Netherlands 1924-1934

Shortly after arriving in the Netherlands, Geertruida gave birth to Johanna Paulina (“Jopie”) on January 20, 1924 in Velp, a town near Arnem, Netherlands. A photograph taken a few months later in Amsterdam in the spring shows a 2-year-old Hennie snuggled on her mother's lap with Jan standing nearby. This is the last known photograph of Hennie and Jan before their mother placed them in an orphanage in Amsterdam. It is unclear if Hennie's mother raised her infant daughter Jopie or her older daughter Mientje, or if they were also placed in the orphanage. From 1924-1927 there are few photographs or records of the family.

[Hennie and Jan with their mother in Amsterdam, c. May 1924]

It is unknown how Hennie's mother supported herself or what she did while her children were in the orphanage. She likely continued to live in Amsterdam, as there are two post-pregnancy photographs taken in the spring or summer of 1924 showing her wearing a sailor suit and paddling a rowboat on the banks of a shoreline.

[Geertruida in a rowboat, c. 1924 in Amsterdam]

After about one year, Hennie's mother returned to collect Hennie and Jan from the orphanage. She took them to live with her married half-sister, Tante To, who lived in Zeist, a town near Utrecht. Tante To and her husband, Oom Wim, operated a converted playhouse that was now a cinema. Hennie recalls that her aunt and uncle didn't want them, but that they took her and Jan in because she needed money. Hennie's mother again disappeared from their lives. Hennie and Jan would live with Tante To (“Aunt To”, probably Antonia) and Oom Wim (“Uncle Wim”, probably Willem) for the next nine years. It is while she was living with Tante To that Hennie says her childhood began.

Hennie's earliest memory of Zeist was meeting her grandfather. Oddly, he thought the best way to calm the despondent child would be to have her witness the preparation of a chicken for dinner, which included decapitating the flapping bird on a chopping block. More stunning than calming, Hennie never forgot the incident, even though she was only about 3 years old.

[Hennie reflects on being abandoned by her mother at an orphanage, later being raised by her mother's half-sister, Tante To, and a very memorable chicken dinner with her grandfather.]

In early 1927, Hennie's father returned to Holland for a visit. A series of pictures document a trip to Landvoort [Zandvoort], a popular seaside resort town on the west coast of Holland. Hennie's father, mother, brother, and half-sister Mimi (Mientje), as well as Hennie herself, are present in the photos. The photos were taken during cold weather, and Hennie and Mimi are wearing matching fake fur coats. Hennie is about 5 years old. Jan, age 7, appears unhappy and cold. Mimi is about 11-13 years old and looks angry and quite unhappy. Hennie's father appears stern and stiff. Only Hennie's mother smiles at the camera. It is likely that Hennie's father's return trip was occasioned by his pending divorce to her mother. On March 29, 1927, Geertruida and Jan II officially filed for divorce in Java.

[Photographs of Hennie, Jan, Mientje, Jan II, and Geertruida visiting the beach resort Zandvoort in Holland during cold weather, 1927]

Around the same time, Tante To and Oom Wim moved to the town of Eindhoven. It is likely that Geertruida also moved to Eindhoven at this time. It is unknown what became of Mientje, although she does appear in some photographs taken in Eindhoven. Hennie later wrote in her diary that no one in the family wanted her.

[Photograph of Jan walking with half-sister Mientje, c. 1930-1932. Photograph of Jan, Mientje, and a friend (Jan Veldkamp), probably taken in Eindhoven 1933.]

Tante To and Oom Wim moved the family to an apartment at Jan Luikenstraat 24, in the Schrijversbuurt neighborhood of Eindhoven.

[Photograph of Jan, his friend Jan Veldkamp, and his cousin William in front of Tante To's house, 1933. Jan (far right) and friends standing in front of Tante To's house, 1930. Google Street View of the neighborhood today. Note that the brick houses and fencing are still similar.]

To and Wim had a son named William who was several years younger than Hennie. Hennie remembers him as being very spoiled and bratty. She remembered that when he didn't get his way, he would bite his arm and then tell his mother that Hennie had bitten him, for which Hennie was frequently punished by being locked in the cellar.

[Photograph of Jan, Hennie, and cousin Willam, 1930. Photograph of cousin William and Hennie, 1932. Photograph of unknown girl (probably a cousin), Jan and Hennie.]

The years spent with Tante To, 1925-1934, were bittersweet for Hennie and Jan. Tante To had no love for Hennie and frequently beat her. In Zeist, Hennie used to hide under the seats in the theater to escape Tante To. After one particularly terrifying incident, Hennie lost the ability to speak for several days. When Tante To called for a doctor, he told her to stop terrorizing the child.

[Photograph of Jan and Hennie 1928, ages 6 and 7½ years; Photograph of Jan and Hennie, May 12, 1929, ages 7 and 8½ years]

[Hennie recalls suffering under Tante To's terrible temper, including the incident when she was so scared that she hid in the family's cinema and lost the ability to walk and speak for two days.]

