AanspraakAfdeling Verzetsdeelnemers en Oorlogsgetroffenen September 2019

Never lose heart! Louis Harmanus was held captive at several Republican camps after the war Contents

Page 4 Speaking for your benefit.

Page 5-8 We should never deny our Dutch origins! Richard Ceuleers: “Our refusal to side with the Japanese cost us dear. We young Indo-Europeans who asserted our allegiance to the Dutch spent seven months at Glodok Prison.”

Page 9-12 Never lose heart! Louis Harmanus was held captive at several Republican camps after the war.

Page 13-16 We had to rely on ourselves. Brother and sister Sjoerd and Corrie van Leyden were both held captive in Japanese camps.

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 2 Page 17 New website: www.verhalenoverdeoorlog.nl First-hand stories from the war in Europe and the .

Page 18 Questions and answers.

No rights may be derived from this text. Translation: SVB, Amstelveen.

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 3 Speaking for your benefit

In our magazine Aanspraak, we meet people who silence. Afterwards, I wondered whether the play are willing to recount their war experiences for us. had achieved what it set out to do, but it soon In doing so, however, they are also processing and became clear that it had had a profound effect on documenting what happened to them. Because these the audience, most of whom were born after the war personal accounts are so important, we will shortly be and who admitted that they had never before really opening a new website specifically dedicated to these understood the enormity of the atrocities. stories about the war. You can find more information about this elsewhere in this edition. What my friend is also unable to forget is what his childhood friends endured in the Dutch East Indies. For my part, I am often deeply moved by the different As a nineteen-year-old in 1946, he would normally ways people have of working through their war expe- have been sent over with the next group of recruits riences and passing them on. One event that hap- but the army refused to take him because, as a Jew, pened recently made a particular impression on me. he had obviously not yet recovered from the con- sequences of the German occupation. His young A Jewish friend of mine, who suffered in the war, friends and neighbours had no choice but to go. celebrated his 92nd birthday by inviting his friends Those who came back a few years later did not talk and family, about sixty in all, to a theatre perfor- about their experiences at first. It was only later mance. When I heard that the subject of the play that they started to open up. Since then, my friend was to be ‘The Camp’ I couldn’t help wondering why has been determined to find out everything about someone would choose to celebrate their birthday what happened to them. After years of research, he in this way. My friend’s explanation was: “I saw this wrote a play with the futility of war as the underlying performance a while ago and the images were so theme. How exceptional to be able to process and piercing that I really wanted the people I love to pass on your war experiences in this way! As the experience it too. Why? Because this story is an inte- 75th anniversary of the Liberation approaches, we gral part of who I am and I will carry these images can undoubtedly expect to see many new ways in with me as long as I live. I wanted to pass this story which the story that must never be forgotten can onto others.” be passed on to new generations.

In the play, the unimaginable horror of the Holocaust is recreated by three actors manipulating miniature figures in a model of a camp that takes up the whole stage, while using miniature cameras to project close-ups onto large screens. The audience is there Dineke Mulock Houwer to bear witness, which we did in deep and inexorable Chair of the Pension and Benefit Board

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 4 We should never deny our Dutch origins! Richard Ceuleers: “Our refusal to side with the Japanese cost us dear. We young Indo-Europeans who asserted our allegiance to the Dutch spent seven months at Glodok Prison.”

As the Allies advanced in the Pacific, the Japanese Since my father was no longer a reservist because in the occupied Dutch East Indies feared that he had retired, we were able to go and stay with young Indo-Europeans, who were still at liberty acquaintances in Poerwoasri near Kediri. From there, and pro-Dutch, would throw in their lot with the we moved to Viosplein in Batavia (now known as Allies. So Indo-European boys were ordered to Jakarta). After the Dutch surrendered on 8 March report to a registration office in Batavia where they 1942, the Japanese banned education. Yet, even were required to sign a statement declaring their though it was illegal, a teacher, Miss Holtzer, was allegiance to the Japanese, which would make them kind enough to give me lessons. In , Indo- enemies of the Dutch. Europeans were not interned during the Japanese occupation. My father fell ill and died on 3 March More than 480 young Indo-Europeans refused 1943. Without his income, my mother had to find to side with the Japanese, but their loyalty to other homes for her seven children. My two elder the Dutch cost them dear. They were detained sisters went into hiding to escape the unwelcome at police stations by Japanese Kempeitai military attention of the Japanese soldiers. My younger police. And those who would not relent were sent brothers and I were taken in by the Vincentius to Glodok Prison. Richard Ceuleers is one of the boarding school for boys in Batavia. At this strict few remaining survivors who can give a first-hand Catholic boarding school we often had to do account of what happened. strenuous manual work, such as drawing water from the well, lifting heavy pans in the kitchen and helping Grateful for a strict upbringing with the gardening. Later, I was grateful for this strict My father, Jacques Ceuleers, worked as a mining upbringing: it toughened me up for the trials that lay engineer in the coal region along the Barito River in ahead. Borneo. After the death of his first wife, he married my mother, who was a Dayak, one of the native Declaring our allegiance peoples of Borneo. I was born in Banjermassin on 23 I remained at the boarding school until the April 1928, the seventh of my father’s ten children. beginning of March 1943. Then, at the age of We were raised Roman Catholic and I knew that, fourteen, I went back to live with my mother, my when I grew up, I wanted to work for the police. older brother Maurits and my sister Irena, who was five years younger than me, in Pegangsaän I was in the sixth year of primary school when in Batavia. By that time, my other siblings had left war broke out. We heard on the radio about the home. In those days, many European women with Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December children needed help to move to different camps 1941. To escape the threat of war, we evacuated to with their household goods. So I started providing Java. The Dutch were employing a scorched-earth removal services with a pushcart. My little business policy in the region: the port city of Balikpapan and did so well that I was soon employing several the island of Tarakan were already in flames and we Indonesians as labourers. were next in line.

