Jakob Zebrak

Jakob Zebrak was the eldest son of Josef Zebrak from his first marriage to Rachel Karlewitz and was born on June 6, 1898 in Kaluszyn in what was then Russian-occupied Poland.

On January 1, 1918 his arrival from Warsaw was recorded in Augsburg. His occupation was noted as woodworker. Due to the death of his mother, he had moved to Augsburg to live with his father, and from January 11, 1918 he worked in the Wessel shoe factory.

On March 20, 1920 he was expelled from Bavaria. On June 30, 1921, he voluntarily left the city in order to avoid his deportation, since it was forbidden for "Russians" to stay in Bavaria. He then went to Frankfurt and later moved to France.

On November 3, 1927 he arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia, on board the ship "Ville de Strasbourg", coming from Marseille. On page 78 of the passenger list of this ship he is listed with the following information: 34 years old (?), tailor by profession, last residence in France, travelled as a Polish stowaway, went ashore with permission of the customs authorities, with salary granted by the Jew Association.

Jakob Zebrak probably spent some time in Western Australia before coming to Melbourne. In 1928 he survived a serious accident with a truck at the Commercial Hotel in Three Springs (300km from Perth).

There are some records in the Australian National Archives, not yet digitized, relating to Jakob Zebrak in the years 1932-1952. The naturalization record gives the date of birth as 1902 in Warsaw. In 1934 he published his application for naturalization in the Australian newspaper The Age with the place of birth as Kalishin, Warsaw, Poland. He repeated the request in 1939, which was granted on July 13, 1939. The place of residence was listed as Carlton (suburb of Melbourne), Victoria.

His last address in Australia was 227 Elgin Street in Melbourne.

He died on 13.12.1947 in Prince Hernry's Hospital in Melbourne, where his death was reported in the Australian newspaper The Age on December 16, 1947. His occupation was listed as tobacco merchant and Carlton was given as his place of residence (where many Jewish families lived at the time). He was buried in Melbourne's Brighton Cemetery without a headstone in a grave that is part of other graves for some members of the Meyer family.

Claudia Huber – translated by Wolfgang Poeppel