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All Ships Follow Me: A Family Memoir of War Across Three Continents
In the spirit of Susan Faludi's In the Darkroom and Edmund de Waal's Hare with the Amber Eyes comes an engrossing, epic saga of one family’s experiences on both sides of World War II, questioning our notions of victim and perpetrator and the lasting effects of war and trauma through the generations of one family.
In March 1942, Mieke Eerkens’ father was a ten-year-old boy living in the Dutch East Indies. When the Japanese invaded the island he, his family, and one hundred thousand other Dutch civilians were interned in a concentration camp and forced into hard labor for three years. After the Japanese surrendered, Mieke’s father and his family were set free in a country that plunged immediately into civil war.
Across the globe in the Netherlands, police carried a crying five-year-old girl out of her home at war’s end, abandoned and ostracized as a daughter of Nazi sympathizers. This was Mieke's mother. She would be left on the street in front of her sealed home as her parents were taken away and imprisoned in the same camps where the country’s Jews had recently been held. Many years later, Mieke’s parents met, got married, and moved to California, where she and her siblings were born. While her parents lived far from the events of their past, the effects of the war would continue to be felt in their daily lives and in the lives of their children.
All Ships Follow Me moves from Indonesia to the Netherlands to the United States, and spans generations as Mieke recounts her parents' lives during and after the war, and travels with them in the present day to the sites of their childhood in an attempt to understand their experiences and how it formed them. All Ships Follow Me is a deeply personal, sweeping saga of the wounds of war, and the way trauma can be passed down through generations.
In March 1942, Mieke Eerkens’ father was a ten-year-old boy living in the Dutch East Indies. When the Japanese invaded the island he, his family, and one hundred thousand other Dutch civilians were interned in a concentration camp and forced into hard labor for three years. After the Japanese surrendered, Mieke’s father and his family were set free in a country that plunged immediately into civil war.
Across the globe in the Netherlands, police carried a crying five-year-old girl out of her home at war’s end, abandoned and ostracized as a daughter of Nazi sympathizers. This was Mieke's mother. She would be left on the street in front of her sealed home as her parents were taken away and imprisoned in the same camps where the country’s Jews had recently been held. Many years later, Mieke’s parents met, got married, and moved to California, where she and her siblings were born. While her parents lived far from the events of their past, the effects of the war would continue to be felt in their daily lives and in the lives of their children.
All Ships Follow Me moves from Indonesia to the Netherlands to the United States, and spans generations as Mieke recounts her parents' lives during and after the war, and travels with them in the present day to the sites of their childhood in an attempt to understand their experiences and how it formed them. All Ships Follow Me is a deeply personal, sweeping saga of the wounds of war, and the way trauma can be passed down through generations.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published April 2, 2019
28 people are currently reading
1535 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
January 20, 2024
✨️ I read somewhere that memory is a wound and that some things are released and healed only by the act of writing. And I wonder if Meike Eerkens, the author of All Ships Follow Me, is writing her family's story to clean, to heal that wound, or else the grangene of decay will eat her alive.
"All Ships Follow Me" tells a fascinating story of intergenerational family trauma that is both profoundly sad and hopeful.
Mieke Eerkens, the daughter of a Dutch father born and raised in colonial-era Indonesia, who later became a prisoner of war during the Japanese invasion, and a Dutch mother whose parents sympathized with the Nazis during the German occupation in the Netherlands.
Mieke is attempting to understand her family's shared guilt, the legacy of shame, and the ever-changing roles of villains and victims in their narrative.
Honest, unflinching, and reflective, "All Ships Follow Me" provides a space for those labelled as outcasts to understand their past and move forward.
Finishing the book evoked a profound sadness, not sentimentally, but in challenging the prevailing monolithic narrative that stereotypes colonialists, sympathizers, or collaborators. How do we comprehend seemingly senseless choices? How can we bring coherence to discordant narratives? How do we convince the world that the roles of villains and victims often change places it is dizzying?
Mieke Eerkens achieved what she needed to do—exposing her story, writing her truth, and, I believe, finding her place. ✨️👊
"All Ships Follow Me" tells a fascinating story of intergenerational family trauma that is both profoundly sad and hopeful.
Mieke Eerkens, the daughter of a Dutch father born and raised in colonial-era Indonesia, who later became a prisoner of war during the Japanese invasion, and a Dutch mother whose parents sympathized with the Nazis during the German occupation in the Netherlands.
Mieke is attempting to understand her family's shared guilt, the legacy of shame, and the ever-changing roles of villains and victims in their narrative.
Honest, unflinching, and reflective, "All Ships Follow Me" provides a space for those labelled as outcasts to understand their past and move forward.
Finishing the book evoked a profound sadness, not sentimentally, but in challenging the prevailing monolithic narrative that stereotypes colonialists, sympathizers, or collaborators. How do we comprehend seemingly senseless choices? How can we bring coherence to discordant narratives? How do we convince the world that the roles of villains and victims often change places it is dizzying?