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 5 On 23 September 1944, together with many other hungry. They said that if I pledged my allegiance to young Indo-Europeans, my brother Maurits and I the Japanese, I could have something to eat. On one were ordered to report to the registration office occasion, Dahler was also present. Each time they for those of mixed race, the ‘Kantor Oeroesan asked me to side with the Japanese, but I remained Peranakan’. When we got there, the two men in steadfast. After three months of this, Becker, a fellow charge, Dahler and Van den Eeckhout, asked us prisoner, and I were taken to the Police Intelligence whether we supported or opposed the alliance Bureau in Koningsplein square. They left us on a between Japan and the people of . Van bench opposite closed doors where we were forced den Eeckhout urged us to side with the Japanese, to listen to cries of pain and calls for help. Each time saying, “The Dutch look down on your brown one of the doors opened, we were afraid that we skin. The Japanese are here to liberate you.” Eric were about to be subjected to the same treatment. Soute, who was one of us, leapt onto the table and This was how they tried to break our spirit. Yet, to shouted: “Boys, we may have Indonesian blood, but our amazement, we were taken back to the Section Dutch blood also runs through our veins. We should 6 Police Station. The twelve of us were then put in never deny our Dutch origins!” Those who signed single-person cells. The conditions were appalling. the pro-Japanese statement were free to leave the My brother Maurits, a boy called Hermanus and I office there and then. Those who refused had to stay were held in a dark cell two metres square with a behind and write down their personal details. concrete bed just big enough for one. At that point, Maurits was very ill with dysentery. He was running Identified as anti-Japanese a high fever and was too weak to stand. I had to lift Before we got to the office, my brother and I agreed him onto the barrel we used as a toilet day and at to be pro-Japanese for my mother’s sake. Things night. The stench was unbearable and the heat and were so hard for her. At least that way, we would lack of air made things even more oppressive. We be able to stay with her. But as we walked out, my had to stay very calm in order to be able to breathe. brother told me he hadn’t been able to go through with it, and had declared that he was anti-Japanese. Transferred to Glodok If my brother refused to side with the Japanese, On 25 January 1945, our names were called and then so did I! I went straight back to the office and the twelve of us were transported by lorry from the said I wanted to be listed as anti-Japanese. I was Section 6 Police Station to Glodok Prison in the determined to change my initial statement and centre of Batavia. The Japanese had converted got so angry that I pulled the paper Japanese and the dilapidated prison building into an internment Indonesian flags off the wall and tore them to pieces. camp. The cells were swarming with bed bugs that The official put both a black cross and a red cross constantly crawled on us and bit us. The only clothes next to my name on the list. A few days later, on I had were a pair of swimming trunks and a small 27 September 1944, a Japanese official and several military jacket. Twice a day we had to assemble policemen escorted Maurits and me to the Section in the courtyard where we were counted by the 5 Police Station in Griseeweg in Batavia, where we guards. From then on, we had to follow marching were detained with two other boys. Later the same instructions and count in Japanese and were harshly day, we were transferred to the Section 6 Police beaten if we got it wrong. Station in Kramat on Prapatan behind the 10th Battalion camp, where twelve of us were incarcerated At Glodok we continued to be interrogated. We in a cell big enough for four. were also forced to do heavy labour. My cellmate, Eugene de Bruin Vermeer, and I had to carry large Pressured by the authorities vats of rice and sago gruel or water suspended While I was held at the Section 6 Police Station, I was from carrying poles slung across our shoulders from interrogated several times. The interrogations were the kitchen to the courtyard where we dished it conducted in the presence of Van den Eeckhout and out to the other prisoners. We were not allowed to some Indonesians. They had plates of food in front speak to anyone. The first prisoners started to die of them. They knew I hadn’t eaten and asked if I was of hunger three weeks after we arrived. Later I was

