First Australia Lithuanian Community House

For two years, the Sydney Lithuanian Community called 5 Young St, Circular Quay home. The building was owned at the time by St Vincent de Paul and housed a hostel for destitute men, cafe, chapel, chaplain to migrants. In 1951-1952, the community used some of the premises from which it ran Mūsu Pastogė and Catholic activities.

The building is known as Hinchcliff House and still stands, a street away from the Harbour.  It is a heritage-listed former wool store and hostel for homeless men. This three-story building plus basement, was built as wool store.

The firm of A Hinchcliff, Son & Co built the stone store in the late 1880s replacing an earlier iron shed. The Bank of New South Wales, as mortgagor, leased the property in 1937 to German woolbuyers. A mortgagee sale in 1945 saw the property acquired by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

In 1949 it passed to the Society of St Vincent de Paul and was named Ozanam House in acknowledgment of the founder of the Society, Frédéric Ozanam. During, 1950 – 1952 the premises was used as the Sydney Lithuanian community house.  Part of it was known as Catholic United Services Australia (CUSA) Navy Club, conducted by the Catholic church for sea farers.  The Club was staffed by volunteers who prepared food and provided Christian entertainment each night.

Also using the premises were the Chaplain for Migrants. It appears that the Lithuanian priest Butkus resided here.  The premises served as the venue for the Lithuanian Catholic Association, Community Committee, Australian Lithuanian lawyers society, the Lithuanian library and Australian Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė.

References

Mūsų Pastogė Wednesday 21 November 1951, page 6

Draft conservation management Plan URBIS, Nov 2012

 

The Homeless Doctor

 

The book Benamiai (Homeless) written in Lithuanian recently found its way into the Archives.  Because it was published in Buenos Aires, 1954 I gave it some attention.  To my surprise the book was about Australia.  It begins in the DP camps of Germany, the ship to Australia and then the next few years as a new migrant.  

A few Google searches later, I found that it was written by Dr. Juozas Mikelionis.  

Finding his obituary online, I found that Juozas was born in 1915 and passed away in 2008. He was a retired physician and author, whose life touched six continents.

Born in Leipalingis, Lithuania, he went from farm lad to physician, graduating in 1940 from Vilnius University. As his homeland suffered the tragedies of Communist and Nazi occupation, he himself was forcibly transferred to Germany.  After the war he lived in Germany. 1944-1945 worked at Spandau Hospital, 1945-1946. was chief assistant and surgeon at the Orthopedic Clinic of the University of Heidelberg (granted the title of surgical specialist in 1946), 1946-1948. - Surgeon of the Kempten and Bad Worishofen Refugee Camp Hospitals. In Kempten, he organized the courses of the Sisters of Mercy, was their lecturer and director.

Seeking promises of work as a physician, he left ravaged post war Germany for Australia where the family endured tough times in refugee and migrant camps. 

A very accomplished doctor who could speak French, Polish, German, Russian and English.

His book talks about the migrant camps and the two year work contract, the Australian government required of the new migrants. He quickly became disillusioned, as his education was not recognized or utilized. 

We were disappointed to learn that the best position we would get was as a medical orderly or hospital wardsman.  … If you asked for a particular type of work or place, they would give you the opposite.  If you asked to go to Sydney, you would be sent to Adelaide.

Having experienced life in Europe, he found Australians to be lacking in culture. 

Many Australians don’t know their own country, don’t know the size of their country, or its people, or history, they are ignorant about the Aboriginal people.  They don’t want to know about anyone else, they won’t admit they are ignorant.   Australian’s only like those who are born here. Many who come here, even the English, return home.  Those who can’t, suffer.

He tried to settle in Australia, he searched for medical work, writing over 100 application letters. Some of the responses were mockingly cynical.  All my efforts to stay in Australia and help the people of this country with my learned craft were rejected by the Australia.

His disillusionment with Australia, saw him, his wife and young son. migrate to Argentina, where he worked in hospitals.  In 1958, he finally was allowed to immigrate to the US. He persevered in obtaining medical licenses first in Illinois and then in Washington. 

Washington remined him of Lithuania and he enjoying the strong Lithuanian contingency there.  He set up a family practice in Seattle before working for the Boeing Company for twenty years, retiring in 1982. 

He wrote another book, Physician at the Crossroads published in 1991 (Carlton Press, Inc.). 

A very valuable book about new migrants in Australia.

