My father stayed in Indonesia

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.

War volunteer

My father, Gerben Tigchelaar, was born in 1918 in Delft. In the middle of WW2, in July 1941, my parents got married. Two years later I was born and after me came my sister Elsie, in March 1945. Only six months after my sister’s birth, my father left as a war volunteer to the Dutch East Indies. His departure was in October 1945. The expectation was that the 'liberation' of the Dutch East Indies would last only a few months. He would return with some savings as a serviceman, something everyone could use right after the war years.

Into hiding

In the Dutch Indies my father was a sergeant nurse in a military hospital. When at the end of 1949 all Dutch soldiers returned home, my father had to stay longer to take care of the severely wounded military who could not be shipped. Many of those injured were shipped in 1950 or even 1951.
But there were also soldiers who did not want to return back to the Netherlands at all. While boarding, soldiers were missing, and manhunts were organised to trace them. That's what happened to my father Gerben: he went into hiding. He did not want to leave! The payment of my father was put to a stop, and my mother received no money anymore.
So life became hard for us in the Netherlands. My sister and me were send to an aunt during the day so my mother could work. My mother could barely make ends meet, it was real poverty. She apparently wanted to figure out exactly where my father was hanging out. As far as we can see now, he has been reported missing or possibly arrested. Eventually they tracked down my father, because in 1952 my mother had received a letter from the Red Cross that "ex-sergeant Gerben Tigchelaar" had adopted the Indonesian nationality in Bandung, as was declared by the Indonesian Government Gazette in August 1951.

My father seems to have written a letter to my mother that he wanted to stay in Indonesia to start a pharmacy. It was said he had sent money at his sister for the crossing of my mom and us. But my mother refused to leave and that was the end of their marriage. Meanwhile she had met someone else, it had lasted all too long. He had been away from home for six years! My mother married to this other man she had met, who became my stepfather.

Two times Jan and Elizabeth

My father stayed in Indonesia and founded a new family. There was no contact with my mother, sister and me. He got three children overthere, we later heard from an aunt whith whom my father had kept in touch. Two of those children were also named Jan and Elizabeth, like my sister and me. How can you name your children in both family’s with exactly the same name? So he had a Jan and Elizabeth in Holland, and a Jan and Elizabeth in Indonesia. That's something I do not understand. But as for Indonesia, I can understand my father now. I have visited Indonesia myself a few times, and I understand why he wanted to stay there.

I've also recently seen pictures of the children of my father, which he had send to my aunt in 1974. The birth dates of his two youngest children are 1956 and 1963. But the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1951. This is stated in the letter to my aunt. So maybe my father had fallen in love with a girl and she was the reason he went into hiding and wanted to stay there.
I only have one picture of my father, when he is a boy of 19 years, and the wedding photo of my parents is still there. For the rest, my mother had cut out my father of all the pictures in our photo album. Or maybe my stepfather did, I do not know.

My mother has always been anxious that my father one day suddenly would come back. Even on her death bed she was afraid of him popping up. But it never happened. And around 1991 we got the message through the grapevine that my father was also deceased.
On this website is an appeal from a lady, Ivon from Cimahi, looking for her biological father, G. Tigchelaar, born May 1918 in Delft. That is my father. It is not entirely clear to us how she fits in story. We are trying to find out now.