Henri van der Palm
2023
This translation was produced automatically and has not been checked by a person.
My mother’s paternal grandfather. Born on 23 February 1871 in Padang, Sumatra. He became a soldier in the KNIL (the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army) and rose to colonel. After his retirement he lived in Bandung with his wife Emma de Vries Hofman. My mother remembers them as ‘very kind people’. They both died in 1945, in different camps.
In the photo below, from around 1907, we see Henri seated, with Emma on his right. The three little boys are, from left to right, Frans, Guus and Han (my grandfather). The late arrival Willy was not born until 1914. The adult lady is probably Jessey, Emma’s sister. The two young men are probably Henri’s youngest brothers, Frederik and Willem.
Henri died on 13 January 1945 in the Bangkong camp in Semarang. He lies at the Dutch Field of Honour Menteng Pulo in Jakarta, next to Emma, who lost her life a little later in the Adek camp in Batavia. I took the photo below in 2014, when I visited their graves with my mother.
https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZikPgZqVyvsCqH80zVRga5uCaYr0cL6M1X
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