Russian Anzacs

Urho Oscar Nieminen, a Finnish sailor from Tampere, was working as a labourer in Chinchilla, Queensland by the time of his enlistment in the AIF.
His first enlistment was in Roma, Queensland, in June 1916, but he was discharged three months later as medically unfit. In August 1917, enlisting in Sydney as a bootmaker, he was accepted and sailed with troops to England. While in the training camp in Liverpool, he became sick and was returned to Australia.
After the war his trail disappears.

Bennett Solomon Sacks, a Jewish man from the unidentifiable ‘Waigove, Russia’, had relatives in South Africa. By the time of his enlistment in the AIF he was a widower and lived in Melbourne, being an ostrich feather merchant.
Enlisting in the AIF in Melbourne, he served with the 46th Battalion on the Western Front. After the armistice he was detached to the Brigade Headquarters.
After the war he lived in Melbourne, continuing his business.

Abraham Barzel, a Jewish man from Poland, moved with his parents as a child to Egypt, and after 10 years there, in 1912 immigrated to Sydney, from where he moved to Western Australia, working as blacksmith and miner.
His first enlistment in the AIF was in Perth in September 1916, but he was discharged at his own request. His second enlistment was in August 1917 in Geraldton, but he was discharged a month later. His third attempt to enlist was in February 1918, but he was discharged a month later.
After the war he lived in Fremantle, working as a lumper.

Ladislav Susil enlisted in the AIF as a ‘Russian Bohemian’, but was an Austrian subject from Slavkov in Moravia. When he was 17 he ran away from home and served as a sailor in the USA. In August 1914 he came to Australia, was arrested as an Austrian subject, and placed in a POW camp. He managed to escape several times from the camps in New South Wales and Victoria. While working, he posed as Russian and even registered as a Russian alien.
In August 1917 he enlisted in the AIF in Wagga Wagga but was discharged two months later.
In June 1919, when alien regulations still were in force, he surrendered as destitute and was deported to his motherland. In 1924 he moved to the USA.