The story of Conny Latoel, Warlovechild

When I was thirteen, I heard a conversation between my grandfather and grandmother with an uncle. My father had just deceased, and I stayed with my grandparents, who lived in a barrack in the Moluccan camp in the Netherlands. And while I was sleeping behind the curtain, I caught that conversation. My uncle said in a slightly derogatory way: well, she’s not his anyway. Until that moment I knew no better than that Latoel was my real father. He was always very loving to me, and I'm sure he considered me as his daughter. But I was not.

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!

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!

Order now!

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 …

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.

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.