ADEK prison camp

ADEK prison camp  consisted of an extensive complex of barracks  in the southern outskirts of Batavia , used before the war by Algemeen Deli Emigratie Kantoor) to temporarily house contract labourers and their families en route to the large plantations in mid Sumatra.

ADEK prison camp for POWs

After the Japanese conquest it was immediately put to use storing Prisoners of war prior to shipment to various slave labour camps such as the Burma  Railway and  mines in Japan. It was fenced off from view by a woven bamboo wall and decorated with barbed wire.

ADEK prison camp for Women and Children

As of August 1944 the men were replaced by women and children, initially from Bandung Tjihapit camp, by which time Sonei Kenichi had become the Japanese camp commandant .

By November,1944 its population had increased to 2200 and afterwards Sonei  moved various groups of women and children in and out to other camps under his control. A list of names of internees  found here by the end of the  war has been preserved.

Life in ADEK  Prison Camp for women and children

Elly Campioni’s memoir contains a description of her life in this camp between 25 March 1945 and the end of the war. On that day arrived from Tangerang, the prison for young offenders along  with fellow internees. She was struck my the poor atmosphere among the internees .