Girlhood

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“She had a younger brother five years younger and his name was Hans. They were going back and forth between Indonesia and the Netherlands, she and her brother, because my grandmother and grandfather felt they needed what they called 'a proper education.' Since my grandfather worked for Dutch Shell Oil Company, they made arranagements for the children of the personnel to be (flown back to Indonesia) if they were in the Netherlands, which was within months of Hitler, of the Germans occupying Holland. So they made the arrangements with KLM, which was the Dutch Royal Airline.”

Editor’s Note: The flight began on October 21, 1939. Along with blue suitcases provided by KLM for the flight, Hans and his sister, Anna van de Steenoven, left the Naples, Italy airport on board the KLM DC - 3 KLM plane. KLM operated several “children’s flights” to reunite families with their children in the East Indies. Anna and Hans took trains from Holland to Naples before boarding the plane to Indonesia (Java).