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 6 lucky enough to be assigned kitchen duties and was camp commander told us that Japan had lost the able to smuggle out some rice for my brother and war. We were each given a piece of white fabric cellmates in the pockets of my jacket. I was fortunate to wear as a loincloth and transported in lorries not to get caught. When we were first at the camp, to the Halimoen protection camp where we were if I spotted a sparrow in the courtyard I would kill it told that we could go home. Maurits and I returned with a flat stone and cook in the kitchen. But as the to our mother’s house in Pengansaän in a betjak days progressed, birds would no longer fly into the (trishaw taxi). At first, I didn’t recognise my mother camp. We also had to twist sisal twine into rope. By and sisters. My mother had aged and was so thin. then our skin was so thin that the prickly sisal fibre I wanted to do something. So I signed on with the made our hands bleed. Eventually, I also contracted Military Transport Service as a lorry driver and was dysentery and almost died of malaria. One of my assigned to Lieutenant General Van Oyen as a cellmates told me I was unconscious for a week, but soldier. I had no recall of it. I was almost transported to the prison hospital in Tjipinang where many other Indo- One day I was instructed to drive a man and his Europeans had died. daughter to safety during a supply mission. My boyhood friend, private first class Max Bernardus, The worst thing was seeing one of us being tortured and another soldier came with us to provide in a metal cage in the courtyard. Heated by the protection and were sitting on the back of the blazing sun, the metal bars would burn their skin lorry I was driving. On the way I was overtaken by relentlessly. During those harrowing seven months Ambonese soldiers in a twolorry convoy and told at Glodok, seventy boys died of infectious diseases, them I was short on ammunition. They gestured hunger and exhaustion. In June 1945, I was again to me to drive behind them until I reached my called in for interrogation. As I arrived I saw an destination. At Tjikini, we came under fire. I elderly fellow prisoner with blood on his face. The managed to overtake the Ambonese military convoy interrogator said, “What do you care? Just sign to that was protecting us just in time. When I arrived at say you are pro-Japanese!” But, out of the corner the place where I had to deliver my cargo and drop of my eye, I saw the old man shake his head slightly, off the two people I was transporting, I discovered so again I remained steadfast in my refusal. Van den that my boyhood friend Max had been fatally shot in Eeckhout was furious, and shouted, “You can write the head. I wanted to take him to the 10th Battalion a farewell letter to your family telling them you will hospital, but it was too late. never be coming home!” In reply I said, “It’s true. If I stay here long enough, I will never go home. I will School in the die here!” I worked for the army for seven months. Then, in mid-April 1946, together with my half-brother and One day I heard the roar of an aircraft. My fellow guardian Fernand, his wife Noor Cobet and their prisoners said it was an American fighter jet. It lifted children Lety, Roos-Marie and Max, I boarded the our spirits tremendously. Bahadar Singh, the head MS Sibajak and sailed to the Netherlands. Half way guard and only friendly guard in the camp, told us through the voyage we docked at the port city of that a massive bomb had been dropped on Japan. Aden where we were issued European clothing. This news gave us hope in a seemingly hopeless My half-brother and his wife looked after me for situation. five years. I would never have managed without their help. After we arrived in the Netherlands, we stayed at a boarding house in Bloemendaal. Later After the Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945, we moved to a house in Bloemendaalseweg owned the food improved slightly, but it wasn’t safe for us by the Albert Heijn supermarket chain. I resumed leave the camp. Because of our allegiance to the my education at the transition school in Haarlem Dutch, we were likely to be attacked by Indonesian and then went to the Kennemer Lyceum secondary freedom fighters. On 27 August 1945, we were called school in Overveen, where the emphasis was on to assemble in the courtyard where the Japanese maths and science.

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 7 Unfortunately, I was unable to retain what I learned be called for military service, I was enlisted by the in class and would occasionally black out. In 1948, Royal Netherlands Air Force. I subsequently joined Fernand and I returned to the Dutch East Indies, the air force as a professional soldier and was later where we found a home in Djokjaweg in Batavia. promoted to the rank of warrant officer. One year later, after I had obtained my lower general secondary education diploma, I applied to Though I knew I could always count on my wife’s the police academy in Sukabumi. I was keen to join support, I told her very little about the war. She the academy because it also provided board and died in 2015 and I still miss her every day. She was lodging. Fortunately, I was accepted and started able to comfort me when I was struggling with the training as an inspector. On 27 December 1949, as I things that happened during the war. Fortunately, was nearing the end of my training, the Netherlands my children and grandchildren are a great help to transferred sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to me and take my mind off it. I find it very difficult to Indonesia. The Dutch police force was taken over talk about that period of my life. The memory of that by the Indonesian police who worked for the newly awful experience of being shut in a tiny cell with my established Republik Indonesia Serikat, the Republic brother, who was so dreadfully ill, and being barely of the United States of Indonesia. At that point I able to breathe often keeps me awake. chose to resign. My nieces Lety and Roos-Marie and I have been Glodok reunions to many Glodok reunions where others can relate The Lindeteves trading company offered me a to what I went through. In 1984, those of us who job at Tandjong Priok, the port of Batavia. But had been held at Glodok as young Indo-Europeans a month later there was an opening at Philips in received a letter from the government saying Molenvliet. On 22 May 1951, I married Sylvia Anges that the Resistance Memorial Crosses were out of Oliveiro, who worked there as a secretary. With the production. We then had a Glodok Memorial Cross Indonesians making life increasingly difficult for made. Having fought for years for recognition of the Dutch, in 1954 we decided to emigrate to the our loyalty to the Dutch, we were finally granted a Netherlands. We and our two-year-old daughter pension for resisting the occupying forces in the Shirley sailed on the MS Sibajak and arrived in Dutch East Indies under the 1986 Extraordinary the Netherlands in January 1955. I spent a month Pension Act for Resistance in the Dutch East Indies. working for the state coal mining company in Heerlen, but on 1 May 1955, as a soldier who could Interview by Ellen Lock

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 8 Never lose heart! Louis Harmanus was held captive at several Republican camps after the war.

