Tjideng was a Japanese-run internment camp for women and children during World War II, in the former Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia).

During the Japanese occupation, which lasted until the end of the war in September 1945, people from European descent were sent to internment camps.

[1][2][3] Camp Tjideng was located in the city of Batavia (present-day Jakarta), the capital of the Dutch East Indies.

Part of Tjideng, a suburb to the west of the city was fenced off and used for the internment of European women and children.

Dwellings varied from brick bungalows with pan tiled roofs to huts made in traditional Javanese style from bamboo.

When the Japanese military took over control in April 1944, privileges such as being allowed to cook or hold church services were quickly withdrawn.

Hunger and disease struck, and because medicines and medical treatment were being denied, the number of fatalities increased.

He organised 'kumpulans' or roll calls where women, children and the sick had to stand in the hot tropical sun for hours.

[7][8] When Allied Lieutenant-Colonel Read-Collins arrived at the camp after the Japanese capitulation, he witnessed the circumstances of the prisoners first-hand.

[9] "There were no amenities of any kind, no place for the children to play, and they could only take exercise in the narrow streets which, during the rainy season, were ankle deep in sewage from the septic tanks which had overflowed.

"He noted the absence of food shortages in Batavia, in contrast to the situation in the camp: "The principal item [of food] was an insufficient quantity of rice, sometimes a little meat, sour black bread made from tapioca flour, and a small quantity of obi leaves, the only vegetable.

There had been no shortage of food in Batavia prior to the return of the Allies and [Lieutenant-Colonel] Read-Collins saw no signs of malnutrition amongst the local native population.

When those were all admitted the number of patients rose to two thousand, and every available building in Batavia was converted into a convalescent home.

[11][12][13] In December 1945, 3,800 camp survivors, including 1,200 children, were repatriated to the Netherlands on board the SS New Amsterdam.

[15][16][17] Dutch author Jeroen Brouwers describes his childhood experience in the camp, and its later effects, in the 1986 autobiographical novel Bezonken Rood, translated into English as Sunken Red.

Henri Charles Schmid recounts the life of his mother during her imprisonment in the Tjideng camp in his 2014 book Scattered Journey.

[18][19] "My mother too, was beaten, shorn, and made to stand in the roll call square for twenty-four hours.

Between her legs stands a Jap who has let down his trousers, so that I roar with laughter because this really is the funniest thing I have ever seen, though in the course of my camp years I shall see it several more times in various ways, but then I will not laugh."