The Letters

When my mother passed away, we found a wooden box among her belongings, an old jewel box. The contents, however, were more precious than any jewels. All her life Mom had been beset by a continuous sadness and grief over the death of her father during the war. Even fifty years after the war ended she still felt this sadness. The jewel box contained 25 letters from her mother or father or both to her while she was in a boarding school in Holland and they lived in Indonesia. The letters date between 1935 and 1940. Some are typed and some are handwritten.

I'm having the letters translated by a family friend, Karla Riach, and the translations will be posted here as they happen. Below is a table listing the letters. The references are: Mom is my mother, Maretta Elisabeth Ploos van Amstel, Opa is my grandfather Elisa Ploos van Amstel, Oma is my grandmother Maria Ploos van Amstel, Bob is my uncle Bob Ploos van Amstel, Carla is my aunt Carla Ploos van Amstel, Ank is my aunt Anneke (Ank) Ploos van Amstel. My mother and my Tante Ank both lived at a boarding school in Holland at the time and some of the letters are to my Mom and some to both girls. One is to Tante Ank alone. In the letters themselves, Gerard is my uncle Gerard Ploos van Amstel. I have no clue who Rie is but apparently someone who lived with the family in Indonesia. The number of pages refers to the number of sheets of paper. Some letters are written one side only and some on both sides. The longest letter is three handwritten pages on both sides. The links take you to a scanned image of the letter and the translation of the letter. Unlinked letters have not yet been translated.

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