Barracks Camp in Muntok

Internees: women and children
Number of internees: 650 (approximately)
Number of deceased: 76
Information: From October 1944, Muntok was an assembly location for all “European” women and children from southern Sumatra. They were interned in a camp comprising new barracks made of bamboo and atap, surrounded by barbed wire, northeast of the city. The camp suffered an extremely heavy regime under the commandant captain Seki, especially with regard to systematic starvation and the withholding of medical care. In April 1945 the camp was cleared and the internees taken to Belalau.
Commendant: kpt. Seki
Camp leaders: Moeder-overste Laurentia; mw. G.B. Hinch; mw. dr. J. McDowell
Literature: Simons, J.E., In Japanese hands. Australian nurses als POWs (Melbourne 1985)
Warner, L. en J. Sandilands, Women beyond the wire. A story of prisoners of the Japanese 1942-45 (Londen 1982)
Kenny, C., Captives. Australian army nurses in Japanese prison camps (St. Lucia 1986)
Colijn, H., De kracht van een lied. Overleven in een vrouwenkamp (Franeker 1989)
Colijn, H., Song of survival. Women interned (Ashland 1995)
Bemmel, T. van, 50 jaar inzet voor Zuid-Sumatra (Nijmegen 1988)