Adriana Taylor, from Dutch Schoolgirl to ‘Servant of the People’ It is normal for the eldest son to inherit the farm. This has been true over the centuries, and in many places in the world. Jos (Adrianus Johannes Ansems), known to all as Lange Jos, refused the privilege. He had Read more
Sijke Bink-Faber, from Dutch village in Friesland to Australian farm Early Life My name is Sylvia Bink, I was born 25 May, 1915, as Sijke Faber in Schingen a small village, about an hour’s ride on the push bike from Leeuwarden, the capital city of the Dutch province of Friesland. Read more
Elly Anderson (nee Van Der Sommen) In my small collection of Dutch books at our home in South Australia there is a 1950 hard cover publication titled Australië – Land van Vele Mogelijkheden by J.J. van der Laan. It was one of many books that my parents brought to Australia Read more
In May 1950, a group of 10 men, and their wives, met in the residence of Eerke van der Laan in the city of Groningen. They had met several times before, and during the war years had learned to know and trust each other. Now they were discontented, but hopeful. Read more
Anton Roodhuyzen: Memories of life as a child in a Japanese POW Camp in the former Netherlands East Indies My full name is Antonie Roodhuyzen, a male of European Dutch descent, born 1st December 1936 in the city of Malang, on the island of Java, in Indonesia, then the Netherlands Read more
Adriaan and Johanna Rutte Golden Memories of their 50th Wedding Anniversary at Stirling in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia In June 1991, when Adriaan and Johanna Rutte had been married 50 years, a family of no less than seventy members, spanning four generations, celebrated with them. The number was hardly Read more
Wilhelmina De Brey These pieces are in memory of those I failed to help survive. I had hoped to save their lives. Through the betrayal of another person, to the secret police, the Kempeitai, our house was invaded. I had received a visit from a woman three weeks before the raid, and Read more
Netherlands East Indies (1939 – 1946) Internment, resilience and survival: The story of Dirk Drok who helped to uncover the Batavia and a key contributor to Voyage to Disaster, and his wife, well-known painter and ceramicist, Kitty Drok Why might a young baby less than a year old be interned Read more
John (Jan) Rikkers John (Jan) Rikkers was born on 5 February 1925 in den Haag, the youngest child of Jan Rikkers and Marie van der Wansem (official papers in later years state his date of birth as 1921, but according to John he had deliberately put his age up so Read more
The Dutch Contribution to the Defence of Australia in World War II THE DUTCH CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEFENCE OF AUSTRALIA IN WORLD WAR TWO Since November 2007 a plaque on the Pathway of Honor in Adelaide, South Australia, recognises the Dutch servicemen and women who joined the Australian forces Read more