Meelhuysen, known by the code name Tahir, led an anti-Japanese resistance cell under the cover of the Red Cross.
This organization was called Corsica and was intended to coordinate the scattered resistance groups in East Java.
When Bep Stenger could no longer go to school in Malang after the occupation by the Japanese, she joined the Red Cross as a volunteer.
In this role, Bep collected military clothing and weapons from KNIL officers' wives whom she knew through her father.
Through the subsequent Bersiap period, the violent and chaotic start of the Indonesian National Revolution, she and the other detainees stayed on prison grounds until the end of September 1945.