Louis Harmanus was held captive at several which he was often invited to perform at weddings. Republican camps in Java during the revolution in He also taught me how to hunt and kill and how to the Dutch East Indies after the war. The violent survive in the jungle. As it turned out, these skills phase of the struggle for independence, which would serve me well. came to be known as the Bersiap period, after the rebel battle cry “Get Ready!”, lasted from mid- When papa’s not there anymore… August 1945 to the beginning of 1946. We were living in Banyuwangi, a large coastal city in East Java, when the Japanese attack on Pearl Little has been written about this period of Dutch- Harbor on 7 December 1941 brought the Dutch East Indonesian history. What happened to Dutch and Indies into the war. My mother, Luci Wetterman, Dutch-Indonesian civilians in Republican camps? was pregnant at the time. With coastal defences And how did they come to terms with it after the being erected in anticipation of a Japanese invasion, war? Louis Harmanus recalls the experience of my father felt we were not safe in Banyuwangi. being held at Republican camps and explains how He enlisted as a landstorm soldier with the Royal pecak silat, the traditional Javanese martial art, Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) and was gave him the courage to cope. ordered to report to the 10th Battalion in Malang. On the day he left, he arranged passage for us on Survival skills a military train and took us to Nganjuk near Kediri My name is Louis Ferdinand Harmanus. I was where my maternal grandparents lived. We left born in Jombang in Java on 25 October 1928, the everything behind. As he said goodbye, my father third of my parents’ six children. My siblings, Rudi held me close to him and said: “Remember Louis, (1925), Charles (1927), John (1939), Sylvia (1941) when papa’s not there anymore you have to look and Rosita (1949) were born before, during and after everyone!” Shortly after that he was taken after the war. My father, Hendrik Harmanus, was a prisoner of war. Dutch-Indonesian who was equally fluent in High Javanese and Dutch. He served as a high-ranking My mother gave birth to my sister Sylvia at my local government official, a job that brought with grandparents’ house in Nganjuk. Doctor Sina from it an elegant villa with extensive gardens, a large the village assisted with the birth. My mother was household staff and a car with a driver. My father often in tears because she missed my father and my was respected and thought of as a good overlord little sister cried constantly. I was very distressed by because he made a point of visiting the prisons he my mother’s sadness and didn’t know how to cope supervised and kept a close eye on things. He even with it. I would stand and stare into the distance or checked that the prisoners were getting enough run outside. peppers. He had to issue many permits and was often transferred from one place to another. After the Dutch colonial army surrendered on 8 March 1942, the Japanese occupation forces closed My father taught me the traditional Javanese all schools. I was fourteen years old and in the customs and practices referred to locally as adat, seventh year of primary school. Since we no longer and pencak silat, the traditional Javanese martial art, received any income from my father, I took a job

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 9 as a labourer in a paper factory so we could buy were armed with spears and sticks. As prisoners groceries. We also exchanged household goods we had no choice but to run the gauntlet and were for food whenever we could. My mother tore fabric struck, kicked and stabbed by malevolent extremists. from a mattress and made my brother and me two One was our bicycle mechanic, who grinned as he sets of clothes that we wore every other day. We struck me. Three days later the women were also also survived on what we could grow in the garden. taken prisoner. Dutch-Indonesians were not interned during the Japanese occupation of Java. In the prison, sixty of us were held in a cell big enough for twenty five. I slept on the edge of a semi- An accurate prediction circular concrete surround next to the barrel we used During the rainy season there were heavy storms. as a toilet. Every day we had to take it in turns to One day, through the rain, we saw a figure carry out the filthy barrel and empty it. There was no approaching our veranda. It was a blind beggar daylight in the cell. At mealtimes they made us crawl guided by his granddaughter. My mother was sitting and hold out a tin plate with both hands. Then they on the veranda crying with her infant daughter on would bring the wooden soup ladle down heavily on her lap. The beggar said, “Dry your tears, lady. Your our head or fingers. We had to eat the boiling hot husband is still alive. I see him labouring in ragged rice and sauce from the palms of our hands. I still see trousers. He is hauling heavy stones. He will return. their malicious grins in my nightmares. You will receive a letter from him in the next few days.” As Roman Catholics we said a rosary for my My brother Rudi was the weakest and had father’s return every night. And, as the beggar had contracted a severe form of dysentery. We were put predicted, a few days before Christmas we received in a death row cell for two so I could help him onto a card from my father from Rin Tin in Thailand. All the toilet day and night. I could hear Rudi groaning it said was: ‘I am a prisoner of war. My health is and often banged on the cell door calling for water. excellent. I am working for pay’, but we were happy They eventually opened the door and took Rudi to to receive this sign that he was still alive. hospital where he was cared for by Doctor Sina. That night I was told that my brother had died. My first Looking after my brother in prison thought was, “How am I going to break the news to After the Japanese surrendered on 15 August my mother?” My brother was actually still alive. They 1945, the local attitude towards the Dutch was told me he had died to break my spirit. increasingly hostile. On 17 August, declared the independence of the Republic of Indonesia and Soekoramé there was talk of an armed struggle. Five months later, about two hundred of us were transported in trucks to the Republican camp at Early in the morning on 11 October several Soekoramé, five kilometres west of Kediri. My Indonesian police officers and Republicans armed grandfather and one of my uncles were among the with spears burst into our house. My grandfather, prisoners. My other uncle had died of exhaustion my two uncles, my brother Rudi and I were taken while we were in the prison. The camp was set up in prisoner. We were not allowed to take anything a former Royal Netherlands East Indies Army base, with us and were escorted on foot to Nganjuk and consisted of two large stone barracks, a bivouac prison. On the way we were jeered at by a group shooting range and six stone houses. of Indonesians, who shouted: “Belanda mati! Belanda mati!” Death to the Dutch! Among them I I slept in Barracks B with dozens of my peers from spotted the son of our wet nurse, who stood there, the same area. The camp was enclosed by a bamboo spear in hand. In retrospect, I realised he had been perimeter fence. The gate and the camp were demonstratively sharpening his spear for days. guarded by armed Indonesian soldiers, who beat and kicked me on several occasions. One of my In front of the prison gate were two rows of Pemuda chores was to unblock the toilet with my bare hands. freedom fighters lined up facing each other. They In April 1946, with British troops due to land in the

