Vale | Felix Pinczuk

It is doubtful that Felix shared the story of his early life with Rotarians but you may be interested in his history.

Felix’s family were Ukrainian with his father from a small rural town in Western Ukraine.  Dmytro trained at a Baptist Bible College, after becoming a bootmaker.  By horse and cart Dmytro travelled to villages in the 1930's, preaching, selling bibles and mending boots.  Marrying Anna in the mid-1930's they settled into a small town, selling home-made ice-cream from a table in front of their little house. From 1913 Ukraine was under Polish rule and speaking Ukrainian was banned.  In 1939 the Germans invaded through Poland on Ukraine’s Western side and  the Soviet Union through the Eastern side, despite Germany and the Soviet Union being notionally Allies at that time. 

Anna had a German Grandfather so the family claimed “Folks Deutsch” protection from Germany, fearing communism. Outside the German interview office a Soviet officer said “I know you Dmytro, in the morning you will be on the train to Siberia”.  By morning, with their three-year old  daughter Marushya and a couple of suitcases they were on their way to Germany.  Partisan destruction of railway lines saw the refugees being housed in an abandoned factory through which snow blew.  Marushya became ill and they were told it was measles and she was removed to hospital.  The parents were told that she died but they were not able to see her body.  After further travails they reached Germany and in 1941 Felix was born in Rothenberg ob der Tauber (the last walled ‘city’ in Germany) before moving to Ansbach, close to Nurnberg.  There both parents were employed, although when the tractor factory in which Dmytro worked was converted to producing tanks Dmytro was jailed for refusing to build ‘weapons of war’.  Most of the time, however, they was able to continue bible discussions with small groups in their little apartment in the evenings.  Nightly air raids near the end of the war meant loading Felix and supplies into the pram and hastening to the Air-raid shelter.  One evening the pram overturned and at the shelter they discovered the only missing item was Felix; he was found, still asleep, where he had fallen – I thought this unsurprising.

A girl and a boy followed in 1946 and 1947 and in 1949 the family were accepted at United Nations refugees to Australia.  With all their precious identification documents to hand they travelled to Naples for embarkation to Australia.   On the day they were to leave for Australia they were told that the “Pinczuk family have already boarded”.   It took a year before they had all the documentation again.  From the Holden Camp in Northam to Graylands Hostel, they adjusted to life in Australia. 

Dmytro bought some land in Kewdale and with some ‘car crates’ created basic shelter for the family while he slowly built a house when he could afford materials.  A church was established in Victoria Park, then “South Belmont” as the Kewdale area was called.

Felix worked at the local piggery after school, supporting himself for books and clothes to the end of ‘Junior’.  He joined the National Bank when he was 14 but by the time he received a Birth Certificate he was 15 and they let him remain on staff.  Years of night school to complete Mature Age Matriculation followed, then UWA after hours, while working in NAB branches then Head Office Securities. Felix graduated with a bachelor of Economics in 1965 and was posted to Melbourne in 1966 as “only Head Office needed University graduates”.  The bank was moving into computerisation and pulled their bright young men in from all states for IBM training, then in due course to the new building housing the DP centre in East Melbourne. 

Having met at the old Titles Office in 1965, we married in Perth in February 1967 and returned to Melbourne.

Felix was a Senior Systems Analyst with the Bank, then, again after hours he was accepted for study for a Master of Business Administration at Melbourne University to the end of 1973.  NAB had Felix primed to set up Corporate Banking but in the second term of the Whitlam Government that was put on hold.  No longer at the DP Centre, Felix again asked to return to WA as the original assignment had been for ”two to four years” and this was eight. At a senior classification he could not return to WA and be in charge of men 20 to 30 older than him.  I spotted a large Advertisement for “Secretary for Finance – Republic of Nauru”.  With a three year old and a baby we flew to Nauru in August 1974.  Felix was one of five Secretaries (Head of Department) and Finance encompassed not only Treasury but Philately, Postal Services and Licensing.  This 12 square mile island, 27 miles from the Equator, was then the richest per-capita country in the world, with only 3,500 citizens.   An incredible two years followed, which can wait for another time.

Returning to Australia Felix found employment with the South Australian Land Commission for two years, then was poached by the South Australian Health Commission for two years. We lived in Glenelg North and Felix was honoured to be invited to join the  Rotary Club of Holdfast Bay.   Holdfast Bay was a small club but very active, holding a huge Fair on the lawn area of the Glenelg Council – between Jetty Road, with its tram-line to the city and Anzac Highway.

Judith Pinczuk

email: judithpinczuk@iinet.net.au

mobile: 0403 170 501

Landline (08) 9341 7125