Ilona Hrubos

Transcript 

My name is Ilona. I was born in 1928 in a small town in the Sudetenland, a German part of Czechoslovakia.

When the 2nd World War broke out in 1939 I was still in school. When the war ended the Russians occupied our town and life was very difficult. Food was scarce and we had to dress like ugly old women so the Russian soldiers didn’t notice us.

On one occasion Mum and I decided that we should pack a few things onto the handcart and leave for the country to stay with a relative. We hadn't walked a 100 meters when a friend advised us to return home. We found out later that the Russian soldiers had visited each house in the place where we were heading and attacked many women and girls. They tried to hide in the hay but the soldiers got hayforks and pierced the hay to find them.

While the Russians were in town I did not go out at all. My mother looked for food while I stayed behind locked doors.

After about three months the Russians left. Life was more orderly but all our money was devalued.  From one day to the next 1,000 Marks were suddenly only worth 100 Marks. My mother made a little money with sewing.  All the young people had to work as labourers. I was 17 and a half years old and they sent me to work for a farmer several kilometres away. I could go home on foot after four weeks, just for the day. 

Whenever I returned home to my mother I had a bath, washed my hair and washed my clothes and relaxed for some hours, as I had to walk back to the farm again the same day.

After three months, while throwing bales of hay down from the hayloft, I fell down about 12 feet.  I had several cracked ribs and dented vertebras and had to stay three months on my back in hospital.  Then one day my mother brought a young Czech man with her to the hospital. She was housekeeping for him. Soon after I got home from hospital we fell in love. His name was Frank Hrubos.

Six months later my mother and I had to leave our home with just a few possessions and some bedding. My mother was very distressed about leaving. For many years she and Dad had saved up to have a comfortable home and now it has all gone. We were evacuated in an animal wagon with 12 other people and transported to Germany. There was just enough room to sit on our packages and with little food and drink. We arrived in Germany after three days. My Frank had to stay behind. After two years he crossed the border with only the clothes he wore, his toothbrush and a 100 Dollar American bill. We were married four months later in December 1948.

We lived in an UNRRA United Nations Refugee camp for displaced persons and put our names down to immigrate.

Times were unsettled and it looked like another war was developing. We wanted to get as far away as possible. By this time I had a baby and we had to wait till the baby was one year old. Charles was one in November 1950. So a few days later we set out from Bremerhaven to sail to Australia via the Suez Canal on the ANNA SALEM 2 with 1,522 migrants on board.

The boat had carried troops during the War so everything was very primitive. In the large room below deck there were 100 ladies with 100 babies housed in double bunks.  The air was so thick you could cut it.  I was three months pregnant and felt very seasick. Besides oranges and sour gherkins I could hardly eat a thing. But I had to go down to the dining room to feed the baby. Steep stairs went down to it and when I was on the top and could smell the food I felt already sick. I spent most of the time on deck on a bench, I felt better in the fresh air. The men were on the other side of the boat and I hardly ever saw my husband. In the back of the boat were great big tubs to wash the clothes by hand. The boat rolled, so the water was up on the left side and then on the right and I had to stand with my feet apart not to lose my balance. I cannot remember if there was any entertainment on board as I had enough to do to care for the baby and myself. But when we came to the equator the ship’s crew enacted King Neptune and that was fun.

We arrived in Fremantle harbour in the evening on the last day of the year.  At midnight all the ships in the harbour had all their lights on and the sirens heralded a new year.  The next morning was the 1^st January 1951, a new start, a new life in a new country.

When we came to Western Australia we had only 10 shillings in our pockets which a friend from England had sent us in a newspaper.