Mieke Eerkens achieved what she needed to do—exposing her story, writing her truth, and, I believe, finding her place. ✨️👊
April 30, 2019
Finished Category #22. All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens, the granddaughter of an interned concentration camp survivor in the Dutch East Indies and a on her mother's side, a Nazi sympathizer. Compelling story about her parents, family, lives, etc. I was unaware that Japan occupied Indonesia during the war and many citizens became POW there; however, they were never granted reparations as those who suffered in Nazi camps in Europe. The writer sums it up perfectly (about war) "where do I place German soldiers hiding their enemies beneath their train seats and feeding them their own lunch? Where do I place a Korean officer dragging a piano out of hiding on Christmas and allowing his prisoners to play it? A Japanese officer crouching next to a homesick child in a prison camp and telling him that he is homesick too, and that they both need to stay strong to get through the war. Nazi sympathizers being beaten, tortured and their children left on the streets. Dutch citizens condemning the Holocause but snatching up their Jewish neighbors possessions and homes for bargain prices." This book was astounding in its detail and the ability of the author to put her family out there, the good and the bad. 5 starts. I loved it.
May 10, 2019
This book started really promising and she is clearly a talented writer. The book is plagued, however, by the sense that her point seems to be “white people suffer too.” I have no doubt her parents experienced trauma - but it seems she uses the story of their trauma to limit her own empathy; she argues that her family’s suffering needs to be acknowledged yet she seems convinced that other groups’ trauma are fully acknowledged and recognized - a claim I find incredibly doubtful in the United States. She wants shades of gray but remains mired in her own boundaries.
There’s a telling comment near the end of the book: “I find it frustrating that I must always grapple with the evils of colonialism first when writing about my father’s war experience at the hands of the Japanese. How we would be burdened when telling the stories of personal suffering of Americans if we had to preface them all with the fact that the United States is itself a product of violent oppression of the native people.” Wouldn’t grappling with that be a good thing? Wouldn’t our understandings be far richer? What if the things her family lost was never really theirs to lose in the first place?
tldr she should read Gloria Wekker’s “white innocence”
There’s a telling comment near the end of the book: “I find it frustrating that I must always grapple with the evils of colonialism first when writing about my father’s war experience at the hands of the Japanese. How we would be burdened when telling the stories of personal suffering of Americans if we had to preface them all with the fact that the United States is itself a product of violent oppression of the native people.” Wouldn’t grappling with that be a good thing? Wouldn’t our understandings be far richer? What if the things her family lost was never really theirs to lose in the first place?
tldr she should read Gloria Wekker’s “white innocence”
August 1, 2024
Mieke Eerken’s family is in the unique position of being caught in strangely opposing positions during World War II. Her father and his family were interned by the Imperial Japanese Army on the island of Java for almost the entire war. Her maternal grandparents were members of the National Socialist Party of the Netherlands. In All Ships Follow Me, Eerkens tells her family stories and shares her anxieties, concerns, and questions about her heritage as the child of a colonialist and the granddaughter of a collaborator...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
June 23, 2022
Eerkens researched and wrote this book as a way of understanding her own family's history and the impact of their war experiences on their later lives and that of their children. In doing so, she has created a thoughtful and enlightening history, and an opportunity for us as readers to reflect on the assumptions that frame our knowledge of history, and the gaps that remain in the narratives we've learned, narratives that belie the complexity of history. I found her father's story a bit more engaging, but all of the book was interesting and a very worthwhile meditation on the nature and effects of trauma.
Recommended by Donna Bijas
Recommended by Donna Bijas
January 3, 2021
This is a gem of a book. Eerkens tells the story of her parents experience during WW2 and the years immediately following.
Her father was interned with his mother and other relatives during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies during WW2. At one point, the Japanese declared all boys over the age of 10 as men, and sent them to a new camp, meaning Eerkens father was separated from his mom as a pre-teen in a Japanese civilian internment camp. Eerkens looks to go deeper into the story - she researched and read accounts from other Dutch and Indonesian civilians during this period to help provide context and additional understanding for her dad's experience. She also took him back to Indonesia and flips between his time in the internment camp and his present day visit to the places he remembers. Eerkens could have had a pretty good, interesting book at this point, but she also chose to wade into some challenging areas - her father's experience during the Indonesian war for independence, and the complications of the Dutch as a colonial power in Indonesia.
Again, Eerkens could have had a nice book, but she chose to wade into a very challenging element of her family's history in WW2 - on her mother's side, her grandfather was a member of the NSB, the Dutch political party that aligned with the Nazis. This is a challenging topic, but Eerkens wades in and seeks to be very open about her family's experience. These are complicated, challenging areas to navigate, and Eerkens does a great job walking through different aspects of it. Part of this is exploring how much her grandfather was a collaborator - and reaching the frustrating conclusion that he was neither fully a collaborator nor going through the motions, but rather a very complicated relationship with the NSB - and discussing the painful experience of her mom and grandmother as the Dutch dealt with the NSB and Nazi collaborators.
In the process, Eerkens delivers a lot of insights into the WW2 experience - civilians interned in Japanese camps, the experiences of children during WW2, the post-war experience of former colonists, and the post-war experiences of children who had to grow up too fast during WW2. She also looks at how those experience not only shaped her parents and their family, but also her own generation.
To top it off, Eerkens is an excellent writer who structures the book in a way that enables the reader to connect well.
An excellent book that shares some insights into areas of WW2 and its aftermath that don't always see the attention they deserve.
