Aanspraak - Selma van de Perre-Velleman: 'I was determined to help the resistance in any way I could.' - SVB
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Aanspraak
June 2020
Afdeling Verzetsdeelnemers en Oorlogsgetroffenen
Foto: Chris van Houts
Selma van de Perre-Velleman: ‘I was determined
to help the resistance in any way I could.’
Contents
Page 4
Speaking for your benefit.
Page 5-6
Speech by King Willem-Alexander,
National Remembrance Day, 4 May 2020.
Page 7-10
‘I was determined to help the resistance
in any way I could.’ The Jewish resistance fighter
Selma Velleman kept her true identity hidden,
even from her friends.
Page 11-14
‘An ode to my mother.’ Concert singer
Ank Reinders spent part of her teenage years in
a Japanese internment camp with her mother.
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 2
Page 15-18
Stories of Liberation.
Food drops at Ypenburg, May 1945.
Photo: Beeldbank Rijswijk.
Page 19
Questions and answers.
No rights may be derived from this text.
Translation: SVB, Amstelveen.
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 3
Speaking for
your benefit
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of Many gatherings and commemorations celebrating
the Second World War, which was to be highlighted our ‘75 years of freedom’ have unfortunately had
in the annual commemorations and celebrations. to be cancelled. For instance, the Liberation Day
However, in the very year in which we were supposed celebrations have been postponed until 2021.
to be celebrating ‘75 years of freedom’, measures In this issue, however, we would like to reflect on
restricting our freedom of movement have had to the unfreedom people experienced in the war, and
be implemented in order to prevent the spreading on the Liberation of Europe. On 4 May 2020, King
of the coronavirus. As a result, we have not been Willem-Alexander was the first Royal head of state
able to celebrate our freedom in the way we would ever to give a National Remembrance Day speech,
have liked to. at an empty Dam square. His speech is featured
in this issue of Aanspraak.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has had a major
impact on people the world over. On the one hand, The Sociale Verzekeringsbank’s offices have been
the virus is a manifestation of the drawbacks of closed since mid-March 2020, but despite this we
globalisation; on the other, it has inspired people have continued to provide the majority of our
to engage in a positive way and join forces to find services, thanks to our staff being able to work from
solutions for this humanitarian disaster. Government home. You therefore need not worry, as your pay-
and religious leaders are appealing to everyone ments will simply continue. You will receive your
to stay at home as much as they can. As a result, AOW old age pension and your war victim’s or former
squares, streets, schools, churches, other places resistance member’s pension as normal. Please feel
of worship, and supermarket shelves are empty. free to email any questions you may have to
We have been advised to maintain a distance of info.wvo@svb.nl. If you would like to speak to us
1.5 metres from one another and wash our over the telephone, please fill in your name and
hands thoroughly. telephone number on our website and we’ll call you
back. You can also send us a letter or contact us by
We realise that those of our clients who are victims email. We will continue to support you through our
of war and former members of the resistance are implementation of the statutory financial support
already vulnerable – not only on account of their schemes for former resistance members and victims
age, but also because of their underlying suffering of the Second World War.
from the war. We have observed that those clients
are running a considerable risk and that they are We wish you and your loved ones good luck and
unfortunately suffering greater social isolation than good health.
before. Some of you have already told members of
our staff that the empty streets remind you of the
war, and that the constant fear and panic-buying are
all too familiar to you. Then there is the uncertainty
as to when this life-threatening situation that this Coen van de Louw
invisible virus has created will end. Member of the SVB Board of Directors
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 4Speech by King Willem-Alexander,
National Remembrance Day, 4 May 2020
During National Remembrance Day on 4 May 2020, He recounted how soldiers had snatched the
victims of war were commemorated at an empty watches from people’s wrists when they arrived, and
Dam Square in Amsterdam. Due to the measures about how he lost his wife, Rachel, in the chaos.
to combat the coronavirus, only a handful of people
were allowed to attend. The National 4 and 5 May He would never see his wife again. ‘How could
Committee appealed to everyone to commemorate any sane person have orchestrated this?’ How
the war victims from their homes – together in could the world allow us, upstanding citizens of the
unity, with their own individual memories and Netherlands, to be treated in this way?’ His question
thoughts. This was the first time the head of state echoed between the pillars of the church. I had
had spoken during National Remembrance Day. no answer, and I still don’t.
You can read King Willem-Alexander’s speech from
this special commemoration below: Something else I remember is his account of what
happened prior to the transport. Following a razzia,
It feels strange to be standing on an almost empty he and his wife were transported to Muiderpoort
Dam Square. But I know you are all sharing the station together with hundreds of others. I can still hear
experience and standing with me in spirit on this his words: ‘Hundreds of bystanders looked on without
National Remembrance Day. Over these past few protesting in any way whatsoever as the packed trams,
extraordinary months, we have all had to give up under heavy guard, drove past them.’ Across this city.
part of our freedom. Our country has not seen Across this country. Before the eyes of compatriots.
anything like this since the war. Now, we are making The change had seemed so gradual. Each time, they
a choice ourselves for the good of our lives and took things a step further. Banning us from swimming
health. In the war, the choices were made for us by pools. Banning us from playing in orchestras. Banning
an occupier with a merciless ideology that led to us from cycling. Banning us from studying. Turfing
the deaths of many millions of people. How did the us out of our homes. Arresting us and transporting
antithesis of freedom feel? us to concentration camps. Sobibor started in the
Vondelpark with a sign reading ‘Jews not allowed’.
