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Saturday 7 April 2012 the documentary Tuan Papa will be screened in the CineMasia Filmfestival in Amsterdam.

Location: De Balie, Kleine Gartmanplantsoen, Amsterdam

The screening will start at 1:00 pm.

The film will be screened with English subtitles! Director Annegriet Wietsma is present to answer questions from the audience. Join us!

Dear all,

I would like to share with you that we visited our half-sister Edwina and her children and grandchildren in Indonesia. Last year we heard of each other’s existence for the first time. We combined this very exciting meeting with a holiday in Indonesia. The last four days of our holiday we stayed at home with Edwina, which was fun. All in all, we know each other pretty well now.

During the filming of the documentary Sir Daddy we were looking for Pak Mulyadi. He was supposed to be a child of a Dutch soldier. We knew that years ago he worked as a guard at the tea plantation of Pekalongan in West Java. My sister Tineke Hellwig, an Indonesian linguist, had interviewed him once for a different study. During that interview he had mentioned by chance that his father was a Dutch soldier. They never heard from him. According to the notes of my sister, Pak Mulyadi remembered the name of his father as ‘Permil’. A very strange name.

On our arrival at the plantation we quickly learned that Pak Mulyadi was deceased a few years earlier. But his son and his old mother, who once had been the lover of a Dutch soldier, were happy to receive us. It was an interesting interview with the grandson acting as the interpreter for his grandmother, who only spoke Sundanese and barely Indonesian. At one point we asked for the name of the Dutch grandfather. The name was unfortunately forgotten. But when we mentioned ‘Permil’ the conversation took an unexpected and emotional turn...

On Tuesday, October 11, the Radio Gelderland broadcaster has focused on Warlovechild. Jan van Ewijk, who has been searching for his two half sisters for long, was invited for an interview.
Read more on the website of Radio Gelderland. Once we receive a link to the transmission, we will post it here as soon as possible.

Dear Warlovechild team,

With utmost interest the FIOM Ambulatory Foundation has followed the news on the website of Warlovechild from the start. FIOM can perhaps help people, both warlovechildren as well as Dutch veterans or their Dutch children, in their quests with general assistance and support.

Anna Montan and Patrick Lauwerends wrote the title song for our documentary Sir Daddy (Tuan Papa). The lyrics are sung in Dutch and Indonesian with a catchy melody in an atmospheric arrangement. The two have released a cd called CINTA that contains our song. Read more about this on www.annamontan.com .

Listen to our title song here.

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!

Foto's van de TV-première van Tuan Papa, in het Soeterijntheater te Amsterdam.

Klik op "lees meer" om het fotoalbum te bekijken.

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 …

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!'.

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.

Op het Tong Tong Festival speelde Inge Dümpel haar monoloog 'Jij bent niet mijn oudste' als try-out. Onder regie van Zwaan de Vries liet Inge zich inspireren door de verhalen van Oorlogsliefdekind. Zij speelde overtuigend een kind, een vader en een moeder. Inge legt nu de laatste hand aan haar monoloog. De aanwezigen bij de try-out waren in ieder geval geraakt en ontroerd. Bekijk deze impressie met een aantal reacties van het publiek.

Wilt u dat Inge Dümpel haar monoloog bij u komt opvoeren? U kunt contact met haar opnemen via email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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!

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.

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...

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!

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.

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.

Sunday, May 16th was the kick off of the Crossmedia Warlovechild project. Paul van der Gaag and Jos Palm interviewed Annegriet Wietsma and Stef Scagliola, both founders of Warlovechild. Also, military historian Wim Klinkert and jounalist Hilde Jansen contributed to the discussion. In the audience Jan Dennie told briefly about his personal experiences as a warlovechild. Music by Anne Montan and Patrick Lauwerends brought the broadcast into Indonesian spheres.
Afterwards producer Jean Hellwig showed a video impression of his search in Indonesia for warlovechildren together with Annegriet Wietsma.
Watch the video to get an impression of this special radio broadcast.

Een korte impressie van de zoektocht in Indonesië.

Here in Part 1 we followed a tip about a warlovechild who would live on the tea plantation in Pekalongan, three hours driving from Bandung in West Java. Unfortunately he had passed away, but to our surprise we found other important persons for our research and documentary: the mother, who unfortunately was not able to remember the name of her former Dutch lover, and her grandson who was sad not to know the name of his Dutch grandfather.

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.

A year ago, we invented the word "warlovechild” and it has become a concept to stay. The word is new, but the people it's all about have been there since long: children born out of love during wartime.

We received many positive reactions about the word. The warlovechildren themselves who have lived for years in the shadow of an unnamed taboo, appreciate the word underlining that they were born out of love, and not from violence or abuse. Love in times of war, this is what it's all about.

The term was easily translated from the Dutch word 'oorlogsliefdekind'. Hence we can now be found at www.oorlogsliefdekind.nl as well as at www.warlovechild.org. But what would the term be in Indonesian? A first translation could be "anak di masa percintaan perang '. But there is very little poetry in there. And a website address www.anakpercintaaandimasaperang.id seems not the easiest to type.

So who has a good idea? Reply! Who knows, we may make another great contest out of it!

Jean Hellwig