Her father was interned with his mother and other relatives during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies during WW2. At one point, the Japanese declared all boys over the age of 10 as men, and sent them to a new camp, meaning Eerkens father was separated from his mom as a pre-teen in a Japanese civilian internment camp. Eerkens looks to go deeper into the story - she researched and read accounts from other Dutch and Indonesian civilians during this period to help provide context and additional understanding for her dad's experience. She also took him back to Indonesia and flips between his time in the internment camp and his present day visit to the places he remembers. Eerkens could have had a pretty good, interesting book at this point, but she also chose to wade into some challenging areas - her father's experience during the Indonesian war for independence, and the complications of the Dutch as a colonial power in Indonesia.
Again, Eerkens could have had a nice book, but she chose to wade into a very challenging element of her family's history in WW2 - on her mother's side, her grandfather was a member of the NSB, the Dutch political party that aligned with the Nazis. This is a challenging topic, but Eerkens wades in and seeks to be very open about her family's experience. These are complicated, challenging areas to navigate, and Eerkens does a great job walking through different aspects of it. Part of this is exploring how much her grandfather was a collaborator - and reaching the frustrating conclusion that he was neither fully a collaborator nor going through the motions, but rather a very complicated relationship with the NSB - and discussing the painful experience of her mom and grandmother as the Dutch dealt with the NSB and Nazi collaborators.
In the process, Eerkens delivers a lot of insights into the WW2 experience - civilians interned in Japanese camps, the experiences of children during WW2, the post-war experience of former colonists, and the post-war experiences of children who had to grow up too fast during WW2. She also looks at how those experience not only shaped her parents and their family, but also her own generation.
To top it off, Eerkens is an excellent writer who structures the book in a way that enables the reader to connect well.
An excellent book that shares some insights into areas of WW2 and its aftermath that don't always see the attention they deserve.
January 5, 2022
I loved this book! Two stories in one that come together and a part of world war II I never knew... with amazing family history!
April 10, 2019
This book is both a biography of Eerkens' parents, and a memoir about her time spent researching their lives during and after World War II. As children, each of her parents had fairly unusual experiences during and immediately after World War II. As a child she always knew there was something "wrong" with her family, and this book is the result of trying to understand her father's experiences as a POW and the actions of her maternal grandfather.
Her father survived Japanese POW camps, and her maternal grandfather was jailed post-war for being an NSB party member. She looks at their experiences, reads and researches both her grandfather's trial records in the Dutch archives and the notes of other boys interned like her father. She looks at what they went through during and after the war, and sees how both of her parents' personalities reflect traits that enabled them to survive. Her father never gives up, and drives his family crazy with the tenacity that helped him survive the camps. Her mother has an inferiority complex, derived from years of being told she and her family were "fout" (a Dutch word meaning more than just "wrong").
Her parents meet, marry, and raise a family in California, their children do not fully understand the trauma their parents suffered and how it affects their adult behavior—and how it reflects in their children as well. Eerens examines this, and also looks at the attempts by Dutch colonists to get repatriations from the Japanese government, as well as the fact of having colonizers in her immediate family. She looks at the idea of "good" vs "bad" during WWII and in today's current events. She does not attempt to give an answer, as there is no one answer. There is a lot of self-reflection on her part, as she attempts to better understand and heal from the internalized guilt she carries.
———
Eerkens' father grew up in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), as did his father and possible his father and grandfather before him. When Japan invaded Indonesia, the Dutch were moved into POW camps, and as an 11-year-old her father was soon housed in a camp for older boys, away from his mother and siblings and his father. He spent years in this camp, watching other boys starve, die of illness, and suffer horrible illnesses and parasites himself. After the war, the Indonesians fought a war for their independence and the Dutch ended up back in the camps for protection, and were then evacuated. Her father was 15 when he set foot in Europe for the first time. He never felt at home there.
Eerkens' mother grew up in the Netherlands, and her father (Eerkens' grandfather) was a member of the NSB, the Dutch political party that allied itself with the Nazi party after the Nazi invasion. Though he did not accept jobs or items form looted homes, nor inform on those who hid Jews or had radios, he did write some articles. Her mother was 5 at the war's end, and some of her first memories of are her father's post-war arrest as a collaborator, and then her mother's arrest and she living in the young children's ward of a Children's Home. After her mother was let go with time served, she reclaimed her children and finally found a place to raise them. Her father was jailed, and later had to work in Amsterdam and only see the family on weekends.
————
Thanks to NetGalley and Picador for providing me with an egalley in exchange for an honest review.
Her father survived Japanese POW camps, and her maternal grandfather was jailed post-war for being an NSB party member. She looks at their experiences, reads and researches both her grandfather's trial records in the Dutch archives and the notes of other boys interned like her father. She looks at what they went through during and after the war, and sees how both of her parents' personalities reflect traits that enabled them to survive. Her father never gives up, and drives his family crazy with the tenacity that helped him survive the camps. Her mother has an inferiority complex, derived from years of being told she and her family were "fout" (a Dutch word meaning more than just "wrong").
Her parents meet, marry, and raise a family in California, their children do not fully understand the trauma their parents suffered and how it affects their adult behavior—and how it reflects in their children as well. Eerens examines this, and also looks at the attempts by Dutch colonists to get repatriations from the Japanese government, as well as the fact of having colonizers in her immediate family. She looks at the idea of "good" vs "bad" during WWII and in today's current events. She does not attempt to give an answer, as there is no one answer. There is a lot of self-reflection on her part, as she attempts to better understand and heal from the internalized guilt she carries.
