Jeanne van Leur-de Loos

The Japanese interned many of the Dutch inhabitants in camps. One of them was Jeanne van Leur-de Loos (1910-1973), who was interned at Tjideng and then Kampong Makassar women’s camp. Following Japan’s surrender in August 1945 she returned to an utterly changed life. Indonesia had declared independence and Dutch people faced growing hostility. There wasn’t much left of her former home: ‘Everything is gone,’ she wrote in a letter to her parents. Around this time, Van Leur-De Loos obtained several silk maps from the British air force and, using a handheld sewing machine, she made them into a housecoat. In 1946, Jeanne van Leur-de Loos and many others were repatriated to the Netherlands. As far as we know, she wore her silk dress until as late as 1951.