Love in wartime. During the colonial war in Indonesia 1946-1949, Dutch soldiers maintained extensive contacts with Indonesian girls. Often they fathered children as a result of their ‘war romances’. Many of these warlovechildren never met their fathers. They kept looking for them all their lives and would like to get in touch. Is there any family in the Netherlands? Fathers also decide, sometimes after sixty years, to search for their withheld children. And children of Dutch marriages may want to meet their unknown Indonesian half brother or half sister.

Are you looking for a father, warlovechild, half brother or half sister? Or are you curious to read the stories of others?

See the quests in Your Search or start a quest yourself. In Information you can read how to undertake a personal search yourself. For stories about love and war, go to:

Warlovechildren in the Netherlands | Warlovechildren in Indonesia | Daddy Soldiers |
Family & kin | Soldiers Sweethearts in Indonesia |
Soldiers in love | Persevering lovers

Het verhaal van Janet Booij over haar opa

Mijn opa, Arend Seine Booij, was Indiëveteraan. Om wat meer over zijn diensttijd te weten te komen, heb ik met veel veteranen gesproken. En heb kennis gemaakt met de zwijgcultuur onder hen. Een enkeling was erg open over het geweld in Indonesië, de meesten sloegen dicht als je er te rechtstreeks naar vroeg. De omgang met vrouwen lijkt, zo mogelijk, nog gevoeliger te liggen. Wanneer ik een veteraan die mijn opa gekend heeft mijn vermoedens over een kindje van hem in Indonesië voor leg, legt hij bij ons afscheid zijn vingers op zijn lippen. Hij zal mijn vermoedens met niemand delen.

(foto: Arend Booij is derde persoon van links)

The story of Eduardine Geers (Ibu Ditty)

interviewed by Annegriet Wietsma, story written by Inge Manoch

In 2011 Ditty receives a birthday card from her aunt. Finally, finally, she sees for the first time a picture of the man who is her biological father, the Dutch military Eddy Geers. Why all this secrecy, why has it taken so long before Ditty cameto see this picture?

The story of Veronique Dudek about her father Mart Moors

Our grandfather Martin was a military in the Dutch Indies. He and my grandmother went regularly for reunions of veterans. At one of those meetings my grandmother seems to have shouted to a man: “You have left your child in Indonesia”. It became a real hassle, because a lot of people were sitting around them. Why reacted she so upset, and who was that man she was so angry with? Was it just someone of whom she knew he had left a secret child behind? Or was it perhaps Jan Muller, the biological father of our father?

Unfortunately for Anne-Marie the family that she finally got in touch with because they responded to her call on this website, are not her relatives (see her story ‘A coffin full of secrets in the wardrobe’ and the continuation of her quest in ‘Another family reunion?’ ). The meeting with Jos and Willemien Kruger was nice, cozy and exciting. And there are certainly similarities in their physiognomy. But apart from that, there were few clues. A DNA test eventually had to give a definite answer, and the test proved negative. There is no match. So ‘back to the start’, as Anne-Marie feels it.
Despite this disappointment, she is happy that she met the family. It was a special experience that she did not want to have missed. She is in peace with the results and enjoys life. And: there is always another chance to a new post, as she says.

The quest of a son to his half-brother or sister

After my father died, I found between pictures of his military service two portraits of a young Indonesian woman, one of her alone and one with a baby. The sizes of these pictures really differ from other photographs from that time. They fit easily in a man's wallet. Since then, the question keeps me busy: who is this woman, who apparently was so rewarding that my father kept her pictures all these years? And who is the child? Is it his child? Do I have an unknown half-brother or sister?

About eight years ago my brother got a telephone call by a woman who was looking for our father. She said she was fathered by him when he was stationed in Indonesia as a soldier. My brother was so shocked, that he did not ask any further and stopped the phone call. But immediately thereafter he went to my father to ask about this matter. My father confirmed nor denied. He just said that he did not want to be remembered to those days in the army. And my brother had to promise that he would never talk about the phonecall while my father was alive. He was not even allowed to inform us, his sister and brother. My father made him promise that he would not try and figure out anything anymore. My brother promised.

Elk jaar stelt het CPNB een lijst samen van 20 Top-titels in het kader van de Maand van de Geschiedenis. Thema van de maand oktober 2014: Vriend en Vijand.

Ons boek Liefde in tijden van oorlog is geselecteerd in de 20 Top geschiedenis-titels van het jaar 2014!

Dat betekent extra aandacht in de boekwinkels en een mooie opsteker voor iedereen die bij het project Oorlogsliefdekind is betrokken.

The story of halfbrother Hein Kleinleugenmors

As an eight year old I heard an argument between my father and mother. It seemed to be about a child and a woman in Indonesia. In my memory, that fight dealt about whether my father would take care of that child and the woman or even would bring them over to the Netherlands. I was so young that I did not really catch the impact, and I never heard about it afterwards. But it has always been lurking on my mind.

Jaarlijks vindt in oktober de Maand van de Geschiedenis plaats. In 2014 was het thema: Vriend en Vijand. Zaterdagavond 18 oktober 2014 hielden Annegriet Wietsma en Stef Scagliola een lezing tijdens de inmiddels beroemde Nacht van de Geschiedenis in het Rijksmuseum, met als motto: Als de vijand je vader wordt. Het werd een goedbezochte bijeenkomst in de Picknickzaal, met een mooi en gevarieerd programma van drie lezingen. Er waren ook veel jongeren en studenten in de zaal, voor wie het thema nog helemaal nieuw was. Het is al met al een fijne avond geworden.