7 Dec 25 - Resident stories
Dutch courage - a tale of resistance
For Summerset at Monterey Park resident Tom Hendriks, his life in New Zealand is as far removed in experience as it is in distance from his childhood growing up in wartime Europe. As a teen, Tom lived in Nazi-occupied Holland, taking part in the perilous work of the Dutch Resistance.
Tom’s youth meant he was spared from frontline duty, and could work undetected by German soldiers, who didn’t think twice about a boy on a bicycle. Though it was dangerous work, the resistance took precautions. Tom was never told the names of his fellow resistance members; it was safer that way. “I never dealt with the same people twice. I was told never to breathe a word of what I did,” Tom recalls. “So I never did. My parents never even knew of my involvement ‘til many, many years after the war.” Happily, all five or six safe houses he would smuggle coupons to over the two years were liberated by the Allied forces.
Although Tom’s wife, Else, was only six when war broke out, she vividly recalls hiding in a bedroom as bombs dropped close by. “We were panicking. We’d never even seen a plane before, and my mother told us that we were at war with Germany,” Else recalls. Living close to the Belgium border, the rural village where she lived was soon under German control. The Germans had ordered every family to turn in their radios to keep them ignorant of what was happening on the Front. The penalty for non-compliance was to be sent to the concentration camps. “My father had two radios,” says Else. “He turned in one, and then kept the other, hidden inside a false wall. He would listen with the neighbours to broadcasts from the BBC World Service.”
Her father was betrayed by a neighbour, and German soldiers raided the house. “I woke up and they were swarming the house,” says Else. “My father had just enough warning to hide inside the cavity with the radio. They turned the house upside down and discovered a speaker under the radio, as well as some incredibly up-to-date maps of the Front that had been created based on radio news reports. My mother kept her cool and claimed the speaker was pre-war and unused, despite not having a speck of dust on it! And of course, we had the maps!” Else can only speculate that the German soldiers knew they were losing the war and thus had lost the appetite to arrest more civilians.
Once the war was over, another threat loomed for Else’s family: the predicted Russian invasion. “My mother was terribly worried and desperate to leave Holland. We were billeting a Major from the New Zealand Army. He talked about New Zealand. My mother was relieved to hear that there were no wild animals or snakes, and decided that it would become our home.” In December 1948, Else, her parents and her four siblings boarded a ship to start the six-week journey to their new life. “The ship was supposed to go directly to Auckland but instead docked in Sydney. We had to fly the rest of the way – an eight-hour plane ride in those days! We landed at Whenuapai Airport in 1949. It was like we were finally able to breathe.”
Just a few short months later, Tom, who had been serving in the Dutch army, also arrived at Whenuapai. “I had been in Indonesia and was demobbed there. I saw a photo of New Zealand and thought it looked like paradise.”
The couple, who have been married for 73 years, met in an Auckland cafeteria run for ex Dutch servicemen. “I saw Else behind the counter and thought she would be good for my friend,” laughs Tom. “But my friend became a priest, and I married Else!” The pair settled in West Auckland, where Tom moved into real estate and Else raised the family. “We had seven children in nine years!
Now we have 22 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren!” Although the children have scattered to the four corners of the globe, the family is tightknit. “They are all coming to Auckland for my 100th birthday celebrations in February,” says Tom. “There will be 93 of us celebrating at the Park Hyatt.”
Tom and Else have lived happily in Summerset at Monterey Park for eight years. “The people and staff here are very friendly, and we know all our neighbours,” says Else. “We like to go to the village centre for afternoon tea and play bridge. It is convenient too. We get our meals delivered three times a week.”
Tom says, “We admired the village as it was being built. When we came on a tour, we loved the stunning northwest views and the oversized patio.” Fittingly, their three-bedroom villa looks across the water towards Whenuapai Airport – where their New Zealand lives began.
This is an article from the Summer 2025 edition of Summerset Scene magazine