JAKARTA BANDUNG RAILROAD & TRIBUTE TO OUR PARENTS
In 1937 the in The Netherlands just Graduated Civil Engineer
Emile Schmid arrived in Batavia, after a long trip on a ship to The Dutch East
Indies. Continued by TRAIN on is way to the town of Gedeh to start his career as
the Chief Administrator of Production on a Tea Plantation. Arrived in Bandoeng.
From there on via Gedeh up the narrow mountain road by car to his plantation
assigned home.
After being married in a Proxy “Married with the Glove” ceremony
with his fiancée Jenny Brouwer while she was still in Haarlem, The Netherlands.
Right after, she followed him to the
Dutch East Indies. After arriving in Batavia took the same TRAIN to Bandung.
That’s where she met up with Emile, she called “Miel.” A absolute dream come true. A life under paradisiacal
circumstances of starting a so longed for Family took off in a pleasant way. First
item on the agenda: Officially getting married in Tjandjoer down the mountain
on the road to Soekaboemi. About a year later their first son, Henri Charles (
they called “Hanke”) was born. Two years later their daughter Marianne Louise.
Both born in the hospital of Soekaboemi.
On February 14, 1942 their 3rd child, daughter Jenny-Emilie (
called “Emie”) was born in Sukabumi also.
Not even a month later, in March 1942 Emile Schmid was “ripped”
away from his Family he so dearly loved. From a life that looked to have a
great future of happiness. His youngest daughter barely one month old. Time to
say a goodbye to his wife & three children was limited to a few days &
hours. The beginning of his brutally forced incarceration in the Tjimahi WW II POW
Concentration camp. For a while was still able & allowed to communicate
with his Family. Limited to writing notes on mailing cards. Every time he
included heartfelt expressions of hope that this would soon end & he could
continue the life he loved. The last words on a final “Briefkaart” ( Text card)
Jenny received & he mailed from the
Tjimahi Artillery Base WW II POW camp
cried out: “Jen please take care of the
children and yourself. See you soon. Love, Miel.” As a civilian he was without
any military training, instantly enlisted as part of the KNIL Dutch Military
Artillery. Shortly after, the occupiers of the Dutch East Indies put him on the
same TRAIN he took to start his career. The same TRAIN Jenny took to meet up
with the love of her life, Emile. In Batavia the POWs boarded a ship to start their
slave labor on the Infamous Burma Railroad (now part of Thailand ) He died not
long after from a tropical disease, never to see his Family again.
In an about identical story, young married military
sergeant, Cor Klootwyk was transferred from the Tjimahi POW concentration camp
to the Burma Railroad.
In October 1942, Jenny and the three children were also
incarcerated. First in the Bloemen Kamp in Bandung. Soon after, walking across
that Jakarta-Bandung railroad track to the partly fenced off neighborhood Tjihapit
WW II Japanese Concentration camp for Women & Children under twelve years
old. In that same Tjihapit Concentration camp her youngest daughter was born in
December of that year. Her mother experiencing even a much more tough time
since she was a German born Dutch citizen.
At the end of 1943 Jenny and her 3 children, were
transported by TRAIN using that same Bandung – Jakarta Railroad ending up in
one of the worst WW II Concentration camps, Tjideng in Batavia. Again part of a neighborhood fenced in. That’s
where her youngest daughter finally succumbed to the atrocities committed by
the Japanese occupier.
Cor’s young wife Gertrud and her two daughters were
transported on the same railroad to Tjideng. Fortunately she and her two
daughters survived the incredible ordeals.
Then in August 1945 WW II in Asia ended with the
capitulation of Japan. Jenny and her two surviving children were at loss as to
where to go. Not knowing where her beloved husband was & neither knowing if
he was still alive. Including not being updated to where she would be reunited with him. If he had survived.
Jenny at the request of Emile’s mother in Holland, boarded the ship Sibajak
& moved to a country that just itself survived five long years of being
occupied. For her children a completely foreign country.
Gertrud met up with her husband Cor in quite a complicated
way and stayed in the Dutch East Indies where Cor, regrouped with his former
Artillery Unit.
FAST FORWARD.
