How Ingham woman’s four-year search uncovered tragic history
When Ingham resident Veronica Green gave her mother a story gift to capture her memories for her 80th birthday little did she know it would be the start of an ongoing four year search for truth about her Dutch family’s tragic history in South East Asia during WWII.
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When Ingham resident Veronica Green gave her mother a story gift to capture her memories for her 80th birthday little did she know it would be the start of an ongoing four year search for truth about her Dutch family’s tragic history in South East Asia during WWII.
During her quest for answers she would discover her mother, aunts, an uncle and grandmother, with other family members, were interred by the Japanese in a concentration camp for the duration of the war.
Mrs Green would also discover that her grandfather Paul Gerard Theodore Stille died working on the notorious Thai-Burma Railway.
Further she would find the lost grave of her great-grandfather Leendert Van Reil Snr and great uncle Leendert Van Reil Jnr buried together, a year apart, in an unmarked grave outside the Dutch Field of Honour or the Kembang Kuning War Cemetery in Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia.
The Field of Honour is a place of remembrance for victims of the Pacific War and the Indonesian War of Independence, including both civilians and servicemen of the former Royal Netherlands East Indies Army.
Last month she travelled to Canberra where she was presented with medals from the Dutch Ambassador for her relatives killed during the war.
Mrs Green said she would not have found out so much about her family’s wartime history without the help of a Dutch family friend, military author and historian Jos Groen – a Lieutenant Colonel in the Dutch army.
Croen served alongside Veronica’s husband Damien Green, a 36 year Australian Army Veteran and former infantry officer, when both were on deployment to Afghanistan in 2010.
The Green’s volunteer their time as the only Legacy Legatees in Ingham helping war windows and families in need.
“The role of families to support our serving members should never, ever be underestimated,” Mrs Green said.
“The army doesn’t necessarily do everything it can probably to support the family.
“So it’s really, really important that society looks after those family members that are left behind once a serving member passes.”
Early next month Northern Legacy is having its biannual fundraising Legacy Breakfast at Townsville Stadium with a major theme being the commemoration of the end of WWII with the VP80 celebrations later this year.
As a legatee, Mrs Green felt her story needed to be told – as part of the wider narrative on the upcoming commemoration of the end of the conflict in the Pacific.
“My great-grandfather and my great uncle, were literally in the ground. No one knowing where they were for 80 years,” Mrs Green said.
“My family didn’t know where they were, and that’s just unforgivable. We couldn’t celebrate their lives. It’s just such a huge amount of time to have passed, and we need to, society needs to learn from what’s happened in war - we need to make things different moving forward,” she said.
But four years ago when she gifted her mother a Storyworth subscription for her 80th birthday, Mrs Green had no inkling of the unfolding tale to come.
“I did that for my mum for her 80th, and I quickly realised that her story, because my family’s been fractured and very dysfunctional over the years, really needs to start back before she was born,” she said.
Mrs Green did not know much about her family’s past in the former Dutch East Indies – it was never spoken about and she only gleaned hints when her mother began writing down her stories.
“Family conversations were always just brushed over. It was always that the three men had died and that changed everything forever.
“It was never really talked about how they (my grandmother) coped or how they lived for the duration of World War Two in a Japanese run concentration camp.
“My grandmother would never tell my mother anything about her father or her grandfather or any of the family.
“She never talked about her experiences in that concentration camp, and it’s just created this huge intergenerational hole that’s never ever been filled up,” Mrs Green said.
Her mother was a baby when the family was rounded up at the start of the war and taken to the camp at Surabaya.
“She (my mother) was there for years. So I’d say that she would have memories, but she would have blocked them out.
“But my uncle is only 18 months older than my mother, so he would have equally skewed memories of things. But their sister is four years older, and so she would have more memory of it,” Mrs Green said.
But it was when she enlisted the help of their family friend Jos Groen that Mrs Green began to find answers to some of her questions about her family’s wartime history.
“We asked Jos if he if he would help us find out more information.
“He is a keen military historian and he’s a published author. He researched and used his contacts and his knowledge and his ability to read Dutch to find all these documents and information.
“Jos was really, really instrumental in finding all those answers for me,” she said.
