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 3^rd 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.