———
Eerkens' father grew up in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), as did his father and possible his father and grandfather before him. When Japan invaded Indonesia, the Dutch were moved into POW camps, and as an 11-year-old her father was soon housed in a camp for older boys, away from his mother and siblings and his father. He spent years in this camp, watching other boys starve, die of illness, and suffer horrible illnesses and parasites himself. After the war, the Indonesians fought a war for their independence and the Dutch ended up back in the camps for protection, and were then evacuated. Her father was 15 when he set foot in Europe for the first time. He never felt at home there.
Eerkens' mother grew up in the Netherlands, and her father (Eerkens' grandfather) was a member of the NSB, the Dutch political party that allied itself with the Nazi party after the Nazi invasion. Though he did not accept jobs or items form looted homes, nor inform on those who hid Jews or had radios, he did write some articles. Her mother was 5 at the war's end, and some of her first memories of are her father's post-war arrest as a collaborator, and then her mother's arrest and she living in the young children's ward of a Children's Home. After her mother was let go with time served, she reclaimed her children and finally found a place to raise them. Her father was jailed, and later had to work in Amsterdam and only see the family on weekends.
————
Thanks to NetGalley and Picador for providing me with an egalley in exchange for an honest review.
August 11, 2024
An emotional family memoir about the effects of WW2 on not only those who lived through it but their children as well. It also shows how those children live with sins of their parents.
October 6, 2019
Very well-thought and descriptive, but I had to agree with the NPR reviewer’s sense of ambivalence about recommending this book. (https://www.npr.org/2019/04/04/709899...) Definitely thought-provoking and of particular interest to read a colonial perspective of the Indonesian revolution. However, at the end it was hard to find too much sympathy for the parents despite their traumas when cast in comparison with others’ (the acknowledged victims of colonialism and genocide) during the WWII.
August 25, 2019
A well crafted book!
A well written and compelling read with great characters and a captivating historical backdrop. Authentic and well paced as well. A highly recommended read.
A well written and compelling read with great characters and a captivating historical backdrop. Authentic and well paced as well. A highly recommended read.
June 25, 2019
Compelling, and well written, and full credit, strongly recommended memoir.
October 19, 2019
Loved this book, learned something new about the Holocaust.
November 30, 2023
This is not your average wartime memoir. It’s a searingly honest, intense look into what happened to two families torn apart by war, and how their experiences reverberate to the present.
Author Mieke Eerkens explores how her parents’ WWII wartime trauma and constant fear of rejection, losing everything, and starvation impacted their lives and hers. (Think recycling dental floss, and deeming fruit roll-ups an “extravagance.”)
It also takes a close look at an aspect of WWII rarely mentioned – the “Asian Holocaust.”
The author’s mother was the child of an Axis power collaborator. Her father was an Axis power victim. Both parents served time behind bars. Her father, Sjef, was born in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Imprisoned as a ten year-old after the Japanese invade, Sjef survives a horrific internment camp where death and disease stalked him daily.
Sjef and his family are freed when the Japanese surrender, only to be plunged into a bloody civil war.
Meanwhile, Back in the Netherland, Eerkens’s mother, Elshe, is herded into a Dutch children’s home in the Netherlands at age five. This is after Elshe’s parents, the author’s grandparents, were arrested and thrown into prison as Nazi collaborators. Scouring mountains of records and documents for clues to her grandfather’s motives during the war, Eerken concludes that his “true character” was “somewhere between idealist and monster.” But is the severe, heartless post-war treatment of his children, who had no say in their father’s choices, any better?
Meticulous in detail, the author fills in many of the blanks herself, personally visiting sites in both Indonesia and the Netherlands that were part of her parents’ memories. In between, she uncovers the experiences that shaped the rest of their lives – and affected her life, too.
All Ships Follow Me is divided into three parts. Book One focsuses on the author’s father, Sjef Eerken. Book Two, A World Away, is about her mother, Elshe de Kock. Coming Together is the title of Book three. It’s a fascinating – and at times deeply disturbing – recounting of man’s inhumanity to man, interspliced with glimmers of hope and grace.
It also includes a generous collection of black and white photos from both sides of the family.
All Ships Follow Me comes from a plucky Dutch admiral commanding the rust bucket Dutch Navy that was all that stood between the Indonesian mainland and imminent Japanese invasion. Outmanned and outgunned, the admiral sails valiantly into the teeth of a naval storm and certain death with, “All ships follow me.”
No matter what. Surrender is not an option. Keep moving forward.
The author lives up to the adage.
All Ships Follow Me isn’t an easy read. But it’s an important, thought-provoking one. Hauntingly poignant, this engrossing, thorough memoir challenges how we look at war and war victims.
Author Mieke Eerkens explores how her parents’ WWII wartime trauma and constant fear of rejection, losing everything, and starvation impacted their lives and hers. (Think recycling dental floss, and deeming fruit roll-ups an “extravagance.”)
It also takes a close look at an aspect of WWII rarely mentioned – the “Asian Holocaust.”
The author’s mother was the child of an Axis power collaborator. Her father was an Axis power victim. Both parents served time behind bars. Her father, Sjef, was born in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Imprisoned as a ten year-old after the Japanese invade, Sjef survives a horrific internment camp where death and disease stalked him daily.
Sjef and his family are freed when the Japanese surrender, only to be plunged into a bloody civil war.
