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It was the pursuit of education that motivated Harke de Vries to leave his home in Groningen.  Through a scholarship granted via the KNIL Harke was sent to Batavia to study Architectural Engineering, with a bond of service to follow.  After his graduation he sent for his sweetheart, Kommerina de Rijke and married her the moment she stepped off the boat.  Together they travelled the length of Java fulfilling Harke's obligations to the KNIL.  When World War II broke out the family was separated, placed in different concentrations camps.  This story follows the children along with their mother who were placed in a camp in Ambarawa, central Java.

Testimonial – The Golden Lotus Necklace

Some stories remain untold forever. Other stories remain untold for far too long, before someone finally has the courage to speak. Members of the second and third generations of the Netherlands East Indies Diaspora are all too familiar with this. We know that our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members who lived through the Second World War and Independence Struggle in the former Dutch colony now known as Indonesia suffered or even died, but whenever we wanted to know and understand more, we were usually met with silence, or something like “Let it be. It’s all so long ago.” It was all too painful, too embarrassing, too burdensome for the next generations, at least, so our elders thought. 

Often, however, the next generations want to know and understand. They want to experience the places, the feelings, of where it all happened, and try to connect the pieces of the puzzle, and fill in the gaps where these, inevitably, after so much time has passed, exist. With her first book, the novel “The Golden Lotus Necklace” author Marina de Vries combines historical realities with highly plausible fiction, into a deeply engaging storyline.

There are two intertwined plots, one concerning the first generation Dutch settlers Harry and Kommie de Vries, and their children Aly, Rien and little Harry (Marina’s father), and the other one concerning Honor (Marina’s alter ego) from New Zealand, who visits Indonesia in search of her family’s past before and during the Second World War, and Kees, a fellow-traveller from The Netherlands, who is in Indonesia for the same purpose. The facts around the story are deeply tragic, culminating in the horrors of the Japanese concentration camp called Ambarawa 6 in Central Java. Yet, this is not a story of gloom. 

There is romance, between Harry and Kommie in the first instance, but also between Honor and Kees more than eight decades later. The golden lotus necklace, a Chinese symbol of longevity, harmony and good fortune, a gift from a Chinese businessman, passed on from Kommie, to Aly and ultimately to Honor, becomes a token of resilience. In the end, there is no hate in Honor, for the Japanese, for Ambarawa as a place, or for the Indonesians who saw the Japanese as liberators from Dutch colonial oppression, only to replace it with their own reign of terror. Intergenerational hurt in Honor makes way for acceptance and a love that overcomes everything.

Congratulations, Marina, for telling your family’s story that had to be told. I hope, one day, to follow in your footsteps and write my family’s story, so that the future generations may never forget.  Lex van der Mey, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Contact Marina de Vries (Shearer)

Phone: +64 027 591 6555

Email: MarinadeVriesNZ@gmail.com

Instagram: marina.devries.author