Sophia LeFaucheur (Dutch Civilian, POW)

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Diaries, letters and documents relating to Sophia LeFaucheur (nee van AS) and her experience as a Dutch civilian Prisoner of War (POW) in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia). Sophia (or 'Fiep') worked for General Motors in Bandoeng and with her friend Netty, soon joined a group of civilian women who entertained and nursed imprisoned Allied troops. The collection contains correspondence from POW's SX8406 Private Hubert John (2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion, returned to Australia October 1945), and English soldier Charles H. Raley, to Fiep thanking her for her friendship during their internment. Fiep and the female members of her family (mother Margaretha Catharina van As and sister Pieternella Jacoba, known as 'Nel') were soon interned in civilian camps such as Tjideng and Kampong Makassar. Her father (Jan Nicolaas) and brothers (Marinus, known as 'Ries', Jacob 'Jack' and Jan Nicolaas 'John') were interned in three separate camps; the family was unable to correspond and did not hear news of their well-being until after liberation in 1945, when they were re-united. Her diaries (written in Dutch with English translations) discuss the overcrowded and harsh conditions endured by female civilians in the internment camps, including conditions under Captain Kenichi Sonei, from 1943 to 1945. Collection also contains some post-war impressions and memoirs written by Sophia, who arrived in Australia in 1949 with her husband Frank (whom she met as part of the liberating force in Indonesia) and son, also Frank. They first settled in Scarborough, WA.