The story of the Burgers family brings together several important chapters in the shared history of Indonesia, the Netherlands and Australia: the Boven Digul political prisoners’ camp in Dutch New Guinea, the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies, Dutch military aviation from Australia, the controversial Colombo court-martial affair and post-war migration to Cowra.
Nora Hevel and Boven Digul
The story begins with Jan Hevel, who served as an adjutant at the Boven Digul political prisoners’ camp on the Digul River in Dutch New Guinea.
The camp was established in 1927 following the Indonesian Communist uprisings of 1926–27. Political activists, trade unionists and Indonesian nationalists were detained there without trial in an extremely remote and unhealthy jungle environment.
Jan’s daughter Nora spent part of her childhood at Boven Digul. Following her father’s early death, the family returned to the Netherlands.
In 1943, the Dutch authorities evacuated 295 political detainees, together with more than 200 women and children, from Boven Digul to Australia. The detainees were presented to the Australian authorities as dangerous prisoners and were held at Liverpool and in the Cowra prisoner-of-war camp.
When Australian officials and trade unionists discovered that they were political detainees rather than Japanese collaborators or prisoners of war, pressure was placed on the Dutch authorities to release them. The last detainees held at Cowra were freed on 7 December 1943.
Their remarkable story is examined in Indonesian political prisoners held by the Dutch and freed in Australia.
Harry Burgers and No. 18 Squadron
Back in Nijmegen, Nora met Hendrik Johan “Harry” Burgers.
Harry had joined the KNIL in 1937 and trained as a radio operator and air gunner with the Military Aviation branch of the KNIL. During the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies, he flew reconnaissance and bombing operations from Sumatra.
On 19 February 1942, Harry shot down a Japanese Zero fighter near Palembang. He was later awarded the Bronze Cross for this act of courage.
After escaping to Australia, Harry joined No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF.
While serving in Australia, he became the fourth man caught up in the controversial Colombo treason case. Harry had rejected a proposal by Lieutenant Will Burck to take an aircraft and return to Java but was prosecuted because he had not reported their conversations.
He was not convicted of treason or of participating in the alleged conspiracy. Nevertheless, he spent almost a year in detention before being tried in Colombo.
Harry’s military service, his Bronze Cross and his separate role in the Colombo affair are described in Harry Burgers: Decorated Air Gunner, Wartime Prisoner and Dutch Migrant to Cowra.
The wider case involving Burck, De Lyon and Kelder is examined in Between duty and desperation: The Colombo treason case within No. 18 (NEI) Squadron.
From Nijmegen to Cowra
After the war, Harry returned to the Netherlands. He and Nora married in Nijmegen on 29 December 1945.
Their first son, Robert Harry, was born in Nijmegen in 1946. The family subsequently returned to the Netherlands East Indies, where Harry was stationed at Tjililitan airbase. Their second son, Ernie, was born there in 1949.
In 1950, the family migrated to Australia and settled in Cowra, New South Wales.
By a remarkable coincidence, Cowra was also the final resting place of 13 Indonesian political detainees who had died while being held there on behalf of the Netherlands East Indies Government.
Nora remembered Boven Digul from her childhood. Throughout her later life, she—and subsequently her son Ernie—helped honour and preserve the memory of the former Boven Digul detainees buried at Cowra. These men, once imprisoned by the Dutch colonial authorities, are now recognised in Indonesia as part of the country’s struggle for independence.
In 1997, the Indonesian Government erected a memorial to them in Cowra Cemetery.
More information can be found in Indonesian War Graves at Cowra.
The downloadable family history below, written by Ernie Burgers, tells this remarkable story in greater detail. It connects Boven Digul, Dutch New Guinea, the Netherlands East Indies, wartime Australia, Indonesian independence and the Burgers family’s new life in Cowra.
