Hold On to Your Dreams: Regardless of Your Past

by Francoise Maricle, Constance Monroe (Editor)

Françoise Maricle was born two months prematurely in a Japanese internment camp in Indonesia during World War II. After the war, she and her family left the tropics they loved so much to return to cold, damp, and overcrowded Netherlands; not welcomed by the European Dutch. Françoise knew that she needed to find peace and tranquility somehow, somewhere, when she met her husband in Germany and later immigrated to the United States, which brought her happiness and gratitude.

While counseling women in abusive situations, Françoise found that she needed to share her story to be able to connect with them. After hearing what she had endured they were much more willing to work on their own problems.

236 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 25, 2025

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 2007, this memoir was updated and released again in 2025. The intended readership consists of women who have struggled against circumstances which have filled them with self-doubt. Francoise Maricle used her story in motivational speeches to encourage such audiences.

For me, the attraction of this autobiography is its foundation in World War II and the lasting effects of being born in a concentration camp. This year, I've read both fiction and nonfiction stories about life under the German Nazis, including experiences in the labor and war camps of Europe. So, I was curious to read a personal narrative starting in a war camp under the rule of the Japanese in what had been called the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

The author's Dutch parents had lived in the archipelago for most of their lives. Her father was a supervisor on a rubber plantation. As colonial settlers, they enjoyed the privileges of the ruling class. Household servants made their lives comfortable in the warm climate. Japan, already an Axis power in the war, invaded in 1942 to acquire rubber and oil for their military. The invaders separated the Dutch men from the women and young children into different concentration camps.

Not until after the author's mother was separated from her husband did she realize she was pregnant. In the harsh, jungle environment of the prison camp, prenatal care was nonexistent. Francoise was born two months premature, tiny, malnourished, and without an incubator. Her mother was forced to work as a laborer for the Japanese, so the baby received minimal nurturing for the first few years of her life. She wasn't much older than three years of age when Allied liberators ended her imprisonment. At this age, after spending all of her time in a picnic basket, she still could not walk. She was exceptionally small and weak. Moreover, when her parents reunited, her father was dismayed to learn that he had a new daughter. He was skeptical that she was his for several years.

When the Japanese surrendered, they supported Indonesian independence, which various factions had been trying to achieve before the war. The Indonesians overthrew their Dutch colonial masters, and most Dutch people returned to the Netherlands, even if they hadn't lived there for a long time. Now those who had enjoyed privileges in their colonies were barely able to eke out a living in the overcrowded Netherlands.

Francoise Maricle continues to trace her personal growth to adulthood, and then through her marriage and relocation to the United States. Her story is a continual journey of overcoming her father's cold shoulder, her mother's criticisms, her own self-doubt, and the challenges of assimilating to American culture with English as a new language. It's also a story of how the war, along with the end of the colonial era, affected her parents' personalities.

Usually, when I read an autobiography, it's by someone widely known, whose influence has shaped history. In this case, it's the kind of memoir you might read written by a friend or relative with something that makes this story different from others. I expect this book will provide a lasting picture in my mind both of Indonesia during World War II and of the end of colonialism in the East Indies.

[Amy Sadd · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can become who you want, even if you don't start where you wanted!
Breaking through the barriers placed on her life by circumstances and other people, Francoise learns to be here own person.
She shows how if you keep trying, adjusting, and being your own best advocate and championthat you CAN achieve your hidden inner dreams.
Bravo on reaching your dreams!!

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good look at a part of WWII history that is wildly underreported. The only changes I would have made would be more photos and updated information since the first edition came out. But what an amazing woman with an amazing story and spirit!

[Joan Buell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointed

I expected much more about her family's experiences in an Indonesian internment camp, but there was very little about that.