DR STANISLAV FRANK

Dr STANISLAV FRANK was born on 7th November 1906 at Raskovec, Vrhnika, near Ljubljana.
There were ten children in the family and his father worked on the railways.
He was often moved from one place to another with his family.
Stanislav attended a normal secondary school in Ljubljana from 1918 until 1927.
Besides languages and sport, especially skiing and mountaineering, he showed an interest in social, economic and political matters.
After matriculation, he studied legal studies at the Ljubljana University. He gained a doctorate in State Rights. He obtained employment in Bosnia in 1932, then in Split, Dalmatia and then again in Bosnia, until the beginning of WW2.
Stanislav returned to Slovenia in 1941 and then in 1946, moved to Trieste.
After nine years, his wife and daughter Alenčica, were able to join their husband and father in Trieste.
In 1957, they arrived in Australia. Stanislav worked in a delicatessen, then passed exams to be a real estate agent.
Soon after arriving, he joined the Slovenian community and was very active with the Slovenian ethnic school and other ethnic matters.
All of his life he had a yearning for knowledge. He read all the books, newspapers and reviews he could. He was an educated and humble man who was always prepared to help if at all he could.
He was very involved with the religious community and was the right-hand man to Fr Filip and then, until his death, to Fr Janez. For his endless work and assistance to the religious community and our fellow countrymen, on his 90th birthday in 1996, he received many accolades for his work, the highest being from the Franciscan Province of the Holy Cross in Slovenia. He was instrumental in establishing the Slovenian community and the church of the Holy Family in Adelaide.
Overall, he was a man of goodness and always loved to help and was especially faithful to the church.
Whenever dealing with legal matters, he never charged fees, saying,” I have one schnitzel, that is enough for me. I can’t eat two, give it to the Slovenian church which isn’t rich.”
We didn’t know that he would only be with us for another four years. At that time, our thanks was attributed to him. Today, we thank God that we were allowed to know such an outstanding person who shared his spiritual gifts with us.
So far from Slovenia, our fellow countrymen felt as if they were part of one family, and Mr Frank seemed to be its father. He lived for it and fought Australian authorities for all the state rights which were offered to political multinationals.
Being well educated with wide horizons, he was not afraid of the new challenges of an unknown Anglo-Saxon culture.
To me, he seemed like a prodigal son, because both of us left our home to go into the foreign world. He always nurtured his undying love for his homeland and faith.
In South Australia, there is now a museum dedicated to immigrants, similar to one being planned in Slovenia, where Slovenian mothers’ sons are honoured for their dignity and pride in their new homeland.

Fr Janez Tretjak OFM

More information about each teacher of the Slovenian Language School, the school’s curriculum, children’s work, and many more photographs can be found in the book by Draga Gelt: Chronicle of Slovenian Schools and Slovenian Language Teachers in Australia pp. 591-595, available as well online from the NUK (National University Library in Ljubljana), Digital Library of Slovenia


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