On May 10, 1940, the German invasion in the West begins. The Netherlands is occupied. The waves reach as far as Dutch East Indies in the Far East. German men aged 17 and older are interned, and their assets and possessions are confiscated. Also affected is the Protestant Hermann Reiter from Höchen, who had established a mission station in Central Kalimantan for the Basel Mission Society. Reiter is to be taken away on the prisoner ship van Imhoff. His compatriot, the Catholic Steyler missionary Brother Aloysius, is behind the same barbed wire. The ship is heavily hit by Japanese planes. While the crew escapes in lifeboats, the imprisoned are left to fend for themselves. More than four hundred drown, fewer than a hundred manage to save themselves. Among the dead is missionary Reiter; Brother Aloysius survives and writes a report.