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 10 area, the camp was evacuated and we were taken people from the local villages threatened to storm to another Republican camp at Wonoredjo further the camp. Despite the dire conditions in the camp, inland. we had more food than they did. There weren’t enough guards to protect us, so the male prisoners Severely beaten at Wonoredjo were given clubs to help defend the camp together The Indonesian soldiers who served as guards at with the guards. This precarious situation lasted for a Wonoredjo were especially brutal. I was so hungry few weeks. On 14 October 1946, the siege came to that, at night, I would sneak out of the camp through an end. We were issued clothing and embarked on a a sewer to forage for corn and peanuts. On one four or five-day train journey to Batavia (now known occasion I agreed to smuggle some food back in for as Jakarta). On the way, we stopped at Djokja, where a priest. Unfortunately, I was betrayed by a jealous the Indonesian Red Cross gave us some rice and inmate, who cried: “Chink! Chink!”, because I have fried tempeh. It felt like a meal fit for a king. slanted eyes. I tried to hide in the priest’s room, but was caught by the guards who dragged me to a well. Finding my father They held my head under the water several times In Batavia we were we taken to the Kramat and struck my shoulders and back with the butts of internment camp. Two weeks later our family their rifles. I just managed to dodge a spear that was boarded the KPM vessel MS Valentijn and sailed about to strike my chest. Instead, it landed in my to Sumbawa Besar to look for my father. At sea we upper arm. The four of them threw me to the ground ran into a storm that toppled several gas cylinders and gave me a savage beating. on board and almost sank the boat. My father was among the prisoners of war who had been forced I remember thinking “Where is God? How can He by the Japanese to build the Burma-Siam Railway. allow so much evil?” An Indonesian officer, who We were unable to find him in Sumbawa Besar, happened to be walking past, recognised me as but learnt that he was stationed with the Royal the son of his respected overlord and ordered the Netherlands East Indies Army in the port city of guards to stop. There was no medical care. I had Makassar in Celebes (now known as Sulawesi). So we a deep wound in my arm and my back was badly set off for Makassar and this time we had more luck. hurt. But there is such a thing as the power of the We were overjoyed to see him again. He was again mind: I went to an elderly prisoner, fondly referred employed in a high-level administrative position, to as Uncle Edinger, who was known to be able to this time as a senior intelligence official at the Great hypnotise people. He told me to sit with my back to East and Borneo Headquarters. I took a job as a him. He blew some myrrh onto my neck and said: warehouse assistant at a Dutch military depot and “Sleep here tonight! When you wake up tomorrow, was responsible for the running of the warehouse most of the pain will have gone.” He was right. The from 1947 to 1950. wound in my arm was already infested with maggots. I kept wiping with leaves in an attempt to keep it My father had been assigned a house in an area clean. Despite my wounds, I still had to keep up with where the Dutch were still engaged in heavy fighting. my chores, which included lugging petrol cans filled When extremists opened fire on a Dutch police with water and sprinkling the water on the ground. station in Celebes in 1949, my parents’ home was directly in the line of fire. Suddenly, I found myself Minggiran facing an armed extremist. My brother Rudi shot him On 7 July 1946 about two hundred and sixty of us and saved my life. We had no choice but to return were transported to another Republican camp at fire and were grateful to be able to draw on the Minggiran, seven kilometres of Kediri, where I was jungle survival skills our father taught us. We were reunited with my mother, brothers and sister. Here able to detect warning signs such as the crunch of a there were separate men’s and women’s camps stone and the sound of a dog barking. My father was with a shared kitchen. Our diet consisted of three a skilled sniper and had trained us well. Many died hundred grams of rice a day. Though we were held in the bloody battle that day. After that, my brother by Indonesian guards, we weren’t safe, because Charles and I decided that we had seen enough

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 11 violence. So my parents paid for our passage to the was a pharmacy assistant and her family had also Netherlands on the MS Willem Ruys. My mother been held captive in Japanese camps. So we both was in tears as we said goodbye. My father and my prefer to look to the future. We enjoy engaging in brother John came to wave us off from the quay. My intensive sports and travelling to distant destinations. father put his arms around me and said: “Take care My knowledge of the traditional Javanese martial of yourself, my boy!” art, pencak silat, enabled me to stand up for myself. I also studied jiu jitsu and karate and taught both ‘Never lose heart!’ martial arts for years. I still train at a sports school In the Netherlands, after first working as a welder, I and teach young people martial arts techniques got a job as an administrative assistant. From 1957 three times a week. It helps keep my spirits up. In to 1989 I was employed as an Export and Excise fact, my motto in life is ‘Never lose heart!’ It gives Inspector in the Foreign Department at AMRO bank. you the courage to keep going, which is more I met Els Magendans, who later became my wife, important than strength alone. at a party. We got married in Rheden on 20 June 1959 and went on to have two daughters. My wife Interview by Ellen Lock

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 12 We had to rely on ourselves.