Obituary from 

Published by The Seattle Times from Feb. 23 to Feb. 24, 2008.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/seattletimes/name/juozas-mikelionis-obituary?id=28818125

 

 

Lithuanian Sword Swallower & Fire-Eater, Otto Butkus

Otto was born 21 May 1929 in small town of Rėzgaliai.  He arrived on the ship Goya, 26 May 1950. He worked as a cabinet maker in Adelaide before becoming a professional sword-swallower and fire eater. 

While living in a DP camp in Hamburg, he began a correspondence course.  The books didn’t tell him about sword-swallowing, so he threw them away and began to teach himself.  He also began learning fire eating the same way but finished teaching himself.   It took him two years before he was able to push a sword down his mouth without feeling nauseous.

He was the star attraction in live entertainment shows in hotels in Sydney.   He used to swallow 27-inch swords until a doctor told him the points were bumping the pit of his stomach.  He reduced the swords to 24 inches. He would get a sore throat after swallowing swords a dozen times a week. He wouldn’t swallow a sword after a heavy meal, as it might make him sick.  One also cannot move once the sword is down. For a change he would swallow 4000-volt lit neon tubes, which could be seen through his chest.

He was a fakir, magician, fire-eater, hot coal eater, sword swallower, neon tube swallower, and collector and manufacturer of magic apparatus.  Butkus performed a show called 100 Minutes China Fantasy where he performed in flashy Asian costumes, ate fire and hot coals with chopsticks, swallowed a Tai Chi sword and neon tubes.

With a lighted glass neon tube filled with gas and charged with 3,000 volts; his audience sat perspiring.  In his act, he not only swallowed a sword, but razor blades, and fire. Butkus confessed that swallowing the neon tube was his most complicated act.  

Butkus died in Sydney Australia, on 30 January 2008, and is buried in Macquarie
Park Cemetery.

Daily Telegraph, Sunday 10 October 1954, page 13

Images from State Library of Victoria and State Library of New South Wales

http://www.swordswallow.com/halloffame.php

 

 

Lithuanian DP Doll makes a trip around the world

I received notification that a handmade Lithuanian doll made in DP camp in Dillingen Germany would be coming to the Archives. 

The doll was found at an antique warehouse in Mulgrave Melbourne in 2018 by a Latvian, who recognised the doll as Lithuanian and purchased it.  She 
had presumed the doll was handed into the warehouse from family upon the death or cleanup of Statkeviciute’s household.  On the base of the doll there was a red stamp with the words, Workshop for Lithuanian National Dolls, Laumė. Eng Arch Statkeviciutė, Lithuanian DP camp, Dilligen, Germany.

When accepting items into the Archives, knowing its provenance is very important.  I had not seen that many artifacts from the DP camps and had certainly never heard of doll workshops.  I knew it would be a great asset, as I would assume, very few, if any of dolls of this type had survived time. I wanted to see if I could find more information.  The first assumption was a Statkevičiutė had come to Australia. I first consulted the National Archives but found no Statkevičiutė’s coming to Australia.  Next was the German, Arlosen Archives that holds information about Displaced Persons.  Here I found six Statkevičiutės, but which one?  I viewed each record to see if it had information on the camps they lived in Germany.  There was one match for Dilligen, Stefanija Statkevičiutė.  I now had a full name and date of birth, 1 April 1915 in Vilnius.  I still didn’t have a connection to Australia.  Next a general search of her name and Dilligen, revealed that she was illustrated a children’s book while in the camps.   I googled variations of her name and eureka an obituary showed up from Draugas and American Lithuanian newspaper, 1984.

Stefanija was born on 1 April 1915 in Vilnius. She first studied in Kudirkas Naumiestis, later for six years she studied at Vilkaviškis high school. After this her parents moved to Kaunas.  The last two years she studied and graduated from St. Casimirs Girls' high school of the Congregation of Sisters in Kaunas. In 1933 in the fall, Stefanija enrolled in Vytautas the Great University Faculty of Technology, determined to be an engineer.

From Germany she migrated to Chicago where she worked as an Architect. The obituary tells the story of how Stefanija and her family took in a Jewish friend three-year-old girl.  They changed her identity to avoid her being discovered.  When the family fled, Lithuania, the child went also.  The story ends well, she was reunited with her mother and went to live in Israel. 

The death of engineer-architect Stefanija Statkevičiūtė-Traškienė was unexpected.  She was preparing for a big trip to Australia to visit her sister Marytė, when she died. 