There is one testimony I will never forget. It was here Of course, many protested. Men and women who
in Amsterdam, in the Western Church, almost six took action and made a stand by displaying moral
years ago. A small man with bright eyes – standing courage and jeopardising their own safety for others.
proudly upright at 93 years of age – told us the I also think of all the citizens and soldiers who fought
story of his journey to Sobibor, in June 1943. His for our freedom. Of the young soldiers who were
name was Jules Schelvis. There he stood, fragile killed in action on the Grebbe Line during the fighting
but unbroken, in a full church where you could in May 1940. The soldiers who served our kingdom
have heard a pin drop. He spoke about how he was in the Dutch East Indies at the cost of their lives. The
transported in a cattle wagon together with 62 others. members of the resistance who were executed by firing
About the bucket on the bare floor. About the rain squad on the Waalsdorpervlakte and those who were
that spattered through the ventilation slits. About treated inhumanely in labour camps or concentration
the hunger, the exhaustion, the filth. ‘You ended up camps. The soldiers who never returned from peace
looking like a wretch’, he said, and you could hear in missions or were severely wounded. Real heroes who
his voice how terrible that had made him feel. were prepared to die for our freedom and our values.
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 5But there’s also the other reality. Fellow human Jules Schelvis went through hell but still managed to
beings, fellow citizens in need, felt abandoned, make something of his life as a free man, and much
insufficiently heard, insufficiently supported, even more. ‘I retained my faith in human nature’, he said.
if only with words. Even from London, even by my If he could do it, then we all can. We can do it, and
great-grandmother, as unshakeable and fierce in we’re doing it together – in freedom.
her resistance as she was. It’s something that never
leaves me. War affects generation upon generation.
Now, 75 years after our liberation, the war is still part
of us. The very least we can do is not look away.
Not justify it. Not erase it. Not seclude it. Not make
something that isn’t normal, ‘normal’. And embrace
and protect our free, democratic rule of law. Because
it’s our only protection against arbitrariness and Source: Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst
madness. Photo: Ilvy Njiokiktjien
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 6‘I was determined
to help the resistance
in any way I could.’
The Jewish resistance fighter Selma Velleman kept her true identity hidden,
even from her friends.
Selma van de Perre-Velleman, who has both Dutch War
and British nationality, currently lives in London. ‘Shortly before the war started, David’s brigade was
Her involvement with the Dutch resistance started mobilised in Middelburg. Louis would spend the
when she tried to find a place for her Jewish whole war working as first lieutenant on a merchant
mother and sister to go into hiding. Her father had ship, but at that time his ship was still moored on
already been transported to Camp Westerbork. the IJ water near Amsterdam. On 10 May 1940, at
‘I was determined to help the resistance in any way 5 o’clock in the morning, we were woken by Louis
I could. I operated as a courier, under a variety of shouting “We’re at war!” On the radio, we heard
false names, delivering food coupons, documents that the German army had invaded the Netherlands.
and packages all over the Netherlands.’ Louis had to be back at his ship that morning at 6.
We waved him off, worried for his safety. David’s
Thanks to her non-Jewish appearance, she brigade fought the Germans for four days. When the
managed to stay out of the hands of the Germans Dutch army surrendered on 14 May 1940, his brigade
for most of the war. It wasn’t until after it ended was ordered to retreat through Belgium and France
that she dared to give her real name again. This and make their way to England. At home, we were
is reflected in the title of her biography, published more worried about my brothers than about us. For
in January 2020: “My name is Selma.” all we knew, they could have been captured. I failed
my final school exam, but fortunately passed the
Do you want to play with my ball? national exam. I got my high school certificate later,
‘My father, Barend Velleman, was an actor, singer in 1941. I took shorthand and typing lessons and
and presenter in Amsterdam. My mother’s name was hoped to get a job as a secretary at the Bijenkorf
Femmetje Velleman-Spier. I was born in Amsterdam department store.’
on 7 June 1922, after my brothers, David and Louis.
My sister Clara was born six years later. I always slept Greet stayed loyal to us
in the same room as my sister, and we were very ‘The Germans started introducing measures
close. We had a warm and very liberal upbringing, to isolate Jewish people from the rest of the
and it made no difference that we were Jewish population. Towards the end of 1940, all Jewish civil
before the war. When I was ten, a little girl who servants were deprived of their jobs, including the
lived over the road from us asked me if I wanted to Jewish owners and employees of the Bijenkorf. My
play with her ball. That was how I met my dearest father found me work as an assistant bookkeeper
friend, Greet Brinkhuis. Before the war I went to the and model for a fashion house in Amsterdam. In
Dutch equivalent of junior high school. I particularly 1941, the Germans set up the Jewish Council with
enjoyed the language classes and in the summer its own newspaper, “The Jewish Weekly”, which not
of 1939, we went on a school trip to England. My only reported on cultural matters but also published
mother knitted me a blue cardigan with a zip for all the anti-Jewish measures. Jews and non-Jews
the occasion. I didn’t know then how valuable this were no longer allowed to visit each other. My father
cardigan would be to me in Camp Ravensbrück.’ said, “The only person who will still come and see
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 7us faithfully is Greet.” He was right; Greet stayed Haarlem. I was determined to help the resistance in
loyal to us. On 3 May 1942, father came home with any way I could. Under the name Wil Buter, I acted
the yellow stars that we were forced to wear on as courier for the doctors’ resistance group at Leiden
our coats. I always held my bag in front of mine in hospital, distributing food vouchers, resistance
the street. I didn’t look Jewish, and no one in our newspapers and false documents.’
neighbourhood knew I was. That is what saved me.’