Brother and sister Sjoerd and Corrie van Leyden was boarding with a local family. So we all had to were both held captive in Japanese camps. During learn to rely on ourselves from a young age. I was the war they were parted at the Japanese women’s quiet as a boy and very much a loner. I loved making camp at Tjihapit, when the Japanese government and mending things. I would cycle to all kinds of ordered that boys over the age of nine were to be different workshops to see how things were made sent to the men’s camp. Having been sent away and wanted to be a car mechanic when I grew up. to primary school in Bandung at the age of six in 1935, Sjoerd was used to fending for himself. In Anxiety in the face of war this interview he and his and sister talk about the Corrie van Leyden: The host family I lived with hardships they endured during the war. while I was away at school were very kind to me. The mother had an artificial leg and was grateful I Frequent relocation in our childhood could help her with it. And I was very close to her Sjoerd van Leyden: My father Gerard van Leyden daughter who was almost the same age as me. We went to agricultural college in Deventer. When he were together when we heard on the radio that, completed his training, he travelled to Java to work on 7 December 1941, the Japanese had attacked on the plantations of the Pamanukan and Tjiasem Pearl Harbor. We were also informed that Queen lands (‘P and T’ lands). My mother, Margaretha Wilhelmina had declared war on Japan, which Uiterdijk, was a nurse. She and my father became meant that we in the Dutch East Indies were now at acquainted when she nursed my father’s first wife in war. The prevailing mood was one of sadness and 1925 and 1926. My father’s first wife was suffering despondency. from tuberculosis. The doctor advised her to return to the Netherlands, where she died in 1926. My Sjoerd: At the end of 1941 my father joined the parents were married in Purwakarta on 3 May 1927. Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) as a Our older brother Ruud was born in Abbekerk the reservist and was stationed at the Jaarbeurs trade following year during an extended period of leave fair complex in Bandung. One day, as my brother in Europe. My father’s job meant that he and his Ruud and I were cycling past the prison, we heard family had to move to another plantation on the my father calling my name to attract our attention. Pamanukan en Tjiasem lands almost every year. So He was standing watch on a high lookout tower so I was born in Garut in 1929 and my sister Corrie was we could wave to each other. That was the last time born in Tasikmalaya in 1931. we saw him.

Our parents were very strict and taught us not to My mother moved to Bandung and rented a little show our feelings, so we never cried. My mother house near the hospital, where she offered her schooled us at home for the first year or so. Both she services as a nurse. After the Royal Netherlands East and my father were keen to ensure that we received Indies Army surrendered on 8 March 1942, schools good primary education. Since that wasn’t possible were closed and hospitals were requisitioned. while we lived on remote plantations, in 1935 Ruud A wealthy Dutch couple who lived in a villa at and I were sent to the boys boarding school in Dagoweg 110 allowed their home to be used as a Bandung. Three years later my sister Corrie was also maternity clinic. My mother worked there as a nurse sent away to primary school at the age of seven. She and we lived in the garage on the property. Many of

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 13 the pregnant women and those who had just given Sweden. He asked my mother if she was Swedish birth at the clinic were married to men who initially and, without hesitating, said she was. Since Sweden continued to work for the KPM shipping company was neutral during the war, she was immediately and the Batavian Oil Company. Ruud and I did odd released. After that my mother stopped going out jobs to earn money. on the street and became a prisoner in her own home. This made it impossible for her to stay in A women’s camp was set up in the Tjihapit district touch with my brothers at the camp. and, for the first few months, people were allowed to come and go. I built some little carts that were A ruse used to collect food from the soup kitchen at home. Corrie: There was a final call for European women A friend asked if I wanted to earn some money. to go to the camp at Tjihapit. One of the patients His father ran a factory that produced canned at the maternity clinic needed to be transported Indonesian food. But since the Japanese didn’t trust to the camp in an ambulance. My mother decided this canned food, his father stacked all of the cans that she and I would accompany the patient in the under a tarpaulin in his garden and we were able to ambulance: she as a nurse and I as the patient’s make good money selling it at the camp. daughter. The ambulance pulled up at the camp gate at six o’clock in the evening. Since we wanted The boys go to Tjihapit to enter the camp, the Japanese were not too Sjoerd: In May 1942 all adults were required to concerned. An Indonesian auxiliary soldier who had register with the Japanese occupation forces been recruited by the Japanese rode with us on and provide proof of their identity. This meant the running board of the ambulance until we got to that my mother had to apply for a pendafaran, the camp. Ursuline convents were blockaded. The an identity document that cost 80 guilders for soldier instructed my mother to travel back in the women. She chose not to purchase the expensive empty ambulance, but she said she couldn’t leave identity document and ignored the order to report her patient in that condition. The soldier seemed to to the women’s camp at Tjihapit in Bandung. But think this was reasonable. And as the ‘daughter’ of the following year she decided that my brother and I the patient, it went without saying that I was allowed would be safer at the camp. With Japanese soldiers to stay. We were reunited with my brothers, which systematically hunting down Europeans, things were came as a big surprise to them. becoming increasingly dangerous on the street. It was also increasingly difficult to find shelter, food Boys over the age of nine are sent and clothing outside the camp. So Ruud and I went to the men’s camp to the camp of our own accord while Corrie stayed Sjoerd: On 19 October 1943 my mother was told with my mother to help out at the clinic. We slept in that Ruud had to go the men’s camp together with a stone house at Barentszstraat 15 with a group of all the other boys over the age of nine. I was a year Dutch women and their children. The whole district younger, so I was allowed to remain at the women’s was now fenced off and heavily guarded. The streets camp for the time being, but my mother packed my of Bandung became less and less safe for Europeans case anyway. She thought it would be better if the with each passing day. two of us went together. I wanted to stay with her, but she made me go with my brother. The other Corrie: One day my mother was stopped by a women at Tjihapit thought it was strange that my Japanese soldier. When he found that she did not mother chose to send me off to the men’s camp. have the required pendafaran identity document, he escorted her to the Japanese Kempeitai military Corrie: In retrospect, it turned out to be the right police station. Fortunately, my mother was wearing decision. After the war, the next group of boys were a blue pendant with three crowns on it. On the way sent to another men’s camp, so if my mother had to the police station a Japanese officer spotted the kept Sjoerd with her, my brothers would have had pendant and thought it was the national emblem of to survive on their own in different camps. As it was,

