It was busy again at the monument for those who fell in Den Helder. Today the city commemorates 80 years of capitulation of Japan and the liberation of the Dutch East Indies. The emphasis during the commemoration is on the ‘Indian silence’ about the horrors of the war and dare not ask questions: “It would remind my father of the camp. I didn’t want that.”
Slowly the five jump is full; The roundabout in the middle of the city where the monument was standing for those who fell. Many dozens of former soldiers, war victims and children and grandchildren of parents who have experienced the war in the Dutch East Indies and Japan.
‘My father has experienced the atomic bomb’
“My father worked in a factory in Japan. He has experienced the atomic bomb. It fell one and a half kilometers from the camp,” says Roel Lapré. He is for the first time at the commemoration in Den Helder. His life was signed by the past of his father. “He was later with the Dutch-Indian Army. He was very strict with us. This is very emotional for me.”
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Den Helder has a fairly large Indian community. This is also partly due to the navy that is located in the city. As a result, this memorial there is also every year, in addition to the commemoration in The Hague. For Karen Roelema Robertus of the Foundation 15 August Den Helder, the question is who will soon be able to tell the stories of the war victims.
My question brings him back to the camp
Boelema: “My father was in a camp. I felt the pain and sorrow. The moment I would ask my father a question, I brought him back to the camp. I didn’t want that.” That applies to many children of the so -called ‘second generation’, she adds.
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Andy Swerissen is also part of that generation. Only flat the death of his father in 2023 did stories about the stroke above water. “His last days must have been hell for him. I didn’t get much of it in my younger years. We were in the Netherlands and had to adjust. That has signed me; Staying modest has taught me, but then the questions come.”
‘Let’s break the silence’
“I have not experienced the silence with which my parents grew up,” says Adelborst Maarten Swart in his speech. He is looking for a connection, “even though his answers is not always available or takes a lot of effort to find the right words.” Swart also calls on silence to break.
A silent hope from Karen Boelema Robert is that those questions about the war history in the Dutch East Indies and Japan are now coming from the ‘third generation’. “They have not experienced the silence of their grandparents so penetratingly, they do dare to ask questions. Our children do that too. That is the case if they do.”