Fake History Hunter Profile picture
Aug 15, 2021 26 tweets 12 min read Read on X
On this day in 1945 a brave Danish Dutch diplomat drove his car into a Japanese concentration camp and saved my grandmothers and thus my life.
A thread.

It is August 15th 1945, my grandmother and her daughter (2 years old) are prisoners in Japanese concentration camp Lampersari.
When the Japanese invaded the Dutch Indies families were separated, men and women in separate camps, the situation there was atrocious.
Not enough food, terrible treatment and lots of abuse.
Not as bad as in most Nazi camps, but still inhumane and horrific.
You may have seen the film 'Empire of the Sun', made in 1987 by Steven Spielberg with Christian Bale.
Although not without its flaws it still has a few familiar scenes to the situation my family was in.

'Paradise Road' is a film with a similar theme you may have scene.
Once my grandmother was being severely beaten by a Japanese guard when my 2 year old aunt attacked the guard and bit him in the leg.
To everyone's surprise the guard didn't kill them but in stead stopped the beating and walked away.
My grandmother thought the guard was either impressed by the little girl's bravery or she reminded him of his child at home.
Either way the beating stopped, this time.

Although the Atomic bombs had already fallen by the 15th, things had barely changed.
My grandmother ended up in the camp hospital, she was very ill and she probably wouldn't last much longer.
The war was almost over, but still they weren't fed properly or looked after, the Japanese still ran the place as before and people were still dying.
Then the 15th came.
I quote from Anneke Bosman's diary, please note I share exactly how she wrote it back in 1945 after years of suffering Japanese oppression;

"An European drove into the camp in a small car. Later he turned out to be Danish. A Jap approached him and barked something at him.
The Dane answered something and was immediately slapped in the face.
But the guy was not born yesterday and smacked the Jap back in his face.
It was a delightful scene. He entered the office and left the flabbergasted Jap outside in the dust.
We were incredibly curious what would happen next, but everything remained quiet.
After a while though, all Hantijo”s ( Japanese block heads) were called together and then the big announcement was made:
“Yesterday at 4 o’clock in Geneve the Japanese capitulation has been signed!” Incredible joy and thankfulness resonated through the entire camp.
In the afternoon, a great quantity of both yellow and red candy was handed out throughout the camp.
People said it was a present from the Chinese. Very kind and very welcome!"

Can you imagine this scene?!
This mysterious diplomat had risked his life to make sure the people in the camp got liberated and their abuse stopped.
It wasn't the end of hell for my family though.
Some locals started attacking and killing European, Chinese and each other, it was called the Bersiap period.
After barely surviving the camp they had to be guarded from this violence, some of our family members didn't survive.
My grandmother, aunt and other prisoners in the Lampersari camp now had to be protected by their former camp guards but soon also by the much welcomed Sikh and Gurkha soldiers.
My aunt was first a little scared of these men but not for long.
To our family these men from far away countries who looked different and spoke languages we didn't know, soon became our heroes.
They came from very far to risk everything for us, not just fighting to liberate us but then guarding us from violence afterwards.
The sight of someone wearing a turban makes us smile to this day and we support Gurkha charities where we can.
Although of course we owe our lives to countless people from many different backgrounds, these were the faces my nan saw and never forgot, they're special to us.
The country where my grandmother was born and had grown up, where her friends lived, both native and Dutch, her home, the only place she knew, soon became impossible to stay in and our family returned to a cold and wet Holland.
They tried to make the best of their lives but it was difficult, they were in a different world and of course all also extremely traumatised.
And their fellow countrymen in the Netherlands had just experienced Nazi occupation, so there was little interest in my family's suffering
My uncle Dirk left for Australia to start a new life, or perhaps to escape his old one.
He would have Burma railway nightmares all his life.
I see the pain and trauma in the eyes of my gran and uncle Dirk in these photos.
I only met him once, he was a lovely gentle old man.
My grandmother had another 8 children, including my mother but life was difficult.
Sadly she died in the 1960s of cancer, never getting the chance to meet her has been one of the heartaches of my life.
The war scarred my grandparents, their children and even me.
BUT today we celebrate, we remember that on this day someone saved their lives.
And we owe it to all the Allied soldiers, people at the Allied homefront who did their bit and....
...that one crazy Danish diplomat who risked his life to slap a Japanese guard and tell them to stop being nasty to their prisoners because the war was over.
It took me a bit of research but I finally found out who this man was who I possibly owe my life to, (in)directly.
He was the Danish vice consul, a Dutchman by the name of Cornelis Dirk Van Vliet.
This thread was for him.
If you're related to him, get in touch.
I need his family to know how much he meant to the Dutch prisoners of camp Lampersari and that people owe him their lives.
PS; Here's a good website on Camps in the Dutch East Indies if you want to read more;
indischekamparchieven.nl

