Juozas
Displaced Person, Misplaced Musician

We have been asked to stock copies of this book by Duncan Scott, who co-wrote the book with the subject’s wife, Marjorie Kulvietis. It was produced in 2004 by the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation. Sadly Marjorie Kulvietis died the week that it was printed. The copies of the book were then retained by the solicitors dealing with her estate for a considerable time before Duncan Scott could recover them and make them available for sale.

We live in a world of displaced persons – many of them are labelled asylum seekers, refugees or immigrants. This book is about one displaced person – Juozas (Joe) Kulvietis. His diaries record the pain and boredrom of forced exile from his home in war-torn Lithuania, first in Hitler’s Germany, and later across Britain where he came as a European Voluntary Worker in 1948. He eventually went to Leeds where he met his future wife. He had chosen the Yorkshire town by the simple expedient of sticking a pin in a map.

An accomplished accordionist, he taught the instrument part-time for many years whilst working in a succession of unfulfulling jobs, then from 1980 he became a full-time musician and teacher, making a name for himself in the world of the accordion. He declared: “Now I feel so happy that I feel guilty!”

Joe’s biography is dedicated to the growth of Lithuanian culture and to a deeper understanding of the contributions of displaced persons to our society.

Marjorie Kulvietis was educated at the Methodist Day School in Wakefield and at Wakefield High School for Girls. After attending a secretarial college in London and spending six years working there in various capacities, she joined the Women's Voluntary Service overseas welfare department in Germany before returning to Yorkshire. She became Huddersfield's first Community Relations Officer in 1965. She went on to work as a Development Oficer for Age Concern England, and then became Chief Officer of Age Concern Calderdale until she retired in 1991.

She was appointed a magistrate on the Huddersfield Bench in 1971 and served until 1994.

Editor Duncan Scott met Juozas when researching his PhD about immigrant workers in Huddersfield in the late 1960s. At the time of editing the book he was a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. He is now an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Third Sector Research Centre at Birmingham University.