- Dress Rehearsal
Dress Rehearsal: Prior to the first group of internees being shipped out of Tjihapit for destinations unknown to themselves, the Japanese Camp Commandant needed to satisfy himself that no forbidden items such as books of any description remained in the possession of internees, and that the weight limit of luggage was not exceeded. Hence a dry run (or dress rehearsal) was organized.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hallo Boudewijn,
We started camplife in Bloemenkamp (Kemoeninglaan). We came from Poerwokerto in Mid-Java. Then we were moved to Tjihapit where we lived on the Bengawanlaan. Early December 1944 we were transported by train to Adek in Batavia, where my grandmother died on 13-12-44 from dysentery. A few months later we were
transported by open freight truck to Tjideng, where we also lived on Laan Trivelli, further down from the gate on the even side. I don’t remember the number but it was on the corner of the street that led to the Batanghari rice kitchen.
We lived in a corner of the frontroom. In each corner was a family of three and in between a single lady.
Luckily we lived in harmony which was not easy with one Jewish family, one German and one NSB and we as Catholics!! The single lady we only saw at night.
I’ll tell you more later.
Rita
Hi Boudewijn,
I told you that my grandmother died in Adek camp. We were allowed to accompany her to the cemetry the following day. At the same time was the burial of a small boy. His mother and 2 brothers also came with us. In a black car with the 2 coffins between us. My mother my sister and I on one side and the mother and her 2 boys at the other. The 2 little boys were quite excited and screamed for joy at all the exciting sights. Their mother was crying and said, boys your brother is dead, but they couldn’t contain themselves. My sister and I also enjoyed the drive, but we were older and kept silent.
I remember the long walk from the entrance of the cemetry to the burial site in the hot midday sun. We had a kind Jap who accompanied us and he allowed the 2 women to buy some fruit and sweets at a stall at the entrance of the cemetry. My mother gave him some of it.
At the entrance of the camp my mother had to hide her “shoppings’ beneath her skirt.
In the barrack where we lived my mother shared some of it with her friends and our next neighbours.
In Tjideng the bodies were loaded on the open truck that brought in the bread, so we were lucky that my grandmother had some sort of dignified burial.
After the war she was reburied at the womens’ “Ereveld” Kalibanteng in Semarang.
Kind regards,
Rita