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 14 they stayed together and were able to look out for and struck her so hard across her face that she fell each other. Once, my mother received a pre-printed down dead. card from Siam (now Thailand). The message was Japanese propaganda saying my father was doing Later a Japanese guard came to inspect us. He fine. This was the only sign she received that my walked past me and, without warning, struck a thirty- father was still alive. year-old woman with a baby hard across her face. Without thinking, the woman struck him back, hitting Sjoerd: Ruud and I were taken to the men’s camp him hard across his face. The entire roll call area at Tjimahi in army trucks and ended up in subcamp fell silent. We were terrified and held our breath Baros 5, which was set up in a former Royal waiting to see what he would do. He hardened Netherlands East Indies Army barracks. The rooms his face, walked past the next six women and of the stone barracks were filthy and heavily infested continued his inspection round. The Japanese were with bed bugs. We had to bow to the Japanese completely unpredictable in the way they behaved. guards. Once, when I wasn’t fast enough, the guard It was something we would never understand. Their stubbed his cigarette out on my back. At Baros 5 I customs and practices were impenetrable to us. developed oedema due to malnutrition. My swollen legs were covered with open wounds that eventually The enormous wooden barracks at the Solo camp led to a severe case of phlebitis. I spent weeks in the were divided into sections with twelve women infirmary while it healed. sleeping in each section. There were no windows and the barracks were infested with rats. We slept Ruud and I were later sent to the Baros 6 boys’ next to the only latrine for the whole barracks. The camp. Mr Nauta, the man in charge of the kitchen, stench was appalling. From there we were moved was a good cook and tried to give us something to the camp at Lampersari Sompok in Semarang. In extra on Christmas day. We grew whatever we could August 1945 my mother was in such poor health that in the garden and even picked tomato seeds out of she was confined to the barracks hospital. I had to our faeces so we could plant them. I made all kinds survive on my own. of makeshift tools for myself and also exchanged them for food. Mr Schotel, the head Dutchman at Kept as a reminder the camp, looked after us and negotiated with the Corrie: Shortly after 15 August 1945 we heard that Japanese camp commander on our behalf. the Dutch East Indies had been liberated. But, for the time being, we had to stay in the camp so Mother’s health suffers the Japanese could protect us from the freedom Corrie: My mother and I were transported by train fighters. I exchanged my pyjama bottoms for an to the Solo camp in in Central Java. My egg through the bamboo fence around the camp mother was seriously ill and barely able to walk. and went to buy a chicken at the market with an About seven hundred women and children were Indo-European who spoke Javanese. My mother being transported and, in the chaos, I didn’t realise ate the chicken very slowly: she had to be careful that my mother had been put on the same train. not to overeat. After the barracks were evacuated, She lay exhausted on a wooden bench in one of the my mother was taken to the eye patient hospital other compartments. The toilet was a hole in the in Tjandi in uptown Semarang. She called out to floor of the carriage. the camp commander, “I won’t leave without my daughter!” But I wasn’t allowed to go with her. I was At Solo the camp regime was very strict and many able to visit her every day, but it was very dangerous, died of hardship and infectious diseases. We had to with freedom fighters and Ghurkhas engaged in stand for roll call for hours at a time and were often heavy fighting in the area. They exchanged fire over searched. My mother was so weak she had to keep the walls of the hospital and throughout the district. sitting down. A Japanese guard saw an old woman My mother’s bed was directly in the line of fire. At with grey hair walking on the other side of a ditch that point she was unable to walk and weighed

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 15 just 34 kilos. One of the bullets just missed her. It to mother while she was still ill in bed at the eye ricocheted off the wall just above her head, fell onto patient hospital in Semarang. It was such a painful her bed and left a scorch mark on her sheet. thing to have to tell her and so very sad. Because of the sustained shooting, the patients were later Sjoerd: Once we heard that the Japanese had evacuated to the port of Semarang and shipped to surrendered on 15 August 1945, we raised the Dutch Tandjong Priok, the port of Batavia, on the Sumire flag in Baros 6. We knew what was happening in the Maru, a Japanese troop transport ship. world, because Mr Schotel, our camp leader, had a radio that he had managed to keep hidden from the Sjoerd: In Batavia we were reunited as a family. Ruud Japanese. We knew that Princess Margriet had been and I were flown to Batavia, where my mother and born in Canada and that a massive bomb had been Corrie were waiting for us at Hotel Des Indes. We dropped on Japan, but we kept silent. When the barely recognised my mother; her stomach was so camp was shut down, we all thanked Mr Schotel for swollen from malnutrition. There were no tears of his help and presented him with a note that we all joy or sorrow: that wasn’t possible given the way we signed as a token of our gratitude. were brought up.