However, Hennie also had some fond memories from this time. She went to school during this period and had several friends. She recalled ice skating from town to town along the rivers in the wintertime and drinking hot chocolate at stands set up at intervals on the ice.

[Newsreel of ice skating along the rivers in Holland during the 1930s]

There is also a photograph depicting Hennie, Jan, Tante To, Oom Wim, William, and an unidentified girl (possibly a cousin) on a holiday at the beach. Jan played on a soccer team.

[Beach photo, left to right, Jan, Tante To, Hennie, unknown girl, Oom Wim, and William. Photograph of Jan and his soccer team; Jan is in the first row, third from the left.]

A 1930 video of life at the beach in the Hague shows what it was like to take a holiday on the west coast of the Netherlands.

Hennie saw her mother periodically during these years, but she was told that Geertruida was an aunt and not her mother. She also saw Jopie, whom she adored. On November 18, 1930, Geertruida married Uncle Jo, the younger brother of her ex-husband, in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Around this period, Jopie was diagnosed with leukemia. An undated photograph of Jopie taken in Paris may date to around this period. In a second undated photograph, Jopie appears with shortly cropped hair. It is unknown if this haircut was related to her illness.

[Undated photograph of Jopie in Paris, France. Undated photograph of Jopie with cropped haircut; although some have said this photo looks like Jan, Hennie always said it was a picture of her half-sister Jopie]

Meanwhile, halfway around the world, Hennie's father was living and working in China. There are two photographs of him from this period while Hennie and Jan were living with Tante To. The first dates to 1931 and shows him at the horse races in Beijing. This photograph was likely taken while he was still living in Tientsin. The second photo dates to 1933 and was taken on a trip he took to Hong Kong. Although it isn't clear what brought him to Hong Kong, the timing of the trip suggests that the photograph was taken while briefly at port during his return voyage to the Netherlands that same year. Hong Kong was a major international port, and most steamships to and from Europe passed through its harbors.

[Photographs of Hennie's father, Jan II. Photograph taken at the Beijing race course in Beijing, 1931. Photograph taken in Hong Kong, 1933.]

In late 1933 or early 1934, when Hennie was 11 years old, her father returned to Eindhoven from Shanghai. Hennie had not seen him since her parents divorced when she was about 5 years old. According to Hennie’s diary, Tante To had written to him saying that he needed to collect his children because of the growing political tensions in Europe. If this is true, her fears were not unfounded. Hitler had come to power in the spring of 1933, and in May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands, flattening the city of Rotterdam by air attack. Later many houses in Tante To's neighborhood of Schrijversbuurt were destroyed in 1944 Allied bombing raids.

[The Dutch city of Rotterdam after the clearing of debris following the 1940 German blitz bombing; the only standing structure is the church. House on Staringstraat, Eindhoven, three blocks away from Tante To's house, that was destroyed in 1944 bombings.]

Hennie recalled being initially confused by her father. She knew he had travelled from China and in her ignorance assumed he must have a queue, like other Chinese men. Her not too subtle attempts to find his queue deeply embarrassed her aunt. Her father left again, and then returned a short time later. Hennie remembers the experience of her father’s return with mixed emotions. She remembers returning home from school to find that her father and Uncle Jo had already packed all her belongings into his car. There was no discussion or even warning of her father’s arrival or her departure. She always regretted not being able to say goodbye to her friends or even tell them she was leaving. Most upsetting to her was that she never got to say goodbye to Jopie.

[Hennie recalls the sudden return of her father, her trip to the Hague riding on the dickey seat of a convertible, and preparations for traveling to China.]

Although glad to see her father, he was a complete stranger to her, as she had not seen him for many years. After leaving Eindhoven, they traveled by car to the Hague where they met up with her father's new and very young Russian wife, Vera Nicolaevna Nazarenko, who her father had married on 16 November 1929. From their first meeting, Vera made it clear that she would not be a sympathetic and loving stepmother. While in the Hague, they spent a night at her Aunt Hermine's house (her father's sister) and she got to see her cousins Mientje, Theo, Maurius, and Hannie. They also visited Hennie's paternal grandmother, Hendrina Johanna Staal, who moved there after her husband, Jan Louis Cornelis I van Senden died in Amsterdam on September 29, 1925. Hendrina Johanna Staal later died in the Hague on November 20, 1944.

[Photos of Hennie's paternal grandmother, Hendrina Johanna Staal]

Before travelling, they must have applied for passports for Hennie and Jan, and there is a photograph of Hennie taken in the Hague in 1933 that might be related to this process. There are also several photographs of Jan taken with his father in the Hague in early 1934. It is not known from which port they initially departed for Shanghai, but they likely traveled through Rotterdam, the main Dutch departure point for East Asian destinations.

[Photograph of Hennie taken in the Hague, 1933. Photographs of Jan at the Hague, 1934]

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