Bank book belonging to Jekabs Osis
Maker
Zemgales Savings Society
Date1943 - 1944
Object number00029707
NameBankbook
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 170 x 105 mm, 0.018 kg
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis 'sparkassenbuch' (bank book) from the Zemgales Savings Society, Latvia, belonged to Jekabs Osis. The bank book is dated 1943-1944. Jekabs Osis was one of many Latvians who migrated with his family to Australia after World War II. Osis arrived in 1951 and settled in Melbourne.HistoryDuring World War II much of Western Europe was invaded by Nazi Germany, forcing millions of people to flee their oppressed homelands to Displaced Persons camps. The Soviet Union annexed Latvia in 1940 under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union during World War II Latvia was invaded and occupied. The Soviet Union recaptured Latvia from Germany in 1944.
In the decade after the end of World War II, more than two million people migrated to Australia as part of a government campaign to increase Australia’s population. More than 170,000 were European displaced people resettled in Australia through the Displaced Persons’ Resettlement Scheme, established through an agreement between the Commonwealth Government and the International Refugee Organisation (IRO).
The IRO was formed in 1946 to transport Displaced Persons to countries in Europe, North America and Australia. The organisation chartered individuals and families from various European countries including Germany, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Lithuania. Latvians were one of the first Displaced Persons groups to be accepted by Australia, with some 19,421 Latvians living in the country by 1951.SignificanceThe bank book relates to Jekabs Osis' life in Latvia prior to his migration to Australia. Latvians were amongst the first migrants to be accepted by Australia after World War II through the Displaced Persons’ Resettlement Scheme. This scheme, an agreement between the Commonwealth Government and the International Refugee Organisation, marked a major shift in Australian immigration policy, which had previously prioritised British migration.
