Feature - Dutch Courage

Witta resident Hank Drent – fondly known as ‘Dutchie’ – was only six years old when he donned the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) uniform to save his father from the Gestapo. 

By Judy Fredriksen

Growing up in Heerlen, a Dutch town near the German border, the young Hank experienced a difficult and confusing time during WWII. His father was Dutch, his mother was German. 

Hank has clear memories of 10th May 1940, when soldiers invaded his town, prompting the family to move to Sittard, another Dutch town where his father worked building brick chimney stacks. 

After moving to Sittard, and against Hank’s mother’s wishes, Hank went to a German school where he joined the Hitler Jugend. 

“Nothing we can do about it. They told you what to do. So that’s what we did. I had to join the Hitler Youth,” explains Hank.

To combat the food shortages of that era, the family grew their own vegetables. But this was in an environment of increasing paranoia, manifested through wartime propaganda machines. Trust was non-existent. Neighbours spied on each other. Treachery was rampant.

When sparrows took a liking to the Drent’s snow peas, Hank’s father needed to protect the precious food source. He grabbed some newspaper to cover them and in doing so, unwittingly tore a photo of Hitler in two. 

“But the neighbour next door, they were in the German party and they must have dobbed my old man in – that he did it,” says Hank. “So they came and arrested him, and took him to the SS headquarters down the road in Sittard.”

After two days Hank’s mother became anxious, so she told her young son to put on his Hitler Jugend uniform. Ater briefing him on what to say and do, took him down to the SS Headquarters.

“I marched up there and I feel really big. I got the uniform on and big leather belt and a dolk (dagger) … We come to the front of the guards and they say, ‘Heil Hitler’. And I say ‘Heil Hitler’. And they asked me, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I’ve come to get my father’.”

Young Hank bravely fronted up to “six or seven SS mob” and told them that he tore up the photo of Hitler, not his father. Thankfully, because he was wearing the Hitler Jugend uniform, they believed him and Hank’s father was released – unkempt but unharmed.

Now aged 88, Hank still has vivid memories of the remainder of the war: air raids; a bomb landing in their house that – unbelievably – didn’t explode; his father being part of the Dutch Resistance and hiding people in their cellar; soldiers being killed; and the Yankee tanks rolling into town to liberate them in 1944. 

It was always confusing for the young boy whose parents were of different nationalities.

“It was hard. It was not easy for me. I was in two fights all the time.”

After the war, the family moved back to Heerlen and while attending bible classes, Hank met a beautiful girl – Christina (Tina) Kleijne – who would become his future wife. Hank was only 14 years old.

Hank worked underground in the coal mines but grew tired of that, so when he saw an advertisement for miners in Mount Isa, he jumped at the opportunity. Even though it meant leaving Tina behind, the adventurous young man arrived in Australia in 1953, aged 17.

After surviving the hardships of war, it didn’t faze Hank to sleep rough when he first arrived in Mount Isa, though the police moved him on to the local pub.

He quickly settled into doing dangerous underground work in the Mount Isa mine – drilling, blasting and building underground rail lines.

Eventually, he managed to buy a block of land abundant with timber. Armed only with ingenuity and nous, he built his own dwelling using second-hand corrugated iron sheets for roofing and salvaged 44-gallon drums for walls.

All this time he stayed in touch with Tina and in 1959, he returned to Heerlen to marry her. The couple returned to Mount Isa where Tina volunteered at the Mount Isa Hospital. 

After forty years of living in “The Isa”, Hank and Tina retired to Witta, looking forward to enjoying life near the beaches and a big city. Unfortunately, that was not to be. As a result of her deteriorating health, Hank cared for Tina for many years before her days ended in Erowal Aged Care.

While visiting her at Erowal, Hank regularly demonstrated his signature kindness by helping other women paint their nails.

Over time, Hank has helped out at Erowal in a variety of ways: serving meals; cheering up residents with his visits; and fundraising for the installation of air conditioners, TVs and the establishment of an ANZAC Memorial monument outside the reception building.

He has also raised money for many other community organisations and has been recognised for this with numerous awards, including the Fisher Community Australia Day Award, 2006. 

Sitting in the lounge of his quaint country house, the garden and verandah littered with quirky memorabilia reflecting his travels and time in the mines, life is much more peaceful for Hank now than it was 80 years ago when his tranquillity was shattered by the reverberating sound of soldiers’ boots.

A special thank you to Hannah Eichhorn and David Courtney of Blackall Range Care for their help in transcribing and compiling this interview.

Judy Fredriksen

judyfredriksen@bigpond.com

0417 605 141