Betrayed
Requests for chocolates ‘I was later given the name of a baby who had
‘On 7 June 1942, I was ordered to report for labour died, Margareta (Marga) van der Kuit, and I dyed
camp. It was my twentieth birthday. Father gave my hair blond. I joined the Second Distribution
me a chocolate laxative and called the doctor, Group, an action group that worked together with
who reported that I had blood in my stool. This the non-conformist Westerweel group and the L.O.
meant I was officially given a few extra days of sick (Landelijke Organisatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers).
leave. After that, I tried unsuccessfully to stave off On one job, I was sent to Paris where there was such
going with the transport by borrowing a nurse’s an incredible lack of security I was able to casually
uniform. Then, at the last minute, I managed to exchange papers with a man at Nazi headquarters.
get a job in a fur factory making winter clothing for In the Netherlands, I had to travel all over the country
the German military. When my father was called so we decided it would be safer if I was based
up for a labour camp in the province of Drenthe, centrally. I moved to the city of Utrecht where I worked
he left money for us with Ms Jongeneel, David’s with two young men, Bob and Jan. On 18 June
landlady in Middelburg. I was also pleased to 1944, the Gestapo carried out a house search where
find that he had left his Waterman fountain pen Bob lived. Earlier that same day, Jan had taken my
somewhere else where I could collect it. Every so bookshelves with secret compartments round to
often, I got a request to send him chocolates at Bob’s room. We were unlucky; the Gestapo found
Camp Westerbork. I knew he didn’t like chocolates Bob’s gun and Jan and I were also arrested.’
but I always sent them as quickly as I could, as he
gave them to the nurses to keep him from being ‘In Utrecht prison, my belongings were confiscated
deported. I used the money he left to pay for my by a female Dutch security guard, who was a bit
mother and Clara to go into hiding in Eindhoven. older. She suddenly asked me if I had a diary and
The last time I saw my mother and sister was when when I said yes, she told me to shred it in the toilet.
I went there to hand over the money. In July 1943, I said, “But there’s nothing in it,” and she said,
they were both arrested and murdered in Sobibor.’ “They always find something!” At the Sicherheits-
dienst in the Euterpestraat in Amsterdam, I was
In hiding interrogated for days by the SS head in the provinces
‘As I was walking to work one day, I felt unwell of North Holland and Utrecht called Willy Lages.
so I turned back and went home. That same day, He didn’t believe that I just happened to be visiting
everyone at the fur factory was arrested. I was able Bob at the time. I was afraid of going to sleep in my
to go into hiding, but only as long as I had money cell in case I started dreaming and gave my name
to pay for it. At one house, the mother of a friend away by accident. In the end I was sentenced to
of mine soon made it clear that they had too many ‘Kriegsdauer’, imprisonment for the duration of the
mouths to feed, so I gave them the food supplies war. I was sent as a political prisoner to Camp Vught
that my father had left. A couple of days later, they in the Netherlands.’
sent me away. In my naivety I even asked her mother
“But what about all out food?” She lied and said Camp Vught
it was all finished. I was suddenly left to fend for ‘As soon as we arrived at Camp Vught, we had to
myself. In roundabout fashion, I was eventually taken take a bath and my cardigan and fountain pen were
in by a doctor called Antje Holthuis who lived on confiscated. We were given blue overalls and made
the Oude Singel in Leiden. Through her, I became to stand at roll call early each morning. I was in the
involved with a resistance group in Leiden and women’s group that worked in a factory in
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 8Den Bosch, making gas masks for the Germans. good at soldering, but if the telephone rang I would
On 6 September 1944, after the allied invasion, answer it as that was the kind of work I was used to.
we were transferred by train to the camp at Eventually, the production team leader, Herr Seefeld,
Ravensbrück. I scribbled a message for my friend asked me to be his secretary. He told me later that
Greet Brinkhuis on a piece of toilet paper and threw I reminded him of his daughter.’
it onto the platform through a crack in the train.
I wrote her name in German so it had more chance ‘One day, I was so exhausted I fell asleep in his office
of getting through. It said, “Dear Gretchen, Stay and the head Aufseherin found me. That could have
strong, like me! I’m in a train to Ravensbrück.” been the end of me, but Herr Seefeld stopped her
It was delivered to her in an envelope. She kept from punishing me. A lot of people in Ravensbrück
it for a long time, and ten years ago, when she died of hunger as all we got to eat was one piece
moved house, she came across it again.’ of bread for breakfast and some watery soup. I was
so cold, I swapped a week’s bread ration for a pair
Camp Ravensbrück of men’s long johns. Another prisoner, a Czech
‘Ravensbrück was a large concentration camp for woman called Valy Novotna, took pity on me and got
political prisoners eighty-five kilometers north-east me some warm clothing and a piece of bread and
of Berlin. We arrived there on 8 September 1944, onion. She said, “You must never give up, always
after two days in a cattle wagon. On the platform, we think of something positive!” Thanks to her, I tried
heard yells of “Raus, raus!” and dogs barking loudly. recalling lines of poetry. I was absolutely determined
The dogs were dressed in the same grey coats and to survive.’
SS badges as their bosses. After the obligatory cold
showers and delousing, we were given a grey-striped Liberated
prisoner’s dress with a white cross on the back. ‘Early in the morning of 14 April 1945, the Dutch
On my left sleeve I had a red triangle for a political and Belgian women from the Siemens camp were
prisoner, and the number 66947. I discovered that ordered to get into line and SS officers marched
a number of the resistance women I had known in us back to the Ravensbrück base camp. The older
Camp Vught had also been brought there, and one women who had been taken back earlier had already
of them had smuggled in my blue cardigan and gone to the gas chamber. We were afraid we’d suffer
my father’s fountain pen in a thermometer tube in the same fate, but the days passed and nothing
her bag. That meant so much to me; it gave me happened. On 23 April, there were only 190 of us
something to hold on to. There was still no one who left from the Siemens camp when a sports car drew
knew that I was Jewish because I had kept my name up by the camp gates and a friend of Sweden’s
a secret, even from my friends. I always worried Count Folke Bernadotte got out and declared they
that I would betray myself in my sleep.’ were planning to take us to Sweden. He said the
Swedish Red Cross would send white busses to pick
That Dutch girl’s still alive us up. We waited ages, but they didn’t arrive yet for
‘One day I was late for roll call because I was stuck my group. In the end they sent three military trucks
on the toilet with terrible diarrhea. When I got there, that didn’t have enough room for all of us. I wanted
an SS officer took his belt and beat me until I lost the best seat, next to the driver, but I had to fight
consciousness. Two of my friends from the resistance a fellow prisoner for it and I lost. That truck went
carried me to the hospital barracks. The next day, without me, but later that afternoon, it got hit in an
I remember hearing one of the nurses saying in allied bombing raid. Everyone who was sitting in the
amazement, “The Dutch girl’s still alive, I didn’t think front was killed.’