We didn't know much about Australia. Everything was new - the type of houses, the dry land and bush. We were sent to Northam and lived with seven other couples in a corrugated iron hut.  We had blankets to divide the cubicles for privacy.  The food was good and we washed our plates in hot soapy water. Clothes washing was done outside in tubs by hand and the showers and toilets were outside too. My son got sick with the different foods and milk and had to go to hospital for three days. I was devastated. I missed him so much.  I was close to tears. My husband suggested a walk to a nearby pool. On our way back we saw dozens of goannas with their tongues out and hissing.  I was so afraid they might bite us

Frank got a two year contract as a gang worker on the railway. So in April 1951 we were on our way to Glen Forrest.  They gave us two tents and an open kitchen in between, a Metters stove No. 1, a hurricane lamp, 2 iron bedsteads, 2 sacks and a heap of straw to fill them.  It was getting dark and we were tired. We quickly put sheets on the straw sacks and went to sleep.  On the other side of the railway track was some swampy ground and lots of frogs croaked all night.

We had the baby between us in bed because there was no cot for him. In the morning to our horror we found a scorpion in our bed which could easily have bitten one of us.

Our new home had no running water, no electricity, no shower or toilet facilities. We had to go to the railway station to the toilet and also fetch water from there. Besides a wooden box, some linen, pillows and blankets, a suitcase and a galvanised bathtub with crockery, and a few pots and pans. We had no other belongings. The tub came in handy to do the washing in with a washboard and for having a ‘sit-bath’ at night for us all.  We heated water on the stove and had a good wash.  One day when I looked at the wooden wall of the kitchen I saw a BIG ANIMAL there as big as my fist with two round eyes and hairy legs. I got a fright and ran to a man at the Station to come and have a look.  He assured me that it was only a large grey huntsman spider.

My second baby, a girl, Anna Jeanette, was born in King Edward Hospital in Subiaco. Mothers had to stay in the hospital for seven days after giving birth. There were strict times when to rest or sleep. As we had no car my husband used the railway to Subiaco and walked the rest of the way to hospital.  He was just a few minutes late for visiting hours and they would not let him in to see me. I was so upset. All day I had waited for them to come.  All the ladies in that large eight bed ward got lots of visits from family and friends while I knew nobody. It hurt. At a time like that you need family and friends to make a fuss over you, and the new baby. I had to do without. I cried some tears.

While still in hospital I applied to the Railway Commission for a single room hut. It was too cold for a baby in the tent, even though my husband filled a bucket with glowing coals and hung it from the top of the tent for warmth. After a few weeks we got a hut. At the same time they laid on running water. So I did the washing under the tree nearby on some planks and sleepers.  And hip hip hurray we also got our own toilet!

Frank was working hard at his job and in his spare time for other people. On Saturdays and often Sundays he worked for a neighbour on his land digging up roots for £1 a day.  He was always working.  We didn't have any social life.

The first money we saved up was for a radio which cost £13.  Then we had to buy two very large batteries for £7 each.  To re-charge the battery was £2 so we were very careful not to use the radio often. Mostly only to hear the news and for me at one o'clock in the afternoon the serial ‘Blue Hills’. That was the highlight of my day and it continued for years. ‘Blue Hills' was a family show with simple conversation between family members. I learned a lot from that small talk.  And also a lot from the news announcers because their pronunciation was so correct and clear.

Our second purchase was a sewing machine. I only knew the basics I learned at school but by and by I was sewing almost all our clothes out of cheap remnants of material

One day I was invited to join the Country Women’s Association.  There you could learn all kinds of handicrafts- how to make cakes, preserves, candied peels of lemon and oranges. I found it very interesting and loved the company of those ladies. The only drawback was that you had to pay to be a member and every time you attended you were supposed to bring a gift for their fete later on. Because we were saving so hard for a block of land, I was unable to continue. I also would have loved to join the Tennis club. The ladies met once a week and I could hear their happy chatter.  But that would have meant tennis shoes, clothes, a racquet and again money for the membership and fees.  So again I had to give up that wish.

 

In 1954 we had enough money saved to buy our own piece of land.  Because we had been made homeless twice it was very important for us to have a place to call our own and to build a home. First it had to be cleared and then more money saved to buy building materials. Four years later we moved into three small sheds Frank had built which served as the garage, kitchen, living room, bedroom and storeroom.  Behind was a toilet.

Seven years after arriving in Western Australia we moved into the brick and stone home Frank built with his own hands. We still live there today.