Mrs Green quickly found out that her grandfather died while working in the Thai Burma railway but how her great-grandfather and great uncle died and where their bodies were laid to rest remained a mystery until just before Christmas last year.
“My grandfather was an engineer living and working in Surabaya, Indonesia with his wife Ida Stille (nee Van Reil) and three young children; Ida, Robert and Theadora (my mum),” she said.
“He was also a soldier of the KNIL (Royal Netherlands East Indies Army) as conscription at the time was mandatory for two boys from each family.
“My grandfather took up arms when the Japanese invasion of Indonesia happened and he was taken prisoner and transported by ship to work on the Thai Burma railway.
“The ship he was travelling on was attacked by American bomber planes. It sank and many people were killed.
“Paul was rescued by another Japanese ship and he continued his journey to the Thai Burma railway where he later succumbed to exposure, dysentery and malnutrition.
“We have quite a lot of information about my grandfather Paul including his POW cards and where he is buried.
“Paul’s father and brother in law who share the same name (being distinguished by Snr and Jnr) both perished during WWII but under unknown circumstances.
“Leendert Van Reil Snr joined the Royal Dutch Navy in 1897 and he sailed a submarine for three months from the Netherlands to Indonesia in 1921. He was in the Royal Navy for at least twenty six years (that we know of) and the longer he served the more he grew in rank and esteem.
“He was one of the first major torpedo makers. He lived pre-war in Indonesia with his wife, children, in-laws and grandchildren.
“We know he died in Surabaya on December 10, 1943 almost a year after his son’s death but the cause is unknown.
“Leendert Jnr was employed as a chemist with a local sugar cane producer. He lived pre-war with his wife however it’s unknown if he had any children.
“He was also a member of the KNIL serving as a Sargent. All three men were hardworking family men. He died and was buried on December 4, 1942 almost a year before his father,” Mrs Green said.
But up until Christmas Eve last year Mrs Green did not know where her great-grandfather and great uncle were buried.
“We did not know after 80 years where they were, or what happened, and we still don’t know what happened to them,
“But they have been acknowledged now. They’re buried (in an unmarked grave) outside of the field of honour in Surabaya.
“They’re not in a in a war grave, so to speak, that they’re in the same grave together, which adds mystery as well, because one, my uncle was he was killed almost a year to the day, before my great grandfather,
“My great uncle was buried there first and then a few years after Senior’s death, his body was exhumed and moved to where his son is buried - it all adds a lot of mystery,” she said.
Locating the graves of her long-lost relatives buried together in Surabaya was a watershed moment for Mrs Green but it also left her with more unanswered questions.
“I was elated and relieved. It’s just a huge, huge thing to know where they are but it’s just opened up such a can of worms in terms of now wondering how they died and under what circumstances and why were they put together in the same grave,” she said.
Last month, Mrs Green and her husband travelled to Canberra to received posthumous medals for her grandfather, great grandfather and great uncle from the Dutch Ambassador.
They were accompanied by their Dutch friend Jos Groen, who flew out from Holland to be with the couple.
“This was an incredibly moving, proud and emotional day for me. Posthumously, I was presented with three mobilisation war crosses for Paul Stille, Leendert Van Reil Snr and Leendert Van Reil Jnr.
“I also was presented with a duplicate order of the orange Nassau - silver medal for Leendert Van Reil Snr for his service of at least 26 years.
“I was surprised by an unexpected extra medal for my other great grandfather (Paul’s father who was a teacher), Johan Maria Stille.
“This was the Ordre des Palmes Académiques for his ‘alliance fraincais’ promoting and encouraging French culture and education outside of France.
“It was fantastic to finally have that official recognition, and we were in the Dutch Ambassador’s residence and she was just lovely and so generous with her time,” Mrs Green said.
She plans to travel to Surabaya with members of her family later this year hoping to find the final answers to her family’s wartime mystery.
“We’re looking for people, family members, who might be searching for our same family. Any Van Reils or any Stilles who would be wanting to come forward and to connect with us.
“We might be able to work together to find answers.
But we would also be happy to be contacted if there are any people of Dutch heritage who are also wanting to reconnect and to find out their family wartime histories in Indonesia,” Mrs Green said.
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Originally published as How Ingham woman’s four-year search uncovered tragic history
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