she’d last the night.” Four days later, I was put back
to work, but I was still too weak for forced labour. Shelter in Sweden
A girl from the Philips factory from Camp Vught who ‘Our clothing was riddled with lice so in Sweden,
was already working for Siemens said I should join they took everything away and burned it, including
the column headed for the Siemens factory, where my mother’s knitted cardigan and my father’s
the work was lighter. Unfortunately, I wasn’t much fountain pen. It made me cry. I thought of all the
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 9risks I had taken, and others too, and all for nothing. years later, when I lie awake, I say to myself “Selma,
We were given clean clothes, coats and shoes. The go to sleep. Thinking about it cannot change what
next day we had to give our names to someone happened.” I keep thinking about what they must
from a Dutch delegation in Stockholm, because the have felt at the end, how afraid they must have been.‘
Netherlands was still occupied. The hope that my
brother David in London might see the list gave ‘In 1945, I started working as a secretary at the
me the courage to give my real name again for the Dutch Medical Service of the Ministry of Defence
first time. “My name is Selma Velleman,“ I said. in London. During the same period, I studied
Shortly after, I received a telegram, “So happy to anthropology and sociology and worked for eight
know you’re alive. And dad, mum, and Clara? years for the BBC World Service, where I met my
Love, David.”’ husband, the Belgian journalist Hugo van de Perre.
After I finished my studies, I became a maths teacher
‘On 5 May 1945, when the Dutch Consul came to at the Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith in
tell us that the Netherlands had been liberated, London. Hugo and I got married in 1955 and our son
we raised the Dutch flag and sang the national Jocelin was born. I carried on working as a teacher
anthem, the Wilhelmus. By that time, I had received until 1979, when my husband died. After that,
a letter from Louis in England. The Consul asked me I became a journalist and foreign correspondent
to help with the administration of former prisoners in for the Dutch current affairs programme AVRO/
Stockholm as a secretary. Greet wrote to me asking Televizier and the Dutch newspaper Het Vrije Volk.’
for help because they had nothing to live on, so I
sent her parcels of shoes and food. Eventually, ‘I still attend the annual wreath ceremony at the
I and the other Dutch women from Ravensbrück Ravensbrück monument on Museumplein in
who were fit enough were flown by the Dutch airline Amsterdam in mid-April. Since 1995, I always spend
KLM back to Schiphol airport. In Amsterdam I met the week after the ceremony in Ravensbrück itself,
up with Greet again for the first time. It was wonder- talking to Dutch student primary school teachers
ful to see her. We would go through the Red Cross about the war. In August, I go there again to talk to
lists together, which is how I found out that my German students. As future teachers, it’s important
mother and Clara had been taken straight to they hear these stories firsthand from a survivor
the death camp at Sobibor. I found my father’s so they can pass them on. It still amazes me when
name later on the Auschwitz list at the Institute for people start following a charismatic personality or
War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD) in idea en masse; I find it very worrying. In my talks,
Amsterdam.’ I always make a plea for tolerance. Don’t get into
verbal fights, because they often lead to war.
The emptiness on the streets was palpable It can’t be that difficult, surely.’
‘If I had gone back to living in Amsterdam, I could
never have led a normal life. So many of my friends
and family had been murdered, the emptiness on Interview: Ellen Lock
the streets was palpable. Even now, seventy-five Photo: Chris van Houts
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 10‘An ode to
my mother’
Concert singer Ank Reinders spent part of her teenage years
in a Japanese internment camp with her mother.
Ank Reinders (88) wants to share her wartime boat was also named after me. I enjoyed a carefree
experiences and the story of her mother, who childhood. All of the children from the neighbourhood
always protected her during their time in the were allowed to swim in our pool and play on the
Japanese internment camps in Solo and Muntilan, swing in our big garden. We already had electric
on Java. When the war ended, Ank and her mother lighting in every room of our house. When I was nine
stayed in the reception camps in Surabaya and years old, I started taking piano lessons, but I behaved
Singapore. From Singapore, they went to the mischievously towards the women who initially
Netherlands. A short time after the war, Ank’s taught me. This all changed when I started to take
mother, who was a nurse, returned to the Dutch lessons from a handsome young Indonesian pianist.
East Indies to treat wounded Dutch soldiers. I would look forward to his lessons, because, despite
being just nine years old at the time, I’d developed
Our own retirement home something of a crush on him. Thanks to him, I learnt
‘My father was Dick Reinders. My mother was called to read music well, which would later stand me in
Do van der Kallen. She was a nurse, and my father good stead in my singing career.’
held a senior management position in the Borneo
Sumatra Maatschappij, also known as the Borsumij, War
a Dutch trading company. After four years of ‘I was ten years old when war broke out in the
marriage, my mother fell pregnant because she Dutch East Indies on 7 December 1941 as a result
wanted a child. My father, however, didn’t want of the attack on the American naval base Pearl
to have children. This signalled the end of their Harbor. Following the attack, Queen Wilhelmina
marriage, but they separated amicably. My mother declared war against Japan on behalf of the Nether-
chose me over her marriage, and I was born on lands. The Japanese army promptly responded by
13 November 1931 in The Hague.’ occupying the Dutch East Indies. On 8 March 1942,
the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL)
‘After four months, my mother risked the return capitulated. I remember the small, khaki-clad
journey to Indonesia with me. My father rarely Japanese soldiers entering Lawang by bicycle,
visited. On one occasion, he turned up with a new playing deafeningly loud Japanese music written
car as a surprise gift for my mother, which she in very strange keys. Shortly after, my father was sent
promptly crashed. The story was published in the to the men’s camp in Tjimahi. We were given respite
Java-Bode newspaper at the time, with the headline on account of my mother running the retirement
“Sister Van der Kallen involved in car accident.” My home, until the Japanese turned up one day and
mother established a small retirement home in Lawang took all of the elderly residents to the Sumber
for women from the Netherlands and the Dutch East Porong mental asylum in Lawang. They also took
Indies, which she ran together with local staff.’ my beautiful angora cat.’
