Lost Childhood
The story of how a young girl survives through World War 2
The Beginning
Annelex Hofstra Layson or preferred as Lex was put in Japanese concentration camp for three-and-a-half years with her mother and grandmother in the Dutch East Indies. At age four her family lived peacefully in Surabaya in the Eastern end of what is now Indonesia. In 1941 Lex's family made a siren for when Japanese or German soldiers came into the area to try to kill or take them away. Then Lex's grandmother got a bomb shelter so if the Japanese were going to bomb them they would be ok. When the Japanese started to bomb the area the family had special beads for when they went into the shelter that you would chew and it would make you accumulate saliva in your mouth that you swallow to keep your ear drums from bursting.
The Wait
When Lex's father was sent off because of the attack in Pearl Harbor the Family felt like they weren't protected. When the Japanese came to their house they just searched their house for their father or any weapons and then left. They came back a second time to check on them, but the third time they told the they had to pack up and leave. Lex's family went to the trains station to go to where ever the Japanese were taking them, but when they were boarding the train Lex's older brother Jack was split up and put on a different route then them. The train ride was agony, the smell of people stinking from the humidity was unbearable. From people puking to people dying on the train, no one knew where they were going.
The Horror & The Salvation
When Lex, her mother, and grandmother made it to the concentration camp they were frightened to know what was going to happen next. Lex's mother was assigned group leader for the people they put her with, and when they had an inspection the mother would have to have everyone in order by the number assigned to them. If a person was out of order they would get beat and the group leader would get beat. However there was something called the red cross which would give them some clothes if needed on rare occasions. When Lex and her family here that the war has ended, British troops fly in and help. The Japanese also helped by killing the invading the Indonesian capitalists. Eventually Lex was taken to a hospital to cure he malaria and went back to her home town, but she wasn't in the same home anymore because a different family was put in that house to live in.