End the Silence

By: Dorothy Read and Ilse Evelijn Veere Smit

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Synopsis: End the Silence tells the story of Ilse, an Indo-European born into an idyllic childhood in the colonial society of the Dutch East Indies. Ilse's privileged life was forever changed when the Japanese invaded her homeland during World War II. She recounts her years of internment in a Japanese concentration camp on Java. Then, at the war's end she walked out of Camp Halmaheira only to walk into the bloody Indonesian revolution where she was targeted for execution by native freedom fighters. Finally, she tells of the pain she suffered trying to cope with her memories in a family that refused to talk about it. As Ilse recalls the scenes in her remarkable journey, Dorothy Read paints them in the words of both the young Ilse who lived them and today's Ilse who reflects upon them.