A carefree childhood in Lawang Camp Solo
‘Being an only child, I was always spoilt by my mother. ‘When I was twelve, my mother was ordered to report
Our home bore my nickname, “Ankepank”, and our to a Japanese post in Malang with me. We were
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 11allowed to bring one small suitcase of clothes each, main square in Solo. In November 1944, this camp
and my mother brought dried smoked meat with her. was extended when it was amalgamated with the
From Malang, we made the dreadful train journey to adjacent Camp Boemi, which had large sheds where
Camp Solo near Surakarta. It was boiling hot inside women were imprisoned with their children. It was
the packed train, but we weren’t allowed to open cooler there because there were more trees and it
the windows. For hours, we were unable to go to the was easier to walk around.’
toilet, so many adults and children eventually gave up
trying to wait. The stench was appalling. The camp Muntilan women’s camp
was housed in the Ziekenzorg hospital located on the ‘Together with my mother and a large number of
west side of the city of Surakarta.’ other women, I was moved from the packed Camp
Solo to the smaller Muntilan women’s camp in
‘When we arrived at the camp in late November 1943, Central Java, nearby Lake Rawa Pening. The camp
there were mostly women and children and elderly was housed in the buildings of the Xaverius College
men there. My mother and I slept together in of the Jesuit priests. The Japanese camp leaders
Block 13. Every morning, there was a roll call, and were housed in the main building, and there were
sometimes women would faint from standing in the various other buildings where the women were
heat for so long. My mother worked in the kitchens. imprisoned with their children. A river, the Kali
When I was struck down with jaundice, she was able Lamat, ran alongside the camp, but swimming in it
to steal some food from the kitchens for me. The was forbidden. There were two wells and squatting
food was taken to the barracks in tubs, where the toilets. Having to use a squatting toilet might seem
head of the barracks would divide the soup or the humiliating, but in retrospect a squatting toilet is
sago porridge between everyone. The women would hygienic because you don’t touch anything. With so
argue a lot about small differences in the portion many people living together in close quarters, there
sizes. I was responsible for delivering messages from was a high risk of catching dysentery.’
the main office to the kitchens and the hospital.
The Japanese word for someone who delivered ‘Because I was still growing when we were in the
messages was “denrei”.’ camp and my feet got bigger, my mother made
clogs for me from a plank of wood and a leather
Unexpected visit strap. There were women who lay next to us in our
‘One day, a number of cars carrying unfamiliar barracks I can still remember as clear as day. Here,
Japanese officers entered the camp. They came to we met people we knew from Lawang, including my
take Dutch teenage girls so they could use them friend Lineke and her mother, Mia Degens. During
as “comfort women”, which meant they would be roll call, we had to bow deeply and keep quiet. One
forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers. Sister girl, Emmy van Oosten, was beaten very hard during
Gezina Smid, a stocky woman who always wore a roll call and stumbled into our barracks covered in
khaki frock, was a member of the Salvation Army and blood. Everyone was deeply shocked and there was
our Dutch camp head. She spoke with the Japanese a long silence. In addition to delivering messages,
interpreter and said to the Japanese officers, “The I had to do gardening duties for the Japanese
only way you’ll be taking any girls from here is over together with Lineke and five other girls. We were
my dead body. If you do, I’ll contact your superior responsible for watering the corn plants, but as
officers.” That was the end of the matter, and not a soon as the cobs were ripe we were made to burn
single girl was taken.’ them. This was deliberate torture on the part of the
Japanese because we were starving.’
‘In Solo, I received lessons in mathematics from
aunt Bep, a friend of my mother’s. Using a piece of ‘My mother suffered a lot from headaches and
charcoal, she would write out the sums on a piece exhaustion, hunger and stress. She preferred not to
of tile. There were many contagious diseases, like risk indulging in “gedekken”, the prohibited activity
dysentery and beriberi, and on many occasions of bartering with the locals over the camp fence.
I saw dead bodies being transported from the Starving, my mother stole the rabbit of one of the
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 12hospital staff, which she slaughtered and boiled the ship’s hold, we needed to take a lift, but my
in a tin with water and salt. She shared this meal fit mother suddenly had a panic attack. She didn’t
for a king with me and two other women. When want to get into the lift under any circumstances
I found out we were to be liberated from Muntilan, and, petrified, she crawled into one of the rescue
I bartered my last pair of knickers for six duck eggs, boats. It was horrible to see her break down in that
which I ate in one go.’ way. In the end, my mother calmed down and went
up on deck with me. We sailed for three days and
Liberation the crew took good care of us. In open sea, we
‘In late August 1945, our Dutch camp head came were cast over to another ship like parcels with our
to inform us that Japan had capitulated. She said, baggage. A large net was stretched between the
“Ladies, we’re free!” We then stood on chairs and two ships in case anything went wrong. Aboard a
tried to sing the Dutch national anthem, but we British ship, we sailed to Singapore, where we were
couldn’t because everyone was crying. When the taken to Camp Wilhelmina, a large reception camp
first Australian came through the gates, the women for former prisoners of war and civilian internees.