Meanwhile, Back in the Netherland, Eerkens’s mother, Elshe, is herded into a Dutch children’s home in the Netherlands at age five. This is after Elshe’s parents, the author’s grandparents, were arrested and thrown into prison as Nazi collaborators. Scouring mountains of records and documents for clues to her grandfather’s motives during the war, Eerken concludes that his “true character” was “somewhere between idealist and monster.” But is the severe, heartless post-war treatment of his children, who had no say in their father’s choices, any better?
Meticulous in detail, the author fills in many of the blanks herself, personally visiting sites in both Indonesia and the Netherlands that were part of her parents’ memories. In between, she uncovers the experiences that shaped the rest of their lives – and affected her life, too.
All Ships Follow Me is divided into three parts. Book One focsuses on the author’s father, Sjef Eerken. Book Two, A World Away, is about her mother, Elshe de Kock. Coming Together is the title of Book three. It’s a fascinating – and at times deeply disturbing – recounting of man’s inhumanity to man, interspliced with glimmers of hope and grace.
It also includes a generous collection of black and white photos from both sides of the family.
All Ships Follow Me comes from a plucky Dutch admiral commanding the rust bucket Dutch Navy that was all that stood between the Indonesian mainland and imminent Japanese invasion. Outmanned and outgunned, the admiral sails valiantly into the teeth of a naval storm and certain death with, “All ships follow me.”
No matter what. Surrender is not an option. Keep moving forward.
The author lives up to the adage.
All Ships Follow Me isn’t an easy read. But it’s an important, thought-provoking one. Hauntingly poignant, this engrossing, thorough memoir challenges how we look at war and war victims.
August 19, 2024
As an Indonesian reader, this book really hits home. The Dutch East Indies history is a big part of Indonesia's past, and Eerkens' story adds a personal touch to it. The way she contrasts her dad's suffering during the Japanese occupation with her mom's wartime experiences in Europe gives a fresh view that connects different places and cultures.
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The book gives a pretty detailed look at colonial history that many Indonesians, including me, might find tough but eye-opening. Eerkens talks about her dad's time in internment camps, showing what Dutch colonial settlers went through during the Japanese occupation. While we usually see the colonial era as all about oppression and exploitation, Eerkens' personal story helps us understand the suffering faced by people on both sides during the war.
----------
Reading "All Ships Follow Me" stirred up a lot of mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s hard not to feel for the people who suffered during the war, no matter who they were. Eerkens’ account of her father’s tough experiences in the internment camp is really moving. On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the broader history of colonization and the suffering that Indonesians went through under Dutch rule.
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Eerkens' narrative challenges readers to consider multiple perspectives and acknowledge the multifaceted nature of historical events. It underscores the fact that suffering and trauma are not exclusive to any one group and that understanding history requires looking at it from various angles. This book has enriched my understanding of the past, highlighting the interconnectedness of our histories and the shared humanity that underlies even the most difficult periods.
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In conclusion, "All Ships Follow Me" is a compelling read that offers valuable insights into the complexities of war, memory, and identity. For Indonesians, it provides a unique perspective on a shared history, fostering a deeper empathy for those who lived through these turbulent times.
----------
The book gives a pretty detailed look at colonial history that many Indonesians, including me, might find tough but eye-opening. Eerkens talks about her dad's time in internment camps, showing what Dutch colonial settlers went through during the Japanese occupation. While we usually see the colonial era as all about oppression and exploitation, Eerkens' personal story helps us understand the suffering faced by people on both sides during the war.
----------
Reading "All Ships Follow Me" stirred up a lot of mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s hard not to feel for the people who suffered during the war, no matter who they were. Eerkens’ account of her father’s tough experiences in the internment camp is really moving. On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the broader history of colonization and the suffering that Indonesians went through under Dutch rule.
----------
Eerkens' narrative challenges readers to consider multiple perspectives and acknowledge the multifaceted nature of historical events. It underscores the fact that suffering and trauma are not exclusive to any one group and that understanding history requires looking at it from various angles. This book has enriched my understanding of the past, highlighting the interconnectedness of our histories and the shared humanity that underlies even the most difficult periods.
----------
In conclusion, "All Ships Follow Me" is a compelling read that offers valuable insights into the complexities of war, memory, and identity. For Indonesians, it provides a unique perspective on a shared history, fostering a deeper empathy for those who lived through these turbulent times.
November 12, 2020
All Ships Follow Me is an extremely thought-provoking and worthwhile read, made all the more relevant by the parallels it draws between WWII and the rise of white nationalism and the racially charged politics we are experiencing in 2020.
Having read the NPR review of this book, I vehemently disagree with the reviewer’s opinion that Mieke Eerkens’ memoir of her family’s experience during the rise of Naziism in Western Europe and the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia is somehow less valid because of the roles that colonialism and socialism played in shaping her family’s destiny.
No one wants to be on the wrong side of history, but what if you are born into it?
Eerkens painstakingly examines her family history in as unvarnished a way as possible. The shades of grey are always present, and they are worth our exploration and discussion. The results of Eerkens’ extensive research, coupled with her self-reflection and powerful storytelling, yield a memoir that puts the reader in the shoes of her grandparents and parents and forces us to ask ourselves what would we have done in their position? What could we have done?
At a time in our when our country is split down the middle and our democracy feels increasingly fragile, it is incredibly valuable to understand how we are shaped by our history and what we can learn from it.
Highly recommended.
Having read the NPR review of this book, I vehemently disagree with the reviewer’s opinion that Mieke Eerkens’ memoir of her family’s experience during the rise of Naziism in Western Europe and the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia is somehow less valid because of the roles that colonialism and socialism played in shaping her family’s destiny.
