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Note: t they could utilize as workers in their Labour camps, one of Halbe's brothers was taken away. The house where they lived 39 Honthorst Straat, Huisem in Leewarden was a two-story dwelling adjoining all the other houses in the block. Above the second floor there was an attic and the slope of the roof enabled a false wall to be installed, the false wall was carried out within all the houses so as not to raise suspicion, and this allowed the men to move along from house to house, so eluding discovery by the Germans.
He worked as a printer working at a paper factory and later became a radio mechanic working for a Jan Van Der Vol in Leeuwarden.
The Australian Consulate told him that if he and his family migrated to Australia his qualifications as a Radio Mechanic would be recognized in Australia and he would have no trouble finding work in this field, as there was a desperate shortage of qualified people in that country.
In 1951 he migrated to Australia with his family on the P & O ship Maloja. The families as steerage passengers were placed in cabin three decks down below the main deck, just above the water line. The cabin seemed to be able to accommodate the whole family. They ate their meals in a dormitory type of dining room. It was here that the family had Kellogg's Corn Flakes for the very first time.
There was no work available as a Radio Mechanic when the family arrived in Sydney, Australia and his first job was that of a laborer in an aluminum assembly factory in Sydney whilst his wife and children were placed in a Migrant Camp situated near the New South Wales Central West town of Bathurst. He lived in a Boarding House near where he was working because the men were not allowed to stay at the Camp and also it was several hours by railway train from Sydney.
These Migrant Camps were left over WW11 Army Training Barracks and the Australian Government found them to be very useful to house the great influx of immigrants who came from many European Countries, many of them displaced persons after the war who had no country at all. It was also at this time that English immigrants were persuaded to migrate under the 10-pound scheme as the government of the day had the policy of populate or perish.
Later, after his wife and children were moved to a Migrant Camp near the New South Wales, Hunter Valley Village of Greta, he obtained employment in his trade as a Radio Mechanic for T.J.Wilks Electrical at the nearest large town of Maitland. The firm owned a house at Rayworth, a tiny settlement between East Maitland and the Village of Morpeth, which they rented to him. After about two years he purchased a house and the family moved to East Maitland there he decided that he could make more money by setting himself up at the family home and repairing radios, electric Irons and other small appliances. To help supplement the income his wife took in boarders sometimes up to 5 at a time, there were some very strange people that lived there at various times.
After a few years he gained a reputation of being an expert on amplification systems and this led to him gaining contracts to supply and maintain the sound systems at the Maitland Trotting Track/Show Ground, the Cessnock Trotting Track/Show Ground, the Cessnock Race Course and various other churches and schools as well as hiring out amplification gear for many venues.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer not long after his wife passed away and his condition deteriorated from that time on. He died on 24 Jul 1989 at Allandale Hospital, Cessnock and was cremated at the Beresfield Cremetorium where his ashes have been placed in the gardens next to his wife.
Note: During the Second World War, Holland was under German occupation. Halbe was involved with the resistance in as much as he made radio receivers and distributed propaganda leaflets. The German Forces were always on the look-out for healthy men tha
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