October 12th, 2024Family pilgrimage

In every community around the country there are a multitude of stories to be told. So many of those tales are ones of diaspora, of individuals and families from all backgrounds fleeing poverty, war and social upheaval and creating a new life.     

Hepburn’s Morgan Williams, of Radius Gallery, is currently writing a book about his own mother Stephany’s long journey from war-ravaged Holland to Australia.     

“I started writing a novel based on the experiences of my family,” says Morgan, “vignettes of the times and Mum’s life. The book has always been on my mind and I’m halfway through doing it.”

The tale is taken up in a small town called Borne close to the border of Germany and one Dr Rudolf Panhuysen. Born in 1897 he was a general practitioner and was known as a skilled, knowledgeable and well-respected physician.     

As a health officer, he was mobilised in 1939 attending to battlefield casualties before resuming his practice at 1 Korte Wensinkweg. The three-storey house held his surgery on the ground floor and his family home upstairs.

Unbeknownst to authorities it also became a stopover on an extensive underground resistance network against the occupying Nazis.     

At great risk to himself and his family, the house became a refuge for resistance fighters, fugitive Jews, British and American airmen and other people in hiding.

The examination table in his consulting room sat on a carpet that, when needed, could be moved aside to reveal a trap door and stairs to a hidden room below.  

“It was really full on when I first went to the house in the 1990s with mum,” says Morgan.

“The person who lived there recognised her from 30 years previously and invited us in. While the place has now been renovated, at that time little had changed, there were even still kids’ toys and names engraved on the walls in the attic.     

“Mum was amazed and got very nostalgic seeing the house as it pretty much was  when they left. While we didn’t open it, the trap door was still there along with bullet holes from when the Nazis raided the place.”     

That event took place in February 1945. Betrayal led a squad of Landwachters to surround and storm the house.

The Landwacht were the feared and hated internal paramilitary organisation that did the occupiers’ dirty work and they arrested a total  of 13 people that day.     

Amazingly, all those arrested, including Dr Panhuysen and his wife Helena (who was also part of an espionage ring), did eventually survive the war.

A miracle considering the ruthless methods of the Nazis and the common fate of so many members of resistance groups all over occupied Europe.     

In 1954 the Panhuysen family including Stephany, who was just eight years old, left Holland to resettle in Perth, Western Australia.

Perth was and remains one of the most remote capital cities in the world and light years away from the wreckage of post- war Holland. It was the ideal place to start life over.     

“After going through two major European wars within 30 years, they saw no reason why it could not happen all over again,” says Morgan. “Perth was isolated and that’s exactly where they wanted to be.”     

After migrating to Australia Dr Panhuysen continued practising medicine as a ship doctor on Dutch ships before retiring. He died in August 1976.     

Back in Holland, the country would slowly rebuild and along the way become one of Europe’s success stories, a prosperous and progressive country that went to great lengths to recognise those mostly anonymous heroes who maintained resistance against incredible odds in the darkest days of World War II.     

In the mid 80s as gratitude for his wartime efforts, the city of Borne named a street after Dr Rudolf Panhuysen. And the house at 1 Korte Wensinkweg, that held his old surgery, remains standing to this day.     

Meanwhile Stephany would grow up in Western Australia before moving over to the east coast and raising a family.

Today she lives with Morgan and his partner Kim in Hepburn, generations and half a world away from the trials, deprivations and memories of another time and place.     

“All of my cousins and family have gone over there to see the house, see the street and take a photo, just like me and mum did. The latest visitor in early September was our son Josh. It is kind of a family pilgrimage in a way.”     

Words: Tony Sawrey | Images: Supplied