screamed, “A man, a man!” The Australian soldiers We were given a place to sleep in a “goedang”,
advised us not to leave the camp because of the a small storage space housing two camp beds
violence being perpetrated against Dutch people with white sheets. Anything was better than the
by Indonesian freedom fighters. We could hear wooden camp beds. My mother used the sheets to
them shouting for freedom: “Merdeka, merdeka!” make a skirt, a pair of knickers and a plastron – an
The Japanese camp guards now had to protect us apron with an open back – for me. En route to the
against the freedom fighters.’ Netherlands, we had a layover in Ataka, Egypt, on
the Suez Canal, where we were all taken to a large
‘An aunt of Lineke’s, Mimi Degens, and her clothing warehouse and given a warm winter coat,
daughter, Mineke, went to stay with Chinese friends black leather shoes and check blankets. We alighted
in Malang, where they were reunited with her father in Rotterdam. Severely weakened, I was carried off
and her brother, Niek. Mineke later told me that on a stretcher and taken to my aunt Arnolda on
her father and her brother had been arrested and Loosduinsekade in The Hague by ambulance. She
that Niek had been poisoned in a Javanese prison. took keen interest my upbringing and immediately
My mother and I were taken from Muntilan to the enrolled me at the old Roman Catholic girls’
protection camp in Surabaya, where we were to stay grammar school in The Hague.’
and wait for further transportation by the British-
Indian Gurkhas. At the beginning of the war, my Discovered as a singing talent
mother had sewed some money into her khaki dress, ‘When I was in the camp, I had a thirst for
which now came in handy at the pasar [market]. She knowledge. Together with ten other children from
immediately bought some rice and pisangs [bananas] the Dutch East Indies, I was put in a bridging class,
for us, and I found a dog. One day, we were and we studied fanatically. I finished grammar school
approached by an Indonesian man on the gallery. in four years. I started reading French in Leiden, but
He was wearing a Maduran head scarf and said in when I joined the Collegium Musicum student choir
slow Malay that we needed to get ready because there, the conductor discovered that I could sing. I
we were to be taken to the harbour the following did a variety of vocal courses and became a classical
day. My mother and I were the last two to climb into singer. As a classical soprano, I gave concerts and
the army truck before it sped off. From the truck, we performed in operas for more than twenty-five years.
witnessed the freedom fighters attacking the next I lovingly gave private singing lessons to gifted
military convoy. We drove fast and were fortunate sopranos in Europe and North America and also
enough to arrive safely at the harbour.’ co-founded the Dutch Singing Teachers’ Association,
spending a decade as its vice chairwoman. Since the
En route to the Netherlands 1990s, I have been writing books and articles on the
‘The trucks drove straight onto the ship with us art of singing. I wrote the vocal textbook “Atlas van
still inside. In order to get to the upper decks from de Zangkunst” [Atlas of the Art of Singing] (1993).
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 13My last publications were the book “Nannerl Mozart, the Batavian neighbourhood Meester Cornelis, they
de zus van een genie” [Nannerl Mozart, the Sister set up a nursing home for wounded and recovering
of a Genius] (2010) and the book “Castraten. Hun Dutch soldiers. My mother told me that when the
opkomst, glorie en ondergang” [Castrates. Their soldiers in the home were given the opportunity to
Rise, Glory & Fall] (2012).’ greet their parents in the Netherlands on the radio,
they cried more than they spoke. I recently tidied
They cried more than they spoke away the letters the young men gave to my mother
‘In March 1946, shortly after my mother had sent me upon leaving the home when they’d recovered.
to live with her great-aunt Arnolda in The Hague, Reading the stories about my mother filled me
the International Red Cross approached registered with admiration. My wartime story is an ode to my
nurses and other medical professionals. They asked mother, thanks to whose good care I and many
my mother to set up a convalescent home in Batavia. others survived the war. I struggled at times with her
My mother enlisted the help of her younger sister, not being around but, all things considered, I now
and together they – Sister Van der Kallen and realise how brave she was!’
Sister Pachter – spent almost three years doing this
difficult work. My mother and aunt flew to Java with
the first group of nurses by military aeroplane. In Interview: Ellen Lock
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 14Stories of
Liberation
officially declared a war monument by the National
Committee for 4 and 5 May during a ceremony
last year. My grandson Sam Frits Jelle thanked
the school, whereupon my other grandson, Seb,
asked, ‘Why aren’t I called Jelle?’
Photo: Beeldbank Rijswijk
— Frits Barend
Seven years old in 1942,
ten years old in 1945
Three months after we and another family had
moved into a small house together in the Rijpwijk
neighbourhood of the Tjihapit camp, a beautiful,
Food drops at Ypenburg, May 1945. shiny black car pulled up outside. Two Japanese
officers got out and asked for Ms Van Galen...
An ode to Jelle and Jeltje de Vries They came inside and sat at the dining table we
The name Oudega is like music to our ears. For us, shared with the other family, and one of them said,
there’s no better place than the small Frisian village ‘Ms Van Galen, your husband is to be executed by
with a population of less than three hundred. It’s firing squad tomorrow. If you wish, you may write
thanks to the Frisian farming couple Jelle and Jeltje him a final letter.’
de Vries from ‘Aldega’ [Frisian for Oudega] that
we’re still here. My mother wrote her letter, and they then left.
In late 1943, they bravely decided to hide a Jewish We were in disbelief, but in the back of our minds
family who were on the run – my parents and my we thought, ‘Can it really be true?’ My father was
then-one-year-old brother, Awraham Philip Barend. a political prisoner and was being held in a cell at
That ‘lytse’ (little) Jewish boy soon started to go by Sukamiskin prison.
the name of Bertje de Vries. I was born Frits Jelle in
1947. My brother’s first daughter was given Jeltje as After 15 August 1945, the Red Cross sent us a
a middle name, and later my eldest grandson was card stating that Mr Van Galen had died during the
named Jelle. occupation. No details. When that card arrived, we
believed it was true. By that time, we were at Camp
Two years ago, my brother and I were invited to the Kramat, while my brother was at Camp Tjimahi.
local primary school, De Fluessen, to tell the children A couple of days later, we found out that this card
the important role their village had played in our had been intended for a different Ms Van Galen,
lives – that they should be proud that, although the who lived in another street. You can imagine our how
whole of Oudega knew that Jelle and Jeltje were elated we were. ‘Joy’ is too weak a word for it. Three
hiding three Jews, no one was tempted by the 7,50 months later, we were reunited with my father and
guilders they could have got for betraying one of us. my brother, who had already found my father.
