Today, we continue our interview with Santo Tomas Internment Camp survivor Sascha Weinzheimer Jansen. In this post, we’re going to talk about everyday life in the camp. If you missed part 1 of the interview, you can catch up here.
What was it like going to school in the camp?
“I only went to school there for a little while. At first, classes were held out under the trees. That was fine. I contracted polio when I was 18 months, so I wasn’t able to climb the stairs to the classroom when they moved it to a higher floor of the building, so I stopped going to school. My mother had taught me at home before we came to the camp, and she continued my education inside, too. Every day, she had me write down what was happening. I had to hide my diary. It would be dangerous if the Japanese found it. I liked to draw pictures, too. And I would take my book outside and sit under the shade of the big taro plant leaves and read.”
You can read some of Sascha’s diary entries here.
Do you have any happy memories of the time?
“We had happy times there. We were together as a family, and that was good.”
Did you ever get sick?
“There was so much disease in the camp. We had measles. I had both bacillary and amoebic dysentery. Everyone had dysentery. I had dengue fever. They called it break-bone fever because that’s what if feels like – your bones are breaking. The pain is terrible.”
What was a birthday celebration like?
“We entered the camp in February 1943, just a few days after my 10th birthday. We were liberated on February 3, 1945, just a few days before my 12th birthday, so I only spent one birthday in the camp. I was sick then, so it wasn’t much of a birthday celebration. And there wasn’t much to do about a celebration, because there wasn’t food, and there were no gifts.”
Cathe Swanson says
That was so interesting – thank you!
The journal entries are such a vivid picture of that time.
Deanna S says
I can only imagine what Sascha & her family went through.. You are bringing it so much more real to me… So sad what went on…