Diet Kramer

Vocation

Notable

Family

Dutch writer of children's books. She was the youngest child of Pauwel Hendrik Kramer (8 February 1866, Meppel - 16 December 1927, A'dam), a druggist and Jacoba Ipenburg (29 October 1867, Leusden - ?), who married 7 July 1892 in Amsterdam. Pauwels first wife, Ida Walles (26 January 1863 in Meppel) died 3 May 1891 in Amsterdam. Her half sister Gerhardina (1888) married when she was four (1911), her sister Johanna married when she was 11 (1918). She also had four much elder brothers and a grandmother who stayed in the extended family. Diet Kramer followed the higher civil school (HBS) in Amsterdam. At young age she debuted in De Telegraaf newspaper (1923). She published her first girls novel "Stans van de vijfjarige" in 1927. After the success her second book "Ons Honk" (1928) she decided to become a writer. She followed courses in art and literary history and music. She published in the Protestant Christian "Opwaartsche Wegen" and "De Jonge Vrouw". She worked for publishing houses and stayed for a while in England. And all the time she wrote children's books that described dilemma's young people and women had to face. Even old fashioned now, "Razende Roeltje"(1931) had in 1977 the 16th reprint. On 23 January 1933 she shipped for Batavia. On 23 January 1934 she married the jurist Willem Anne Muller (1 Augustus 1891, Den Haag - 7 July 1945, Ambarawa), who was the rector of the Lyceum in Batavia. The got two children: Diet Marion and Willem Alexander. Diet wrote children's books, school books for Dutch reading education and translated English and German books in Dutch. Combining writing and motherhood was not easy. The title of the book "Onrustig is ons hart" (1939) in which a mother sacrifices herself for her children quotes St. Augustine's "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord". During the Japanese occupation, Diet and her children and her husband were kept prison in separate camps. Her husband died in concentration camp 7 in Ambarawa, mid Java, 5 weeks before the Japanese capitulation. Diet and her children survived Ambarawa Banjoebiroe camp 11, but she was exhausted. Early 1946 she returned to the Netherlands. She lived first in Amsterdam, later in Den Haag. In 1948 she published "Thuisvaart" about her experiences in Holland after the war. She kept on writing books, but she felt lonely and her spirit seemed broken. She died 12 Augustus 1965 after a short illness in Den Haag.