The pupils and teachers wanted to do more, and
decided to adopt Jelle and Jeltje de Vries’s My father passed away at the age of ninety-six.
grave. Thanks to the Fluessen, the grave was — Femke Young-van Galen
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 15Liberation story the people who’d been ‘shopping’. We presumed
My liberation story isn’t particularly special. I was there’d be a curfew, because everyone was heading
born on 20 July 1940, so I only really have memories back to the camps.
of the final year of the war, and in particular the
liberation. The first sign of hope came in the form In early September, a team of inspectors from the
of a low-flying aeroplane bearing orange triangles. Red Cross came to the camp, and it was rumoured
‘It’s one of ours!’ that there was a Swiss man among them. My mother,
more dead than alive, dragged herself to the road
The day the capitulation of Japan was announced, and called out to him. It had been three years,
I was amazed at the demeanour of the women, and he didn’t recognise her at first. When he did
in that they were beside themselves with joy but realise he knew her from before the war, he was
at the same time crying their eyes out. I couldn’t shocked, and asked her, ‘What can I do for you?’
understand how they could be happy but cry at the My mother replied, ‘Find someone to do the
same time. All of a sudden, other flags than the washing for us!’ My mother and the youngest of my
hateful red ball started to appear. These flags were siblings were suffering from dysentery and needed
red, white and blue – much more beautiful! clean clothes daily. The washing lady came once a
day and my mother was given vitamin B12 injections;
Apparently, the women had cut them into strips she survived! The food supplies also improved
during their internment and kept them until this considerably following this visit.
momentous day. They sang a beautiful song – the
Wilhelmus [the Dutch national anthem] – which I Pieter Jacobus Droog, a Dutch lieutenant-colonel
didn’t know at the time. Since then, the Wilhelmus from that same team, managed to secure a loan of
and our flag have held a very special meaning for 300,000 guilders from the Swiss government, which
me. It really infuriates me when someone hangs was to be repaid by the Dutch government. This
the flag out for days on end when their child has enabled him to buy fruit, eggs and rice, which he
graduated from high school, or when people fly distributed between the camps in the Semarang
the flag upside down as a form of protest, like region. In doing so, he managed to prevent mass
the farmers did. I also can’t understand why some deaths among 30,000 interned women and children.
people think the Wilhelmus is outdated.
— Jan de Vries For me, the liberation in 1945 marks the moment
when Alfred Hermann Ilg, the then-acting consul
Liberation in 1945 of Switzerland in Batavia, waved his hand and the
We’d been in camp 10 in Banyubiru since wall of shaven-headed Japanese soldiers that stood
11 August 1945. At the end of August, a Dakota flew shoulder-to-shoulder separated. We were then taken
over. There were two men standing in the doorway; by a chauffeur-driven car to a warship that took
we shouted to each other and they threw some us to Singapore, where my father was waiting.
orange and white pieces of paper out of the plane, This was 16/17 November 1945.
which floated down into the lake. I asked some local — Dieter van Schagen
fishermen to collect a few for me. The orange papers
bore a portrait of Queen Wilhelmina and the word The liberation of Breda
‘liberated’, while the white papers read ‘remain in This was a very emotional period for my mother,
the camp for your safety.’ my sister and I. In 1944, the Red Cross informed
us by telephone that my father would probably
Nothing changed; the Japanese remained cruel. not survive his internment due to a head infection.
One day, my younger brother and I crawled out He had been arrested in 1943 and, as a soldier, was
under the ‘gedek’ – the camp fence – through a transported to a German prisoner-of-war camp. On
sewer pipe. We could see a pasar [market] at the 29 October 1944, the Polish Sherman tanks and Bren
crossroads; we saw the colours and smelt the aroma Carriers drove into Molengrachtschestraat in Breda.
of the spices and the various fruits, and watched all We were now able to leave our shelter, whereupon
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 16we noticed our roof had been damaged by a mortar Liberation is imminent
grenade. I’d slipped through the eye of the needle After almost two years in hiding in a tiny house in
because my bed had been peppered with shrapnel! the region of De Peel in the province of Brabant,
Our house was also set up as an ‘officer’s mess’, my father was sure that our liberators were near
and two Polish officers came to stay with us. and that we should all go and welcome them. I was
eleven at the time, and I told my father I thought
There was a unit of Polish fusiliers stationed nearby it was dangerous to venture so close to where the
our home, who were firing cannons at German fighting was. ‘You’re right,’ my father replied, ‘but
targets on the opposite side of Meuse River. everything we do is dangerous.’ He also said he
Because the First Polish Panzer Division was unable wanted to take the risk. ‘But I understand if you
to advance to the north, which was still occupied, want to stay here’, he said.
the Polish remained in Breda until the end of I wanted to go along, of course. It had been raining
February 1945. for days on end. We needed to walk through mud
to get to the hard road. Tree trunks had been laid
We were unable to celebrate the liberation of Breda across the worst parts, but if you slipped off one,
in style because my father hadn’t yet returned home. you’d fall right in the mud. The Allied tanks drove
As if by miracle, my father survived the war, and was very slowly, one after the other, in a long line, along
liberated from Kamp Stalag IV-B in Mühlberg an der the hard road, which they needed to stay on because
Elbe in April 1945 by the Russians. In early June 1945, in the mud they were sure to get stuck. When they
he suddenly appeared at the front door. Only then came to a standstill, my father jumped up on one of
could we celebrate the ‘Liberation of Breda’! the tanks and shouted, ‘Thank you! We have been
— Joop Peeters, Breda waiting for you a long time.’
