Sabine’s life had started so promisingly. She was the fourth child and only daughter of Sabine Schlette and Louis Zuur, born in Semarang, Java, Indonesia, in 1918, rather as an afterthought.
Her brothers were seven, eleven, and twelve years older. Father Zuur was a bank director in Indonesia in the 1920s, providing the family with a very comfortable lifestyle. Sabine was spoiled and adored by the whole family, but in her early teens, she first became aware that life was not perfect.
Father, mother and Sabine had moved back to Holland in the early 1930s, but her three brothers, already grown up and independent, had stayed behind in Indonesia.
Just as the family had returned to Holland, her darling Pappa died quite suddenly when Sabine was around fourteen years old.
A few years later, her favorite brother, Joop, by all accounts a bit of a womanizer, also died suddenly and mysteriously, poisoned by a Javanese lover, it was rumored in the family. My grandmother, also Sabine, but always referred to in the family as Moeder Bien, was left with a good pension. Initially life was very comfortable, but with inflation and the depression in the 1930s, plus the fact that Father Zuur had lost most of his money made in earlier years during the stock market crash of the Great Depression in 1929, his fixed pension dwindled to very little. The result was that mother and daughter were forced to move time and time again to ever smaller houses, causing Sabine to change schools many times. She struggled with the constant changes, but eventually they settled in The Hague, hopefully for good.
After school, though, life became fun again. Sabine had grown into a beautiful young woman, and had no ambition for further education once she left secondary school. And although she was very talented at drawing, her only wish was to become a secretary, marry a nice man, have children and live happily ever after.
Her cheerful, lively disposition, very attractive looks, good sense of humor, and above all, her love of partying, sailing, and having a good time, soon made her a popular addition to the social scene in The Hague.
Among her many friends were Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and Chris Krediet, who would both play an important role in the Dutch Resistance, and many others such as Gerard Vinkesteijn and Broer Moonen, who would ultimately pay with their lives for their bravery.