The couple displaced by war who found sanctuary in caves at Killarney Heights

MORE than 60 million people were killed in World War II, most of them civilians, and millions more were injured in the deadliest military conflict in history.

MORE than 60 million people were killed in World War II, most of them civilians, and millions more were injured in the deadliest military conflict in history.

Millions were also displaced and many had no wish to return home for various reasons, including fear of persecution.

And two of them ended up living in caves at Killarney Heights for nearly 20 years.

In July 1947, the Australian Government agreed to accept some of them under the Displaced Persons’ Resettlement Scheme.

Between 1947 and 1953, Australia accepted more than 170,000 displaced persons, most of who arrived aboard ships chartered by the International Refugee Organisation.

USS General M.B. Stewart

One of those ships was the USS General M.B. Stewart, and the first displaced persons to arrive in Australia aboard it arrived at Fremantle on February 12, 1948.

Two of those on board were husband and wife Stefan and Genovefa Pietroszys, whose pre-1947 history remains a mystery due in part to the versions Stefan gave to people at different times.

Stefan was born in 1898 in Vilnius, part of Russia at the time but later the capital of Lithuania, while Genovefa was born about 1910 in the Russian city of St Petersburg. Both claimed Lithuanian nationality.

Genovefa Pietroszys in 1947. National Archives of Australia 8832934

Stefan Pietroszys in 1947. National Archives of Australia 8832934

Stefan told Australian immigration authorities he spoke Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, German and French – but little English – and had worked for the municipal council in Vilnius from 1928 to 1940. He may also have spoken Polish.

He later told the man he came to know best in Australia, Salvation Army Captain Ivan Unicomb, that he had served in the Polish army during World War I, although Poland didn’t exist as a nation at that time, having been partitioned in 1795 between its neighbours – Russia, Prussia and Austria – although there were Polish militias on both sides during World War I.

But when questioned by Australian immigration officials in 1947, Stefan said he had never served in the armed forces of any country.

On one occasion, Stefan told an Australian reporter that he and Genovefa had moved in 1941 from Lithuania to Austria, which Nazi Germany had annexed in 1938, and had later moved to Bavaria in Germany.

Captain John Unicomb with Stefan and Genovefa in 1968

But Stefan told Australian immigration officials in 1947 that he and Genovefa were forced to leave Lithuania in September 1941 to work in Germany – he as a labourer and she as a factory worker – after German forces invaded Lithuania in June 1941.

An Australian immigration official wrote on Stefan’s record in 1947 that while Stefan had not been a member of any German paramilitary or trade organisation, he had collaborated with the Germans.

It is impossible to know the truth about Stefan’s role in Germany but, given the labyrinthine geopolitical landscape in Europe at the time, people said whatever it took to stay alive.

By the time the couple came to the attention of Australian immigration officials in late 1947, they were in a displaced persons camp at Bad Worishofen in Bavaria.

In November 1947, the couple were accepted as displaced persons and were assigned places on the General M.B. Stewart, which arrived in Fremantle on February 12, 1948.

But 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.

Stefan Pietroszys in 1979

By mid-March 1948, the authorities were recommending sending Stefan and Genovefa back to Europe.

But before the orders could be executed, the couple absconded. They were caught soon after and sent to the Bonegilla Migrant Centre in northern Victoria but they absconded again before reaching Bonegilla.

The next four years of the couple’s time in Australia is unknown but in November 1952 they were arrested and charged with vagrancy, although the charges were dropped and, at the court’s direction, they were sent to Bonegilla with an assurance from the Immigration Department that they would be issued with papers and that jobs would be found for them.

But again the couple absconded and it was not until December 1953 that they were found in Sydney, where they had been sleeping rough for about four months before being arrested and charged with vagrancy.

They were ordered to return to Bonegilla but they left the train at Wagga and later that month were found living in a disused quarry near Wagga suffering severe malnutrition and exposure, and were taken to Wagga Base Hospital.

While in the hospital, Stefan told a journalist that he and Genovefa believed they were not wanted in Australia and that they preferred death to a future without friends.

He also claimed at various times the couple feared they were being pursued by the KGB but this was unlikely – they had more to fear from Australian immigration officials than the Soviets.

Stefan told the journalist that after disembarking from the train taking them to Bonegilla, he and Genovefa had walked to the quarry and had lain down to die.

Again the Immigration Department said the couple would be sent to Bonegilla, where work would be found for them but before they could be sent there, Stefan escaped from Wagga Hospital but was found three days later.

In the meantime, Genovefa had been transported to Bonegilla and immigration officials intimated that the pair would soon be deported.

Stefan and Genovefa had waterfront caves on both sides of Middle Harbour

Then, while Stefan was being driven from Wagga to Bonegilla, he dived out the window of the moving car, cracked his skull and was knocked unconscious.

He was returned to Wagga Hospital in a serious condition and placed under police guard.

But even as Stefan lay in Wagga hospital, Genovefa escaped from Bonegilla migrant camp but how and when she and Stefan were reunited is not known.

In July 1954, the two were found at Gundagai, after which they were found guilty of vagrancy and sentenced to three months’ hard labour.

At the time of their arrest, they claimed they were on their way to Canberra to see Immigration Minister Harold Holt.

Whether Stefan and Genovefa actually served out their sentence is unknown – indeed almost nothing is known of them until 1968, when residents of Killarney Heights contacted the Salvation Army about a couple living rough in a cave.

The Salvation Army officer sent in response to the call, Captain Ivan Unicomb, quickly gained their trust and visited them frequently over the next 11 years.

Capt Unicomb found Stefan and Genovefa “a very intelligent, learned and well-read couple” who showed no sign of mental illness.

But the publicity of their discovery sent the couple into hiding again and only Capt Unicomb, local children and a few adults kept in touch with them as they moved from cave to cave on both sides of Middle Harbour over the next decade, although most of the time they were in caves at Killarney Heights.

Stefan Pietroszys at the burial of his wife Genovefa at Frenchs Forest Bushland Cemetery on February 16, 1979

In February 1979, Genovefa died of a heart attack, aged 68. Her death certificate listed her address as “Davidson Park, Killarney Heights”.

Without Genovefa by his side, Stefan agreed to move into a Catholic aged care home at Marayong, where he died in October 1982, aged 84.

Stefan and Genovefa lie side-by-side in Frenchs Forest Bushland Cemetery.