Together with the Indisch Herinneringscentrum, the Moluks Historisch Museum presented a programme about women in the resistance at Museum Sophiahof on Sunday 20 October, as a public event alongside the exhibition 'Vechten voor vrijheid. De vele gezichten van verzet' (Fighting for freedom. The many faces of resistance). Through a series of introductions, a debate and a column, the lesser-known stories were told of women who fought for freedom during the Second World War. All of it under the guidance of host Esther-Clair Sasabone.
Overlooked and unknown, argued Margaret Leidelmeijer, and not only because they were women. Aspects such as background and skin colour also determined what was and was not recorded in the sources as fully fledged resistance. Which puts white men at the top of the scale of attention, with women of colour dangling somewhere at the bottom
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Almost nothing was known, for example, about the life of the Indo woman Sabine Zuur, wife of the resistance fighter Peter Tazelaar. In his introduction Victor Laurentius sketched her life in the service of the struggle against Nazi oppression and how she survived two concentration camps, only to fade more or less into obscurity afterwards.
Ron Habiboe brought a whole range of Moluccan resistance women into view. From small to large acts of resistance, such as keeping Moluccan girls out of the Japanese brothels and the resistance of Coosje Ayal as a member of the Kokkelink group in New Guinea under the command of captain J.B.H. Willemsz-Geeroms.
Especially striking was the presence of several of Coosje Ayal's children, Milco and Liesje Evers and Sonja Balkstra, who spoke about their mother's traumas and how that affected their lives with her. They were particularly proud to be able to announce that a street in Ridderkerk is to be named after her.
The programme continued with further conversations about how a resistance past can still influence later generations. In her column, Josselien Verhoeve spoke about her grandfather Frits Dahler and how she still resists the image that has formed around him. Click here for her column. With Jazzy Taihuttu, involved in the campaign 'De wereld van de oost' around the film 'De Oost' by Jim Taihuttu (about a soldier sent to Indonesia after the end of the Second World War), it was discussed that attention still has to be actively demanded for fully fledged roles for women. Especially where fewer sources are available.
Vocalist Esther Nijhove paid tribute to the women in the resistance in her own way, with the song 'Unforgettable'. Hopefully the joint programme has contributed to that as well.
Photographs: Alies Boenders
