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 (Also read Andrea's personal story: I like the term Warlovechild)
Dear people of the Warlovechild,
I will try to tell you how I came to know about the history of my father. As descibed in ‘stories’, I only knew his name. Luckily I knew the name of my half brother, whom I contacted. Through him I got my father's name and birth date.
My father was not at the Royal Army, but he was a man of the Royal Dutch Indies Army (KNIL). I've looked at various sites to find out about the KNIL men from the Dutch Indies. Then I found the site of SAIP in Heerlen (Foundation Administration Indonesian Pensions) and I thought: if they have an administration of war pensions, then they certainly will have a lot of info about KNIL soldiers. So I called them. I told them I was looking for information about my biological father, a KNIL soldier whose name I have, but who also had two sons who served at the KNIL in the Dutch Indies, and a half brother whose name and birth date I also received.
They said I had to hand in what I knew in writing. No sooner said than done, and after two weeks I received a bulky envelope at home with all the information about my biological father and his wife and all children born of that marriage. That was so special! I even got the military history of my father and his two sons. The feeling really was indescribable!
I really knew nothing about him before and with this information I could suddenly construct a picture of him how he must have been.
My dad conceived me when he was 52 years old and because I was registered erroneously in the Civil Registry (I was born on 02.15.1950 but according to the Registry I was born 15.12.1950) it was very important for me to know exactly on which date he eventually returned from Indonesia to the Netherlands.
My mother told me that she was several months pregnant with me when he left for his wife in the Netherlands. And if I would have been born in December 1950, he never could have been my father. This always haunted my head. And now I had it in writing: he returned in November 1949.
So my birthday was indeed as my mother always said (15-2-1950). Not that I doubted my mother, but hey, if a birth certificate states a different date, then you start to doubt, even though my mother explained that it was a translation error. Unfortunately this is not reversible.
My father was born on 12.05.1898 and left at the age of 18 with his wife to the Dutch Indies because she was pregnant and that was a shame for the family.
My father must have been quite a personality because he appeared in the disciplinary counsel several times and was downgraded twice.
So ......??? Here I recognize myself sometimes, hahaha. My mother always said that I resembled him a lot. Apparently he had a strong personal opinion and did not obey all orders blindly.
In total I had two brothers and three sisters and one baby brother, who deceased at early age. So in this way I got to know more about my family. One keeps looking for evidence and I’m satisfied with my quest.
Kind regards from Andrea van 't Oostende.
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The documentary