As part of a second
time Family History Mission visit to Bandung, Sister and Elder Schmid, Senior
Couple Missionaries in the Indonesian Jakarta Mission, took the train from
Jakarta to Bandung in March 2019. At one point the train stopped, The 2 track
railroad reached the Old, still partly used 1 track section. That became the moment Elder & Sister
Schmid looked at one and another and Instantly realized they were traveling the
SAME RAILROAD that Elder Schmid’s parents Emile & Jenny Schmid & Sister
Schmid’s parents, Cor & Gertrud Klootwyk traveled on several occasions.
Utter silence in the comfortable, air conditioned train.
This time, contrary to the time during WW II, they both traveled in luxury
& spacious comfort. Excellent available food & snacks on hand.
Including a variety of drinks available.
Not long after the
train continued to Bandung the train
reached the rusty, relic of a one track steel bridge that was a left over of
the railroad track both Families were transported on before & during WW II.
Tracks used to take both Emile, Jenny, Cor & Gertrud from Batavia ( now
Jakarta) to Bandoeng (Bandung)
THE EERY IRONY HIT BOTH ELDER & SISTER SCHMID LIKE A TON
OF BRICKS THAT BECAUSE OF THAT TERRIBLE WAR WITH DEVASTATING OUTCOMES HAD THAT “S C A T T E R E D” EMILE & JENNY’S FAMILY. INCLUDING ELDER
HENRI CHARLES SCHMID FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES ON THIS EARTH. IT ALSO CHANGED
THE LIVES OF COR & GERTRUD DRAMATICALLY. INCLUDING THEIR DAUGHTER, SISTER
HEDIWEG (HEDY) SCHMID. LEAVING BOTH FAMILIES WITH EVERLASTING TERRIBLE MEMORIES
OF WW II. THIS SAME RAILROAD, MANY YEARS BACK. FIRST CARRIED TWO YOUNG
IDEALISTIC FAMILIES FROM THE NETHERLANDS VIA JAKARTA TO BANDUNG TO A PLACE OF PROSPERITY & A GREAT FUTURE AROUND BANDUNG. WHERE THE OFFICIAL MARRIAGE ACT IS STILL ON
THE BOOKS OF THE TOWN OF CIANJUR.
ON THE POSITIVE SIDE; IT ALLOWED ELDER SCHMID, HIS MOTHER
& SISTER TO EMBARK AND LEARN TO LIVE A LIFE OF BEING “SURVIVORS” OF
CONQUERING A VARIETY OF “ROAD BLOCKS” PLACED IN THEIR LIVES. THE SAME COUNTS
FOR SISTER SCHMID & HER PARENTS.
ELDER AND SISTER SCHMID DID NOT BRING UP THEIR CONCENTRATION
CAMP TIME , THAT WAS THE SCENE OF COINCIDENTALLY INCARCERATED IN THE SAME
CONCENTRATION CAMPS, TJIHAPIT & TJIDENG FOR QUITE A WHILE AFTER THEY WERE
MARRIED IN CANBERRA, ACT, AUSTRALIA IN 1963. UNTIL THE BIRTHPLACE OF SISTER
SCHMID BECAME PART OF A CONVERSATION. THAT WAS THE MOMENT THEY BOTH FOUND OUT.
IT MAKES CLEAR IT IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE LORD PREPARED BOTH SISTER & ELDER
SCHMID SINCE BIRTH FOR THEIR SENIOR COUPLE MISSION. INCLUDING ALLOWING THEM TO
LABOR IN THE COUNTRY OF THEIR BIRTH, INDONESIA. IN THAT TIME, SO FAR, MANY MIRACLES
& TENDER MERCIES HAVE HAPPENED.
SOME ARE SO PERSONAL & EMOTIONAL, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ADEQUATELY PUT THEM
INTO WORDS. THE JOURNEY INCLUDED
VISITING PLACES WHERE THEY SPENT TIME IN THEIR EARLY EXISTENCE. THEIR FIRST PRIORITY HAS BEEN, IS & WILL
BE TO KEEP THEIR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN
& AS WELL AS THEIR ( SO FAR ONE) GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN TOGETHER.