No one wants to be on the wrong side of history, but what if you are born into it?
Eerkens painstakingly examines her family history in as unvarnished a way as possible. The shades of grey are always present, and they are worth our exploration and discussion. The results of Eerkens’ extensive research, coupled with her self-reflection and powerful storytelling, yield a memoir that puts the reader in the shoes of her grandparents and parents and forces us to ask ourselves what would we have done in their position? What could we have done?
At a time in our when our country is split down the middle and our democracy feels increasingly fragile, it is incredibly valuable to understand how we are shaped by our history and what we can learn from it.
Highly recommended.
June 14, 2021
I picked this up because of my Dutch heritage and because I was intrigued by the subtitle of war on three continents. It’s a family memoir written by an American woman about her Dutch Indonesian father and her Dutch mom during WWII. Her father was part of the Dutch Indonesians, whose forbears had lived there for hundreds of years. He was eleven when he, his mother and sisters were taken to a Japanese concentration camp. His doctor father was in a separate camp. All his family members barely survived due to starvation but they were reunited and evacuated to the Netherlands. As a young man he managed to make his way to California to study engineering. His mother’s father was a frustrated man whose socialist ideals led him to join the NSB, a political party that allied itself to the Nazis. From the author’s research she learned that he tried to remind his membership, but NSBers collaborated with the Nazis and after the war the Dutch held them to blame. Her grandmother got separated from the father and were unable to rent or get work but found a way to survive. Both sides of the family suffered from their wartime experience, and the parents’ trauma defined their lives and that of their children.
Well written and interesting.
Well written and interesting.
October 5, 2022
Mieke Eerkens illuminates a topic which remains an unspoken secret in many families who lived in occupied countries during WW1 and WW2. The desire to survive forced their choices to associate with their captors. Our forefathers never considered their decisions would stain their families for generations to come. Their silence does not allow future generations to understand what their true thought processes were, nor know their true crimes. We are all left to make our own
Inferences from their actions and are left to carry the stain of their association.
I understand the authors thirst for answers as we are also left with unanswered questions.
I found Eerkens book to be somewhat comforting, strange way to feel, but she brought to light my personal thirst to know the unspoken story.
I truly appreciated this book. There IS irony in victimhood perhaps its up to our generation to forgive, learn from the past and do better in the future.
Inferences from their actions and are left to carry the stain of their association.
I understand the authors thirst for answers as we are also left with unanswered questions.
I found Eerkens book to be somewhat comforting, strange way to feel, but she brought to light my personal thirst to know the unspoken story.
I truly appreciated this book. There IS irony in victimhood perhaps its up to our generation to forgive, learn from the past and do better in the future.
July 6, 2019
Very moving and powerful! This is an astonishing family memoir set during the Second World War and its aftermath, in which the author takes up the courage to shed light on all facets of war. Eerkens takes us on a personal quest for identity, being incredibly honest and brave when it comes to asking herself the question where she comes from, exploring the footsteps of her parents. Important reading showing us that when it comes to war and humanity, there is no such thing as black and white, but that there is a wide range of grey tones in between. In this light, war only knows victims, which is past on from generation to generation. This part of history and its impact is often not told or misrepresented. Eerkens definitely fills that gap by taking us on a beautiful, engaging and emotional journey.
April 4, 2019
I could not put All Ships Follow Me down when it arrived in my Kindle queue. It is beautifully written, handling complex, complicated topics with an emotion and depth I rarely encounter. I cried intensely, I laughed, I reflected on humanity both good and bad. At the end of the day today and with too little sleep last night from reading so long, I am left with a profound sense of compassion for others. Mieke Eerkens reminds me what a powerful art writing is, making subjects like war and trauma digestible for others through her beautiful prose. This book has held me close and I am very grateful.
October 6, 2019
Zeer indrukwekkend boek over familiegeschiedenis tijdens en na de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Over overleven in een Jappenkamp en overleven in NL zonder je ouders die ineens gearresteerd zijn. Twee verhalen die bij elkaar komen en die je aan het denken zetten over trauma, schuld en onschuld en hoe dat doorwerkt in kinderen.
Mooi hoe persoonlijk het is geschreven. En hoe trauma in kleine dingen zit. En hoe belangrijk het is persoonlijke verhalen te horen en te delen, zodat we voorbij onze oordelen komen. Want de feiten zijn altijd complexer en genuanceerder, waardoor goed of fout irrelevant wordt.
Om nog eens goed over na te denken.
Mooi hoe persoonlijk het is geschreven. En hoe trauma in kleine dingen zit. En hoe belangrijk het is persoonlijke verhalen te horen en te delen, zodat we voorbij onze oordelen komen. Want de feiten zijn altijd complexer en genuanceerder, waardoor goed of fout irrelevant wordt.
Om nog eens goed over na te denken.
July 6, 2022
Mieke Eerkens creates a work unlike anything I have come across before, through a deeply personal and heart-rending account of a family history dominated by the Dutch experience of the Second World War. The author recounts her parents’ stories, both recording the stories she was told by her grandparents, and looking for answers in the elements that they omitted from their narrative. The book centres on the duality of her grandparents’ experiences because while both were undoubtedly victims, their backgrounds -her father a Dutch boy born in colonial Indonesia and her mother the child of a member of the Nationalist Socialist Party - do not fit into neat categories of victimhood or perpetrator.
