Sunset

This book takes place in the aftermath of the Dutch East Indies and describes the demise of a colonial era, seen through the eyes of two children; a sister and a brother. It describes how a wonderful and carefree childhood ended in a nightmare. They have been through the day, the radiant sunshine of a privileged caste in a wonderful country. They have seen the sun curtsy the horizon and seen it followed by a horrifying night. Fortunately, these two children, after the night, had again greeted the new day and could therefore still retell after so many years. Unfortunately, many of their peers could not reach the end of the night. Hein van Bottenburg was born (1929) and raised in the former Dutch East Indies. He lived there for a few wonderful years before the war with the Japanese camp. In 1946, he came to the Netherlands, went through grammar school, and studied theology at the Free University in Amsterdam. He was a church minister, and was one successively in Schoondijke, Noordwijk aan Zee, Voorburg and Veenendaal. Conversations with his children brought him to put together his youth and war memories into a book. Later, it has been supplemented with the experiences of his elder sister, Margaret. Marguerite van Bottenburg was born a year and a half earlier and spent her entire childhood in the emerald belt. The family fell adrift during World War II, and was interned and repatriated in May 1946 to Holland. There, Margaret graduated in HBS, got married, and had two children. Meanwhile, she studied English and worked for 15 years as a translator in the KEMA in Arnhem. She also wrote, at the insistence of several sides, her memories of a period that has so deeply cut into so many lives.