Early Life

Dublin Core

Title

Early Life

Subject

Prisoners of War

Creator

Marchiena Davis

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Subtitle

A Colonial Childhood

Lede

"That was 'the life.'"

Story

“If you know a little about Indonesia, actually the Europeans exploited the Indonesians because they had rubber, oil, sugar, and generally they became a colony of some European nation and it was Holland at the time, the Netherlands. And so, the foreigners, the people that were not Indonesian, lived in very nice houses, had servants, they didn’t have to do too much housework for themselves, everything was taken care of them, for them, cooks, maids, childcare. And also, whenever they had their meals they were very formal with tablecloths and china and all those layers of china and goblets. So that was 'the life.'”

Editor's Note: Anna van de Steenhoven was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, on October 11, 1923. Marchiena Davis provided this context for her mother's growing-up experience in Indonesia, helping to explain what was at stake and what her family's expectations were at the time. 

Factoid

1923 - 1939

Related Resources

Marchiena Davis Interview, 2023-02-23, Legacy Series Oral History Program, 2013-, KSU/14/05/03/001, Museum of History and Holocaust Education, Kennesaw State University.

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