On her mother’s side of the family she grapples with the life of her grandfather, who was a member of the Dutch National Socialist Party before war broke out. Although the Dutch National Socialist Party was not initially affiliated with Hitler’s German Nazi Party, the party later allies itself with Hitler when it comes under occupation. Eerkens looks for the truth between the conflicting evidence and narratives she has gleamed of her grandfather’s life. What she does know is that her grandfather possessed membership of the National Socialist Party before the War, but also helped Jewish friends to evade Nazi capture at a great risk to his own family. At the end of the war, however, her mother’s family become victims themselves. Due to his membership of the National Socialist Party, the young family are sent by the liberation forces for imprisonment in the horrifying remnants of the Nazi concentration camps. Eerkens’ mother, still only a young child, endures immense suffering there. But like many other Dutch children of collaborators, their hardship is not cast as injustice. Rather, despite their innocence as children and the magnitude of their suffering, it is viewed as a deserved shame in contrast with the purity of the victimhood of others who suffered during the war.
Her father’s family history, while a fascinating and vivid recounting of the Dutch experience under Japanese occupation, also evades clear moral judgement and leads the reader to ponder the victimhood of colonial settlers subjected to punishment. While my grandfather had a largely unremarkable story of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands during the war, my grandmother’s story is similar to that of Eerkens’ father. As a Dutch child in colonial Indonesia when the Japanese forces overturned Dutch occupation, Dutch families such as Eerkens’ father and my grandmother were forced into concentration camps where many died of hard labour, starvation and disease. My grandmother, her sister and mother survived in the women’s camp. However, as Eerkens’ story vividly recounts, men’s concentration camps were far more brutal and hard labour meant many, like my own great-grandfather, did not survive. Eerkens herself visits Indonesia and retraces her mother’s life there to make sense of her story. On visiting family graves, she is confronted with the unadorned and neglected graves where her father’s family members are buried, which is visited only sporadically by the descendants of Dutch settler families. That experience, and learning more about the history of Indonesian oppression, raises many questions about the extent of her father’s family’s right to victimhood against the relentless suffering of the Indonesian people.
While this book was particularly special to me because of my own family history, it is a fascinating account of the less commonly told (but not uncommon) experiences of Dutch people during the war. It is also a nuanced and reflexive take on the suffering of those who were at once complicit in, and victims of, oppression. Can one be both a victim and perpetrator? And if so, how should we as a society treat those who are both? While public history, employed for political ends, often situates groups of people as ‘victims’ or ‘perpetrators’, the truth is always more complex. Many of those whose families have been tragically marked by war will recognise the complexity of victimhood portrayed by Eerkens and how it may complicate personal and intergenerational trauma.
Finally, the complex moral dilemmas explored in All Ships Follow Me made Eerkens’ confrontation of the intergenerational trauma wrought by war all the more heart-wrenching. She questions whether her own mental health struggles are learned from her parents’ trauma behaviours and shame, or whether an epigenetic mark had guaranteed her a dysfunctional life. My own grandmother struggled immensely with mental health issues. Likely in part because her grief had little outlet; the suffering of war was universal in Holland and speaking of individual suffering felt shameful. Because of this, the anecdotes and characterisations my grandmother made about her time under Japanese occupation were regimented into acceptable stories that didn’t feature the suffering she probably experienced. Just talking about it felt like an indulgence, leaving those close to her to guess at the extent of her family’s suffering.
Eerkens’ family history starkly demonstrates the inability of my grandparents’ generation to process grief by talking freely of suffering during the war. A phenomenon that has arguably guaranteed the baking in of intergenerational trauma by leaving the next generation with many unanswered questions and sometimes also an oppressive cloud of shame hanging over their families. All Ships Follow Me is a search for answers in a tangled web of factual and moral questions, which leads us to reflect on the stories we tell about our families and our history.
On her mother’s side of the family she grapples with the life of her grandfather, who was a member of the Dutch National Socialist Party before war broke out. Although the Dutch National Socialist Party was not initially affiliated with Hitler’s German Nazi Party, the party later allies itself with Hitler when it comes under occupation. Eerkens looks for the truth between the conflicting evidence and narratives she has gleamed of her grandfather’s life. What she does know is that her grandfather possessed membership of the National Socialist Party before the War, but also helped Jewish friends to evade Nazi capture at a great risk to his own family. At the end of the war, however, her mother’s family become victims themselves. Due to his membership of the National Socialist Party, the young family are sent by the liberation forces for imprisonment in the horrifying remnants of the Nazi concentration camps. Eerkens’ mother, still only a young child, endures immense suffering there. But like many other Dutch children of collaborators, their hardship is not cast as injustice. Rather, despite their innocence as children and the magnitude of their suffering, it is viewed as a deserved shame in contrast with the purity of the victimhood of others who suffered during the war.