She left behind her husband Alexander, and two daughters, a brother Jurgis and sister Marytė.

This gave me her married name, explained the letters Eng Arch, before her name on the bottom of the doll, Engineer, Architect.  It also gave me a connection to Australia, through her sister Marytė.  I felt sure this was how the doll came to end up here.  

As there were no Statkevičiutė’s coming to Australia, I had to assume, Marytė came here married, but what was here married name?  A search in Billion Graves, gave me a photograph of her grave.  Marija Steponaitis, next to her husband Jonas.  Buried in Hobart, Tasmania.  I couldn’t find and children for Marija and Jonas for me to follow.  I was going with the story that the doll was given to Marija, when she and her husband passed, their personal belonging went to auction.  I now believed I knew who made the doll, and how it got here.  

Well, you know what they say about, people who assume.  I was still hoping to find a living relative, so I went back to Stefa’s family and started to draw up her family tree.  Stefa had two children.  I found an obituary for one in Draugas, that showed she passed away suddenly in Florida. Born in 1954, she married and became an anthropologist. No children were mentioned.  I found a death notice for the other daughter, but no mention husband or children.  I then found an obituary for Stefa’s mother, who confirmed the name of Marija’s surname in Tasmania. 

The obituaries I found all mentioned brothers and uncles. I decided to look sideways into these families.  Another detailed obituary, this time of Stefa’s husbands’ brother.  This had a list of children, with their married names, which I looked into.  Facebook is always a great place to search for living people, and here I came upon a match for one of them. So, I messaged her, explaining that I am looking for descendants of Stefa regarding a doll, I believed she made.  Thankfully she responded quite quickly and filled me on the family.  I had the correct family.  She wrote that on Stefa’s death, her husband, Aleksandras remarried an Australian Lithuanian and moved to Sydney.  She also mentioned she had more cousins in Australia.  I now had several connections to Australia, so maybe my assumption of the doll coming here with Marija was incorrect. She remembers the doll in her aunt’s house, displayed in a cabinet and how Stefa was so proud of it.  She believes, Stefa's husband brought it to Australia.  The marriage ended after ten years and he returned to the US.  For some reason, the doll was left behind and probably sold by the ex-wife.

I wanted to know if the Australian cousins, knew of the doll.  Again, Facebook gave me a connection, but they had never seen or heard of the doll. 

Through a journey around the world, made easy through the internet and archives, I could now add a story to the doll.  Coincidentally, this week, I also received a box of 60 interviews on cassettes of interviews of Lithuanians, in Tasmania.  Among them is an interview of Marija Steponaits.  I can’t wait to listen to that. 

The first Lithuanian to make an Australian basketball team

 Vytautas Šutas was born on 5 April 1925 in Dusetos.  He grew to over six foot, giving him an advantage in basketball, a sport he excelled in.  He began his basketball career in Lithuania.  At the end of WWII, with his parents and brother the family left for Germany. While in Displaced Persons Camps, he began to study medicine.  His free time was spent in the English zone playing with the Lithuanian basketball team. 

The family all came to Australia, there  first stop was the Bathurst migrant camp.  Here Vytas organised a basketball team. He later moved to Lithgow to work as a railway worker.  Shortly after he came to Lithgow Vytas, a keen sportsman, was camped at Wallerawang, where he was interviewed by the "Mercury."  During the interview he expressed the desire to lead a Balt basketball team, in social and competition matches against Lithgow teams and a "Mercury" representative immediately arranged for his introduction.  He began to train seriously a Lithuanian team called Sakalas (Signals).  He became Captain of the Lithgow basketball team in 1949 which contained three Balt migrants, himself, A Ramansauskas and V Ozols.

Later after moving to Sydney, he joined the Moore Park Club.  Vytas was chosen for the NSW team where he played as a forward. He later made the Australian combined team, where he elected as Captain.   He was the first Lithuanian to make the Australian basketball team.  He was known as a clever forward that rarely missed a goal. 

He was one of the original members of the Sydney Lithuanian sports club, Kovas. He is remembered as a great organizer.  He was a Kovas Club committee member for many years, captain of the basketball team and ALFAS (Australian Lithuanian Sports Federation) committee member.

 He is buried with his brother who passed away four years before his passing after suffering a heart attack in 1977.  They are interned in the Rookwood cemetery, Sydney.

References

Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954) View title info Thu 28 Jul 1949  Page 3