Nana, one of the interviewees in the film Tuan Papa (Sir Daddy), at the Tong Tong Fair in The Hague, holding a DVD of the film in her hands. The two young lovers on the DVD cover are her parents: mother Els and soldier Jack. Nana, living in Indonesia, visited her cousin Dien in the Netherlands this summer 2011. It must be emotional for her to see a bunch of DVDs with that beautiful picture on the sleeve: both her father and her mother have deceased. Fortunately we captured their stories in time and were able to reveal their love story in Tuan Papa and on this website!

The documentary film Tuan Papa (Sir Daddy) now available on DVD!

Director: Annegriet Wietsma / Producer: Jean Hellwig
Documentary  81 minutes  16:9  PAL  DVD
With Dutch, Indonesian and English subtitles
Extras: The Making Of - A quest for warlovechildren in Indonesia

Order the DVD here for € 14.95

For Tuan Papa (Sir Daddy) director Annegriet Wietsma spoke with many warlovechildren, soldiers and their former sweethearts in the Netherlands, Australia and Indonesia. Jean Hellwig produced the film in co-production with the Dutch broadcasting channel NTR/VPRO. The audience rated Tuan Papa with the highest appreciation of all VPRO broadcasts in 2010!

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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.

In Bandung

Not all our quests for warlovechildren in Indonesia ran smoothly. When we were in Bandung, the city in Indonesia that I know best, we decided to follow a tip from the Netherlands to check on a child of a Dutch soldier. It should not be that difficult to find him? Indeed, we have found his home. But what happened next …

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Annegriet Wietsma and Jean Hellwig were traveling in Indonesia in October 2009 for the filming of the documentary Tuan Papa, that was broadcast on Dutch television on July 1, 2010. While they were looking for warlovechildren and soldiers' sweethearts in Java and Bali, they filmed each other to keep the audience posted about their production developments.

Elly lives in the picturesque town of Kudus in Central Java. When she had the chance to go to the Netherlands in the fifties she did not want to leave her mother alone. So she stayed and has experienced what it is like to grow up as an occupiers' child. When their bamboo house was burned down by nationalists in the heat of battle, she lost the only written information about her Dutch father forever.
She remembers that he was serving at the Engineers Corps and that he probably came from Zeeland. Perhaps he died in the Zeeland floods because from 1953 they lost contact. Now his name is the only thing she knows about him. She calls herself proudly: Elly Hoekstra. Elly's story can be read on this website at "Warlovechildren in Indonesia" under the title: 'Hello dad, it's me: Elly, your child!'.

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Annegriet Wietsma and Jean Hellwig were traveling in Indonesia in October 2009 for the filming of the documentary Tuan Papa, that was broadcast on Dutch television on July 1, 2010. While they were looking for warlovechildren and soldiers' sweethearts in Java and Bali, they filmed each other to keep the audience posted about their production developments.

We owe Dien a lot. She is one of the first warlovechildren whom we interviewed in the Netherlands. She put us in contact with her ​​cousin Nana, also a child of a Dutch soldier, with whom she lived in the orphanage during childhood. Dien ended up in the Netherlands and Nana still lives in Indonesia. And the great thing is that Nana's mother was still alive when we were in Indonesia in October 2009 to do the filming. When we visited Nana and her mother Ibu Els in Semarang, Dien was our guide. She took us to the orphanage, accompanied us on the eightieth birthday of Ibu Els and chose the hotel where we stayed. Thanks Dien, it was fun!

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Annegriet Wietsma and Jean Hellwig were traveling in Indonesia in October 2009 for the filming of the documentary Tuan Papa, that was broadcast on Dutch television on July 1, 2010. While they were looking for warlovechildren and soldiers' sweethearts in Java and Bali, they filmed each other to keep the audience posted about their production developments.

After a broadcast of the NOS 8 o'clock News about our project Warlovechild, a short message appeared on the NOS website from someone called Louis Velleman. He introduced himself as a veteran with a child in Semarang, Indonesia, but he had not left any contact information. We really wanted to meet him because we had not spoken to many daddy soldiers yet. I left a reply  for him with the request to contact us.
Months had passed without any reaction when Annegriet decided to give about everyone with the name Velleman in the Netherlands a phonecall. To no avail. But one day later (was it coincidence or was it telepathy?) out of nothing Louis Velleman made himself known to us through an email! It appeared that he had migrated to Australia long ago and he found my post after a look at the NOS website. He gave us the contact details of his son Luwi, who was the first to be interviewed by us in Indonesia. Shortly after this meeting we traveled to Adelaide, Australia, where we talked to Louis Velleman himself. It was a strange sensation because the physical distance is too large to bridge for father and son while we ourselves had visited both of them as part of our project within two weeks.

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Annegriet Wietsma and Jean Hellwig were traveling in Indonesia in October 2009 for the filming of the documentary Tuan Papa, that was broadcast on Dutch television on July 1, 2010. While they were looking for warlovechildren and soldiers' sweethearts in Java and Bali, they filmed each other to keep the audience posted about their production developments.

We already knew of the existence of Jecky because his wonderful story was one of the first to be published on this website (see the category "Warlovechildren in Indonesia ': A reunion after death). I had once met Jecky's brother Ketut and now it was time to visit Jecky himself to have him interviewed. To our big surprise, his mother appeared to be still alive! And so it happened that we yielded two interviews on our Bali trip.
The mother produced distant memories of the Dutch soldier with whom she was in love more than 60 years ago. And Jecky showed us how difficult life is for a Balinese with a foreign father: no inheritance and no rights to the use or possession of family land...

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Annegriet Wietsma and Jean Hellwig were traveling in Indonesia in October 2009 for the filming of the documentary Tuan Papa, that was broadcast on Dutch television on July 1, 2010. While they were looking for warlovechildren and soldiers' sweethearts in Java and Bali, they filmed each other to keep the audience posted about their production developments.

In Jakarta we visited Edwina, a warlovechild. We got her address from her Dutch half sister Gerda in the Netherlands. We were received with open arms by Edwina and her daughter Dina and son-in-law John. In a three-hour interview Edwina told us her moving story and afterwards we talked more extensively with her daughter. The concluding saté tasted excellent.

Thank you Edwina for your beautiful contribution!

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Annegriet Wietsma and Jean Hellwig were traveling in Indonesia in October 2009 for the filming of the documentary Tuan Papa, that was broadcast on Dutch television on July 1, 2010. While they were looking for warlovechildren and soldiers' sweethearts in Java and Bali, they filmed each other to keep the audience posted about their production developments.

Part 2 of the search by Annegriet Wietsma and Jean Hellwig in Indonesia.

Part two of the search is about Hennie and Eddy Tan. During our stay in Semarang (Central Java), we were at the celebration of the 80th birthday of a soldiers' sweetheart. There someone told us that she knew a brother and sister who were supposed to be warlovechildren. Further investigation proved that Eddy and Hennie were indeed born as a result of a love affair between a Dutch soldier and a Chinese-Indonesian women. An interview at home followed.

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Annegriet Wietsma and Jean Hellwig were traveling in Indonesia in October 2009 for the filming of the documentary Tuan Papa, that was broadcast on Dutch television on July 1, 2010. While they were looking for warlovechildren and soldiers' sweethearts in Java and Bali, they filmed each other to keep the audience posted about their production developments.