First night in camp

Donderdag 16 Maart 1944

Mijn lievelingen en ik hadden een slechte nacht - we hebben ons dapper gehouden - maar het is zoo zwaar, zoo ontzettend zwaar! Ik heb in een stuk door gebeden. God laat mij vergeten. Mijn huis - onze papieren zijn achter gebleven. Ons zilver, al ons linnen - alle mooie schilderijen - het is vreselijk. Alle kleren van mijn man en mijn arme jongens zijn weg! God geve ons vergetelheid, ik smeek om niets anders. Eerst moet ik los komen van alle bezit die wij moesten achterlaten. Het is nog te zwaar maar iedereen is zoo hartelijk voor ons dat het wel zal gaan.

Thursday 16 March 1944

My darlings and I had a bad night - we kept up a brave face - but it is so difficult, so very difficult. I prayed constantly. God, let me forget. My home - our documents were left behind. Our silver, all our linen - all our beautiful paintings - it is terrible. All my husband's and my boys' clothes are gone! God give us forgetfulness, I beg for nothing else. First I must detach my self from all possessions we had to leave behind. It is still too hard but everyone is so caring to us that we will manage.

Comments

Daily life in Camp

Maandag 20 Maart Zoo alleen alles hebben moeten doen - arme schatten. Waarom moet toch alles zoo gebeuren. God willd het zeker zo heben. heeft hij mij die schrik willen besparen - of willde hij dat ik alles zoude verliezen dat waarde heeft b.v. alle waardevolle papieren die de meisjes vergeten hebben!!? En al mijn prachtige handwerken en al mijn silver. Monday 20 March To have had to do everything alone - my poor darlings. Why is this happening. God must have wanted it this way. Did he want to spare me the shock - or did he want me to lose everything of value e.g. all the important documents the girls forgot to bring. And all my beautiful handcrafts and all my silver. Dinsdag 21 Maart We beginnen de menschen te leren kennen - wij merken dat er een stroming is tegen de duitsche vrouwen!! Het raakt me niet en ik maak geen papier vuil met al de gesprekken over dat onderwerp!! Ik leerde echter heel wat aardige vrouwen kennen die ook voor een mof wat voelen! Er is hier wel

About this blog

I have created this blog to read and communicate to my family members the content of the diaries, notes, letters and other writings I have from my grandmother Meta Peelen-Reith. Meta lived in the first half of the 20th century and experienced two world wars. The last one killed her when she succumbed to the effects of the malnutrition and dysentery she endured in the Japanese Concentration Camp on Java that she was interned in in 1944. She died on 25th August 1945, ten days after Japan surrendered. Meta kept a diary in those camp days, using a school exercise book. She took a great risk to keep this diary, because paper and pencil was forbidden by the Japanese camp guards and punishment was brutal for those who transgressed this rule. The diary is written in Dutch in pencil, and overwritten in ink later, it seems, and it is sometimes difficult to read, because the writing is faded and smudged in places. As I go through the diary I'll provide both the Dutch original t

Her last portrait

I've been sorting family photos and documents and found this pencil drawing of Meta done in 1944 in Camp Ambarawa. It might have been done soon after she arrived in the camp because she looks quite well, though thinner in the face than could be seen in earlier photos. The artist was Mrs D van den Palm. I wonder what happened to her. Perhaps she did not survive camp either. Meta Peelen-Reith passed away in Camp Ambarawa on 25th August 1945.

Diary by Meta Peelen-Reith about her time in camp Ambarawa.

Search This Blog