Gestapo Lithuanian provisional government. Towards t...