Another site (Dutch);
japanseburgerkampen.nl

And this is where I got a few of the illustrations from, you can find more there;
geheugen.delpher.nl/en/geheugen/re…
A bit on the Bersiap period;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersiap

And on the Japanese camps;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_…
Just adding this thread;


And this petition;


The Gurkhas deserve equal pensions, it's the least they deserve.

And while we're at it, the The Gurkha Welfare Trust is on Twitter; @gwtorg
Adding these great pictures;
A Gurkha swinging his khukri.
Recipients of the Victoria Cross, Gurkha, and Indian.
Gurkha & Sikh soldier inspecting a khukuri.

I wish I had an original 1940s Khukuri knife.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Fake History Hunter

Fake History Hunter Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @fakehistoryhunt

Jun 1
A few days ago I complained about a Guardian article using a bad photo from a film in an article about Joan Clarke, a Bletchley Park code breaker, but... something much worse might have happened...
I don't think this photo they used is of Joan... Image
@TeaKayB pointed this out to me and I was stunned, surely not, that would be extraordinary sloppy.
So I looked into it, of course. Image
For starters the image they used is flipped, here's the full picture as it should look: Image
Read 14 tweets
May 18
Game review!

I tried 'Aviators', a short game about the Polish air crews in the RAF during WW2.
A subject I care a lot about and I think deserves more attention.

Oh btw, the game is FREE on steam!
store.steampowered.com/app/2626910/Av…
Image
For starters, I love the illustrations & art of this game, the cut scenes are gorgeous, like graphic novels.
Image
Image
Read 25 tweets
May 11
Time to look at another photo album in my collection, a tiny one this time with one picture on each page, showing us the adventures of some Dutch girl scouts in the early 1930s. Image
Croenssen ? Winter '32.
No idea what that means. Image
Wolfhezen, Pentecost '33
"Awaiting the flag parade."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfheze
Image
Read 16 tweets
Apr 25
This Friday the game 'Manor Lord' is coming out, it's a medieval city builder that I've made a modest contribution to as a historical consultant and beta tester for.
I've been very excited about it for a long time and I'm not the only one, it's creating quite a buzz and has ended up on a lot of wishlists.
What I love about it most is that it tries to depict the middle ages in an accurate way, behind the scenes historians, experts & history addicts have been debating the tiniest details.
I think the result is one of the most historically accurate medieval games I've ever played.

#ManorlordsImage
So let's have a sneak peek at it shall we?

First, here's an official video:
Before you start you set up your profile and design your own family crest, look familiar?
This bit alone is SUCH fun, you can fiddle and play with this editor for ages till you get exactly what you want and then you'll see it on the banners in the game!
SUCH FUN! Image
Read 26 tweets
Apr 6
Sigh.
An account with half a million followers just tweeted that long debunked 'life in the 1500s' nonsense, 2.2 million people have seen it.
So here we go again...

These phrases are much more recent:
wordorigins.org/big-list-entri…
Image
Facts she says. Image
People washed, used soap, had regular baths and winter weddings were more popular back then, when there are few flowers but full store houses.


thoughtco.com/weddings-and-h…
fakehistoryhunter.net/2019/09/10/med…
Image
Read 14 tweets
Feb 14
Thread of some of the countless fun illustrations in this amazing medieval copy of 'Romance of Alexander'.
Full book here:


We start with this naked chap with nuns in a wheelbarrow.
Don't ask me what it means. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ae9f6c…
Image
Nuns & monks playing baseball?
Put everyone in a habit, that would make sports more interesting to watch. Image
Well that's no fun. Image
Read 77 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(