Stories

In 1979, my mother, brothers, sister and me were unexpectedly confronted with the war record of my father, Jack van den Brom, in a very harsh way. One Sunday evening, at dinner, the phone rang. It was for my father. When he had finished the conversation he could say nothing more than: “They finally found me."

Emptying the house of a deceased aunt in 2008 gave the lives of the brothers Teunisjan and Jan van Ewijk a totally unexpected turn. In the house they found a picture of two cute girls. One of the girls looked just like grandma.

The quest of Teunisjan and Jan for their halfsisters in Indonesia

My mother is of Indonesian descent, a wealthy family. I believe my grandfather was a doctor or something, and my mother completed high school in the Dutch East Indies. At young age she married a man of Persian-Armenian descent. They led a comfortable life in Surabaya, a big house, almost a palace, and a livery stable full of horses, so I'm told. After the invasion of the Japanese her husband was murdered by the Japanese and Pelopor. My mother was left with three young children, they all four ended up in a Japanese camp. My mother had to witness many atrocities. Her cousin was ripped open by the Pelopor in her presence. After the war, she vowed to herself that she would never marry any black man. She only wanted to deal with white men!

"Indonesian women with Dutch husbands were killed. My mother and many other mothers, have long kept this secret. Only much later, she dared to tell that she had a Dutch husband. "

The story of Elly Hoektini in Kudus, Java

Jan’s father was encamped as a Dutch soldier in the area of Semarang. Jan’s mother worked in the kitchen barracks and as a washing woman. She fell immediately for the tall Dutchman; he was attractive and charming. After a year Jan’s mother got pregnant, but because of a sense of shame for her environment, she left her village to go to Jakarta. There she completed her pregnancy, and gave birth to Jan.
After the childbirth she returned to Semarang. But Jan’s father had already left, to an unknown destination, without having seen his own child. Jan’s mother went to the barracks. From someone in the barracks she received the full name and the home address in Holland of her soldier lover.

Luwi Velleman was born in 1949 and lives in Semarang, in the Jangli district. His father, Louis Velleman, had the small Luwi in his arms and cherished him. Then in 1949 all Dutch soldiers had to return to the Netherlands. Father Louis left his girlfriend and child in Indonesia with the intention to return as quickly as possible, with a job and a future. But it never came to be. Luwi has never seen his father. He lived in the assumption that his father had abandoned him deliberately. Until he received a letter from Australia in 1990...

The story of Warlovechild Dien Faessen

Dien grew up in Semarang with her mother until her 4th and spent the rest of her childhood in the orphanage of the Franciscan Sisters. She worked as a nurse at the Elizabeth hospital, until she left for the Netherlands on her thirtieth. There the search for her Dutch daddy soldier started. Instead of one, she found two fathers, and also an unknown half-brother who did not know of her existence either.

Jecky was born and raised in Bali. His daddy soldier left the island even before the birth of his child to Java and then to the Netherlands. Only 34 years later, after a long search, Jecky traced his father Jack. His father did not want to travel to Indonesia to meet because of his advanced age. And Jecky, who had never been outside Bali, did not dare to travel to the Netherlands. Son and father would never meet. Yet father Jack eventually returned in Jecky's life.