Jekabs Osis and friends on his first day in Australia
Datec 1951
Object number00029783
NamePhotograph
MediumBlack and white photographic print on paper.
DimensionsOverall: 68 x 68 mm, 0.001 kg
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis black and white photograph shows Jekabs Osis (far right) with four friends, walking down a road in the Australian countryside. A handwritten insription on the back of the photo translated from Latvian states, 'first day in Australia'. 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.SignificanceThis photograph documents a key chapter in Australia's immigration history - the arrival of displaced refugees from Europe following World War II and their integration into Australian society.