Her father’s family history, while a fascinating and vivid recounting of the Dutch experience under Japanese occupation, also evades clear moral judgement and leads the reader to ponder the victimhood of colonial settlers subjected to punishment. While my grandfather had a largely unremarkable story of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands during the war, my grandmother’s story is similar to that of Eerkens’ father. As a Dutch child in colonial Indonesia when the Japanese forces overturned Dutch occupation, Dutch families such as Eerkens’ father and my grandmother were forced into concentration camps where many died of hard labour, starvation and disease. My grandmother, her sister and mother survived in the women’s camp. However, as Eerkens’ story vividly recounts, men’s concentration camps were far more brutal and hard labour meant many, like my own great-grandfather, did not survive. Eerkens herself visits Indonesia and retraces her mother’s life there to make sense of her story. On visiting family graves, she is confronted with the unadorned and neglected graves where her father’s family members are buried, which is visited only sporadically by the descendants of Dutch settler families. That experience, and learning more about the history of Indonesian oppression, raises many questions about the extent of her father’s family’s right to victimhood against the relentless suffering of the Indonesian people.
While this book was particularly special to me because of my own family history, it is a fascinating account of the less commonly told (but not uncommon) experiences of Dutch people during the war. It is also a nuanced and reflexive take on the suffering of those who were at once complicit in, and victims of, oppression. Can one be both a victim and perpetrator? And if so, how should we as a society treat those who are both? While public history, employed for political ends, often situates groups of people as ‘victims’ or ‘perpetrators’, the truth is always more complex. Many of those whose families have been tragically marked by war will recognise the complexity of victimhood portrayed by Eerkens and how it may complicate personal and intergenerational trauma.
Finally, the complex moral dilemmas explored in All Ships Follow Me made Eerkens’ confrontation of the intergenerational trauma wrought by war all the more heart-wrenching. She questions whether her own mental health struggles are learned from her parents’ trauma behaviours and shame, or whether an epigenetic mark had guaranteed her a dysfunctional life. My own grandmother struggled immensely with mental health issues. Likely in part because her grief had little outlet; the suffering of war was universal in Holland and speaking of individual suffering felt shameful. Because of this, the anecdotes and characterisations my grandmother made about her time under Japanese occupation were regimented into acceptable stories that didn’t feature the suffering she probably experienced. Just talking about it felt like an indulgence, leaving those close to her to guess at the extent of her family’s suffering.
Eerkens’ family history starkly demonstrates the inability of my grandparents’ generation to process grief by talking freely of suffering during the war. A phenomenon that has arguably guaranteed the baking in of intergenerational trauma by leaving the next generation with many unanswered questions and sometimes also an oppressive cloud of shame hanging over their families. All Ships Follow Me is a search for answers in a tangled web of factual and moral questions, which leads us to reflect on the stories we tell about our families and our history.
March 21, 2025
Eerkens accompanies her elderly parents in a nostalgia tour of their childhood The first leg is to Indonesia where her father was part of the Dutch colonial class and then later a POW camp after Japan invaded. The second is to the Netherlands, where Eerkens’ mother bore the shame of being the child of a Nazi sympathizer. This book reveals aspects of World War 2 that I had never known. I would rated this a five star read were it not for later chapters. There Eerkens’ clear narrative seems to unravel with examining all her family’s various psychological issues, pondering political complexities, and wrestling with who is really a victim.
May 29, 2019
This book tells the story of a family impacted by WWII and the atrocities that took place during that time. It specifically focuses on two families, one from the Dutch East Indies and another from the Netherlands, before and then after marriage unites the two families. It was interesting to read the family's history because it's from a different perspective than I usually read. The author addresses how the war impacted the lives of her grandparents and parents (what they went through, decisions they made, etc.) and how this continues to have an effect on her own life.
August 24, 2019
I really enjoyed this book! I have read a lot of WWII fiction and memoirs and never come across anything quite like this very interesting combination that highlights the two very different perspectives of Dutch citizens (the parents of the author) and the impact that their unique war experiences had on her own life and those of her siblings. It was eye-opening as I learned a great deal about elements and actualities of the war that I had no idea about before and very thought-provoking as well in terms of societies (and my own) perceptions of the aggressors versus victims of war.
April 8, 2023
So, I have many feelings about this book. It was definitely interesting to see more of the Indonesian side of WW II because that is not really talked about much. But also, I feel like the author tried to be neutral on some things, but actually pushed her opinions a little more than what I wanted. The best and most touching part of the book is where the title derives from. How brave those men were! That will be something that stays with me for sure. Overall, good book, but not great. I'd probably still recommend it.
December 5, 2024
I appreciated this book due to the viewpoints of the author and her parents. Her father was in an internment camp in Indonesia during WWII, then displaced with others of Dutch ancestry when Indonesia gained its independence. Her mother's parents were imprisoned immediately after WWII in Holland due to their membership in the Dutch party that supported the Nazis. No one wants to talk of these shameful family secrets, so no one ever learns about them. This story does a great job of shedding light on how complicated life is, especially during times of war.
July 9, 2024
This was an engrossing story of two families during WWII. It was extra interesting to me because my family is Dutch with history in Indonesia as well. The story is sad and really shows how history can reverberate through generations. I felt like it was really well written and combined the family stories with a clear explanation of historical occurrences smoothly. Leaves you thinking of implications of current events.
April 22, 2019
So moved by this book! Beautifully written, grappling with the complex questions who is right and who is wrong. Mieke makes us wonder how and why we choose to accept the simple narratives told to us by surroundings while the deeper truth is always a lot more complex.
Thanks for writing this book. Highly Recommended.
Thanks for writing this book. Highly Recommended.
July 13, 2019
A hard look into the role of NSB members in the Netherlands, as well as the experience of those in the camps in Indonesia. I enjoyed how she wrote the book, and also delved a bit into the psychology of her parents and their experience, and how it affected her and her siblings and those with the same experience.
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