Australian Lithuanian History

One Lithuanian couple arrived in Australia in February 1948, after being accepted as displaced persons. This part of the story is no different to the other 10,000 Lithuanians who came to Australia, but where the story becomes almost too hard to believe is that this couple ended up living in caves at Killarney Heights, a suburb of northern Sydney for nearly 20 years. The true story of Stefan and Genovefa Pietroszys, is not clear as it changed many different times. Stefan was born in 1898 in Vilnius, Lithuania, while Genovefa was born about 1910 in the Russian city of St Petersburg.       No sooner had the couple arrived than the authorities assessed Genovefa as having a mental illness and she was placed in a mental hospital. The authorities also realised all was not well with Stefan – he was given a job at a timber mill near Perth but the mill owner told the authorities that Stefan was unable to work and appeared to have a mental illness.   By...

The name Kitas is a war cry for Vytis soccer team.   Anatolius Kitas   became a centre forward soccer player for Adelaide Vytis Sports Club.   Born on 27 March 1927, arrived in Melbourne on 18 August 1950.   He worked by day as a porter with the SA Railways.   He excelled at soccer but was also a first class basketballer and table tennis player.   In the DP camps of Germany he played soccer for Lithuanian in international games against several European countries.   For a short time he was a German professional soccer team. He was fast, had perfect dribbling skills and could be all over the oval. He kicks goals from either foot and any angle.   During 1953, in 15 league matches he scored 65 goals, in one game scored 10 gaols. From 1952 to 1957, Kitas was chosen to be part of the South Australian Soccer team, and an Australian XI which the team which included six new Australians. In 1954, he scored more goals than any other player in ...