Corstiaantje (Sjaan) Pronk-van den Oever
Corstiaantje Pronk-van den Oever was born on 3 October 1902 in Scheveningen, the Netherlands.1WTA Emmen, declaration of release St. Lambrecht; WTA Emmen, information from Sis. C. Pronk of 18-02-1958; WTA Emmen, Pronk, Cobie, video interview 10-09-1999; PA, interview Pronk, Cobie, 18-10-2002.
Through Kloose, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, she was introduced in 1939 to the religious community. She was baptised a few months later by her brother in the faith, Winkler, in Amsterdam on 25 December 1939.
Sjaan Pronk was arrested by the Gestapo in The Hague on 24 August 1942. Her three children were left to fend for themselves. To start with, the Nazis put Sjaan into prison in Scheveningen (in the so-called Oranjehotel), and afterwards she was kept in a prison in Utrecht until 14 December 1942. Eventually she was taken to Germany via Cleves and passed through the houses of detention in Düsseldorf, Hannover and Berlin. Finally Sjaan Pronk was deported to Ravensbrück, where she arrived on 7 January 1943. There she was given the registration number 15.986.
It was especially traumatic for Sjaan to witness the murder of small children in the concentration camp. The babies of the female prisoners who arrived at Ravensbrück, were torn away from their mothers, and then bashed against the wall until they were dead. Later on she advised her daughter never to have children. She probably wanted to wipe out her memories and thus avoid the sadness of the atrocious things she had seen happen to small children in Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp.
Sjaan Pronk was assigned to garden detail at Ravensbrück. She belonged to the group of Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to eat food which contained blood. In the middle of February 1943, Sjaan found blood in her stools (due to bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract) which was probably caused by stress. She was moved to the sickbay and remained there until 25 April 1943. Froukje Volp and other sisters in the faith smuggled oatmeal porridge into the sickbay with the help of a German Witness-sister, and thus saved Sjaan’s life.
On 4 May 1943, Sjaan was deported from Ravensbrück to the sub camp at St. Lambrecht along with 23 other female Jehovah’s Witnesses.2Translator’s note: initially there were 24 Witnesses sent to St. Lambrecht, but a Polish Witness became ill and was sent back to Ravensbrück the same day. This group of prisoners spent two days at the railway station of Fürstenberg before being transported to St. Lambrecht.
At St. Lambrecht, Sjaan was initially put to work with the forestry working group. After that she was set to work as a shepherdess looking after the flock of sheep at the SS estate. This was totally new to Sjaan who had never before in her life even seen a sheep. This work had a beneficial effect on her. It also gave her the opportunity of adding sheep’s milk to her rations. Her health improved substantially. Also, working without supervision in the silence of the mountains eased the tension.
Despite the better nutrition in the concentration camp at St. Lambrecht, Sjaan was still in poor health. She suffered from nettle rash, which the German Bible Students tried to treat with various kinds of tea. Sjaan was esteemed by the other Bible Students as a sister in the faith who was supportive. She and Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen had a particularly close relationship. After liberation, when Sjaan took ill with appendicitis in Italy during the return journey, it was Jans who stayed behind with her, while the other Dutch women continued travelling. Sjaan’s appendix was removed in a convent, and after her recovery, they organised their return journey together.
When she finally arrived in The Hague on 25 August 1945, Sjaan weighed only 37 kilogrammes. Her health was very bad; she was continually ill and her physical reserves had been exhausted by her imprisonment. Soon after her return, Sjaan had to go into hospital. Sjaan had not only changed physically, she had become a different person. Her daughter, Cobie, remembers the period when her mother returned from the concentration camp as follows:
‘She had been living in a different world in the concentration camps. Now she had to reconcile herself to housekeeping. She never really succeeded. Six weeks after returning home, she had to go into a convalescent home, Te Werve. Then six months later, she was taken into hospital again.’3PA, interview Pronk, Cobie, 18-10-2002.
Sjaan spent three months in Zuidwal Hospital. Six months after returning home from hospital, a further four weeks in hospital was deemed necessary. The years of imprisonment and concentration camps had taken their toll.
Sjaan’s psyche had also suffered serious damage. Driven by an inner restlessness, she would often unexpectedly leave home, leaving only a short note: ‘I will be gone for a few days.’4PA, interview Pronk, Cobie, 18-10-2002. Her family always heard about where she had been only after her return. She was usually with her friends, Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen and Froukje Volp, her confidantes in the concentration camps.
Sjaan told her children very little about the various prisons. Mostly she spoke of St. Lambrecht, because these memories were the easiest to bear. She couldn’t bear the smell of turnips anymore. The characteristic smell evoked recollections of the terrible Ravensbrück images, which were indelibly stamped on her memory.
She also forbade her daughter to wear striped clothing. Cobie still held to this even after Sjaan had passed away.
Sjaan Pronk had a stroke and was paralysed down one side. She passed away in 1979 at the age of 77.