As soon as we were free, Ruud and I wanted to go On 23 January 1946 we sailed to the Netherlands to Bandung to find our mother and Corrie. When on the troop transport ship Johan de Witt. My we got there, we did all kinds of odd jobs to earn sister developed a severe case of measles during money. We wrote letters to mother and Corrie at the the voyage. As we sailed across the IJ into the port camp and enclosed the money we had earned. Since of Amsterdam we were greeted with the sound of there weren’t any envelopes, we sewed the letters shouting from the quay: “Slave drivers! Profiteers! up with needle and thread so the money wouldn’t Murderers!” It certainly wasn’t a warm welcome. be stolen. We handed the letters to anyone who happened to be travelling to Semarang. Corrie: Mother always said: “Life goes on!” Our time at the camp made us very close. She lived to the age Corrie: The first of my brothers’ letters arrived on 3 of 95. When we were clearing out her house after September 1945. My mother received every last cent she died, we found a little box. In it was the bullet they sent us. I still have all of their letters. In October that had landed on her hospital bed during the 1945 I went to the post office and found my father’s fighting in Semarang. She had kept it as a reminder name on the list of prisoners who had been put to of her narrow escape from death. work outside of Java. I discovered that he had died at Rin Tin in 1943 during the construction of the Interview by Ellen Lock Burma-Siam Railway. I had to break this terrible news

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 16 First-hand stories from the war in Europe and the Dutch East Indies Now on the Internet: www.verhalenoverdeoorlog.nl

The Sociale Verzekeringsbank and the Pension people who receive financial support under the and Benefit Board have launched a new website Dutch benefit schemes for former members of the with stories from the Netherlands and the Dutch resistance and victims of war. East Indies about the Second World War and the Bersiap period. The website opened to the public on 15 August 2019, the date of the commemoration of the end The Sociale Verzekeringsbank and the Pension and of the war in the Dutch East Indies. More stories Benefit Board believe it is of great societal and from Aanspraak will continue to be added to the historical importance that these extraordinary life website until 5 May 2020, when we will celebrate stories from first and second generation survivors are 75 years of freedom. These first-hand stories are all saved and shared as national heritage on this website. being published with the consent of the persons interviewed or their survivors. The website is starting with 60 stories that were previously published in Aanspraak. This quarterly Want to know more? magazine, first published in 1997, is intended for Go to www.verhalenoverdeoorlog.nl

Aanspraak - September 2019 - 17 Questions and answers

I would like to open an account with a different Please remember to sign and date it. On receipt bank and close the old account. What is the of your note, we will send you a letter explaining deadline for requesting a change in banking how your claim will be processed. In most cases, we details? will enclose a claim form and a medical authorisa- If we receive your request before the 25th of the tion form with our reply. First, you need to fill in month, you will receive the payment for the follow- the requested details on the forms. We may need ing month in your new bank account. If you want to to discuss the claim with you later. In that case, we start receiving payments into the new bank account will contact you. In any follow-up correspondence, later, please specify the month you would like the please remember to quote your correspondence payments into the new bank account to start. Be sure number and your name and address so that we can to enclose documentary evidence of the new bank locate your file quickly. account. If you live outside the Netherlands, please bear in mind that it may take longer for us to receive When I last visited my brother, he showed me his your post. book of collected stories from your client magazine Aanspraak. Could I get a copy too? I understand that my benefit will change when Yes, you can. In December 2014, we sent every- I reach my AOW pension age. Will I be notified one on our mailing list a copy of the book ‘Kom automatically or do I need to do something first? vanavond met verhalen’. All you need to do is send You will receive a letter with a form to complete a note to SVB Leiden, Afdeling V&O, Redactie a few months before you reach your AOW pen- van Aanspraak, Postbus 9575, 2300 RB Leiden, the sion age. You do not need to let us know that you Netherlands, or send an email to Aanspraak.wvo@ will start receiving an AOW pension. Our letter will svb.nl, and we will send you a free copy as long as explain the change in your benefit in further detail. we have it in stock. The purpose of the form is to gather information on your future income. If your income changes before I live outside the Netherlands, and I have heard that time, or if you stop receiving income, please let that the Dutch state railway company (NS) is going us know immediately. This will prevent you being pay compensation to people who were transported underpaid or having to repay an overpayment. to camps by train in the war. Do you know how I can get more information on this? Can I submit a benefit claim by myself, without You can find more information in Dutch and English having to ask someone else? on the procedure and qualifying conditions for claim- Yes, you can claim a benefit yourself by sending ing personal compensation from the NS on website us a note stating what benefit you wish to claim. https://commissietegemoetkomingns.nl.

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