Family & kin

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 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.

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.

The story of son Jan Tigchelaar

Our story is the reverse of that of the Indonesian warlovechildren. When my father went to the Dutch Indies as a young soldier at the end of 1945, my sister and me were already born. Maybe my father met a girl overthere, because he has never come back to the Netherlands. My mother was left alone with two young children. I've never seen my father ever since.

A week ago, in August 2011, my mother called me with the words: "There is a child in Indonesia, from your father." She had just heard it from a cousin who was visiting her. I've always felt that there was something peculiar about my father’s military service period in Indonesia, and now it suddenly became a reality. It probably is a boy. Since this telephone call, I am looking for my half-brother.

The story of Dora and the search for her half-brother

The story of Gerda de Haan about her half-sister Edwina in Indonesia

Out of curiosity and fun, we googled my father’s name, and while surfing, we arrived at the site of the December 7th Division. Just by coincidence. To our surprise there was a call from a certain Edwina who was looking for her father, Eddie de Haan. Our father! We really needed some time to recover from the shock. The call was one year old, but we still tried to contact. The call was in Dutch, so we did not even know if she lived in the Netherlands or Indonesia ...

My father once said to me when I was young: "There's something I want to tell you later, but that will come." At that time I thought: what will it be about, something with my grandfather or whatever? Twelve years ago, I was 45 years old, I came to visit my parents. They sat together at the table, my father and my mother. "Come on dad, tell it now," my mother said. And so the story finally came out. My dad faterhed two children during his military service in Indonesia two children. My mother knew all along. They have never ever talked about it with us, my sister and me.

I know for a long time that I have a half sister in Indonesia. Once my father was very open about it when I was still living at home. With my mother it was different; she did not want to know too much about it, and still doesn’t. My father used to write many letters home to his parents. I've read almost all of them now. But nowhere he mentions  a daughter. I do not think anyone in the family knew.

The story of Willy's daughter and her father Bob de Kleijn (Cor in the Dutch Indies)

When a group of veterans visited Semarang in 1977, they were approached by two people, a brother and sister. It could clearly be seen that they were not fully Indonesian. They were asking for someone called Jan de Boer. Their father. My father. Only in 2010 one of these veterans dared to tell me, when my mother was already deceased. I have no idea where I should look now.

My father Jan de Boer was sent to the Dutch Indies in December 1947, as a 20-year-old boy from Schalkhaar. My parents were married young and I was born just a few months before his departure, in October 1947. He was a cook in 5.5 R.I. His regiment was active in various places, including in Klaten and in Salatiga. And at one point they were stationed in or near a sugar factory, the "Gondang Winangoe' in the village of Djatinom, near Klaten. That plant still exists.