— Max Amichai Heppner
Liberation
It’s August 1945. We’re interned at Camp Lampersari Liberated by the Russians
in Semarang. My mother is working. I’m five years I was five years old when, in April 1943, we were
old. Today, I walked to the other side of the camp. taken from our home. My mother was pregnant
I’ve never ventured this far before. Here, next to the at the time. We – a father, mother, sister and two
barbed wire, stands the Japanese guard tower – a brothers – were to report to Camp Westerbork.
tall, square structure. At the top, stands a Japanese My little brother, Baruch Nechemja, was born
soldier keeping lookout. We need to be wary of two months later and died after just three weeks.
them. They can alert the other Japanese, because Following his death, my mother managed to find the
they’ll give you a real beating if there’s something strength to breastfeed other babies.
they’re not happy about – like if you don’t bow
deeply enough to them. They’re not so likely to In January 1944, we were put on transport to Bergen
hit me, but if I do something wrong, they’ll hit my Belsen. The conditions there were appalling. People
mother. This is something I live in constant fear of. were being abused, losing their minds, walking around
I can now hear a droning sound. It’s getting louder. the camp naked, and there was perpetual hunger.
Everyone looks up. There are planes coming. They’re My mother gave what little food she got to us.
flying really low, right above us. I duck. I’m scared. At the beginning of April 1945, the Germans
Large packages fall from the aeroplanes. I think realised that they were going to lose the war. Our
they’re bombs. I wonder whether they’re trying to family was thrown into a cattle wagon. Two weeks
kill us, but women walk over to the packages and of roaming through Germany followed, fleeing from
start opening them. There’s food inside. Everyone the advancing Allies. At the end of April, we were
tries to grab something. It’s a mass of confusion. liberated by the Russians in Tröbitz, in the east of
I don’t understand what’s going on, and I’m alone. Germany. My mother had succumbed to hunger on
Where’s my mother? the train and was buried in a mass grave next to the
— Anne Marie van Goch railway tracks. Via Riesa and Leipzig, my father and
Aanspraak - June 2020 - 17us children eventually arrived in the Netherlands My father had been imprisoned since the Japanese
with a 40-degree fever and typhoid. invasion. We barely knew him – me in particular,
being the youngest. He was one of 6,500 prisoners
Suffering from tuberculosis, I didn’t return home who was forced to work on the Pekanbaru Railway in
until March 1946. Once my father was back in the Sumatra. On 19 September 1944, his boat, the Junyo
Netherlands with his children, he tried to rebuild Maru, came under attack from the British submarine
our life. We never talked about the war. The pain the Tradewind. Only 800 people survived, and our
was too great. A photo is all I have to remember father wasn’t one of them.
my mother by. I always carry it next to my heart.
And in my heart... In December 1945, we set sail on board the Nieuw
— Ies (Izak) Vorst Amsterdam. Because of an outbreak of measles on
the ship, there was nowhere we could moor. Mothers
Tjideng and the Red Barnet were forced to entrust their dead children to the sea.
We lived in Jakarta, where my father worked for Upon returning to Amsterdam in January 1946, we
the Twentsche Bank. In 1942, the Japanese came first stayed with family. The Danish aid organisation
and my mother disappeared to Tjideng internment Red Barnet (‘save the child’) arranged for us three
camp with three children, aged three, four and children to be sent to Denmark to recuperate. We
seven. She proved to be a strong woman who got stayed with loving foster parents on the island of
us through those dark years. As a three-year-old, Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. We’re still in contact
you don’t realise what’s happening, but you do store with the whole family and, fortunately, everyone
information. If something happens to you later in now speaks English. The moment the boat docks in
your life, you recognise the fear you felt back then. Bornholm, it feels like coming home. There may be
I learnt not to show emotion, because if a child cried others to whom this sounds sound familiar?
during roll call, its mother would be beaten. — Ruud van Meningen
Aanspraak - June 2019 - 18Questions
and answers
I have not received a request to send a life You have been reimbursing my expenses for
certificate to the Netherlands this year. psychotherapy. Due to the coronavirus rules in
Will my benefit be affected? Israel, I am temporarily unable to visit my therapist.
Due to worldwide measures to combat the spread Consequently, I have had some sessions online
of the coronavirus, the SVB has decided to postpone and by telephone. Can I claim reimbursement
sending life certificates at least until 1 October 2020. for these sessions as well?
The delay will not affect your benefit payments. This We understand that you need to continue your
also applies for clients who have not been able to therapy. Therefore, we will temporarily also reimburse
return their life certificates before the deadline due you for sessions by telephone or via Skype or
to the measures to stop the coronavirus. If necessary, FaceTime offered by your psychotherapist.
our V&O Department will contact you by telephone
or email before 1 October. Do the services of the SVB department for
former members of the resistance and victims
Will the temporary payments under the German of war continue in these difficult times?
Article 2 fund I am receiving as the widow of a Most of our clients will hardly have notice that
victim of persecution be deducted from my Wuv the SVB’s offices are temporarily closed. Our case
benefit for surviving partners? workers are now working from home and are able
No, payments received from the Jewish Claims to continue operations punctually and accurately.
Conference will not be deducted from Wuv benefits We can still be reached by email and post as usual.
for victims of persecution or their surviving partners. When telephoning the SVB, you can ask for a case
worker of the department for former members of
I am unable to send you the original invoices the resistance and victims of war. On our website
I received because the postal system in my country (www.svb.nl/wvo), you can also ask for someone
is temporarily disrupted. How can I still claim to call you back, and we will respond within two
reimbursement for my expenses? working days.
We are aware that the distribution and delivery
of post is problematic in many countries due to Please note that our number will not be shown on
measures to combat the coronavirus. If you have an your telephone’s display when we call you. Some
email account, you can send us a message about claims may be processed with some delay due to the
this. We will then provide you with access to a secure measures to stop the coronavirus, for example if we
email connection so that you can safely send a scan are unable to speak with one of our medical advisers,
or picture of your invoice together with the expenses or if we have to wait longer for information we need
claim form. After that, you will need to keep the from other institutions. If the decision on your claim
original invoice for one year, because we may ask for is delayed and we need to extend the processing
it later, when postal services are back to normal. period, we will let you know.
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