Bezoek aan Dordrecht: tussen Groningen (Suriname) en Kebumen (Indonesië)

(English summary follows dutch)

Dordrecht

Ramon and Marie Maddamin in hun huis te Dordrecht, vol herinneringen aan Suriname en Indonesië.

Tijdens mijn bezoek aan de tentoonstelling "Koloniale oorlog 1945-1949" in het Verzetsmuseum te Amsterdam kwamen twee gedachten steeds bij mij op: allereerst het gevoel dat ik mij gelukkig mocht prijzen nooit in de positie te zijn geweest van die Nederlandse soldaten, die jonge opstandelingen moesten doodschieten. Ten tweede, het besef dat het jarenlang ingeslepen superioriteitsgevoel bij de koloniale gemeenschap en hun gebrek aan respect voor de inlandse bevolking, de conditie moet hebben geschapen waarbinnen de begane wreedheden werden toegelaten.

Maar klopt deze voorstelling van zaken wel? Ik bedoel, is dit het volledige beeld? En zo ja, hoe is dat na te gaan? Hoe werd die koloniale oorlog door Indonesiërs ervaren? David van Rijbrouck is Bahasa (de taal in Indonesië) aan het leren om de mensen te kunnen interviewen die deze oorlog nog hebben meegemaakt "aan de andere kant". Ik moet het helaas proberen in het nederlands. Daarvoor kon ik Ramon en Marie Maddamin in Dordrecht bezoeken. Ramon is de oudoom van Ravie Ananda, die ik beschreef in mijn blog "Kebumen, past and present" maar die zijn website over o.a. de geschiedenis van Kebumen, alleen in het Bahasa schrijft. Ravie informeerde me over zijn oudoom die nu in Dordrecht woont, maar in Suriname is geboren en een paar keer Kebumen heeft bezocht. Wat is zijn geschiedenis?

Groningen, Suriname

Ramon's moeder Samilah (geboren in Kebumen; ~1902 - 1984) kwam als jong meisje in 1923 naar Suriname. Ze was mogelijk geronseld, maar was ook boos op haar echtgenoot, bij wie ze een dochter, Siti Maryam, achterliet.

In Suriname trouwde Samilah met Karis Maddamin (verkeerde spelling van Amadamin), die een jaar eerder uit Tjilatjap (Java) was gekomen. Ze ontmoetten elkaar in de plantage "Peperpot". Later vestigden ze zich in Groningen (even ten westen van Paramaribo) als kleine landbouwers. Ze kregen 7 kinderen, waaronder Paing Radjingun (woont in Groningen, Sur.), Karisah (21-11-1933 - 3-11-2007), Rohmat (Ramon; woont in Dordrecht) en Joenoes (woont in Rotterdam).

Toen Ramon 19 was ontvluchtte hij zijn ouderlijk huis en trok naar Paramaribo. Daar werkte hij een aantal jaren voor de journalist André Kamperveen, één van de mensen die op 8 december 1982 door Bouterse en de zijnen vermoord is. Hij heeft verschillende keren zijn familie in Kebumen bezocht.

Links, Ramon's ouders, Karis Maddamin en Samilah, op latere leeftijd in Groningen, Suriname (rond 1960). Rechts, Ramon op bezoek in Kebumen bij de ouders van Ravie in 1985. Rechts onder, Ravie met zijn vrouw en zoontje in 2015.

Kebumen, Indonesië

In Kebumen trouwde Ramon's halfzuster, Siti Maryam met Supandi. Zij kregen 6 kinderen. Op 19 december 1948 vluchtte Siti Maryam voor de Nederlandse patrouilles ("Politionele Actie 2") de bergen in, naar de desa Binangun. Daar werd in 1950 hun jongste zoon Sumadi geboren. Hij trouwde met Hanimah en hun kinderen zijn Ravie Ananda en zuster Aila Rezania. Rond 1980 werkte Sumadi op dezelfde copra-fabriek (Mexolie) als mijn vader rond 1934.

Na 1946 kwam Kebumen in het territorium van de Republiek Indonesia te liggen. Wat gebeurde er tijdens de Koloniale oorlog in Kebumen?

Op een van zijn vele website-hoofdstukken vertelt Ravie Ananda hoe de Nederlanders op 19 december 1948, tijdens "Dutch Military Agression II" Kebumen binnentrokken. Zij bezetten snel het terrein van Mexolie, de copra-fabriek waar mijn vader rond 1933-'35 werkte. Vier mensen ("youth leaders and employees of the plant") werden gevangen genomen, ondervraagd en op de tennisbaan tegenover het huis van mijn ouders doodgeschoten. Het huis was door de Kempetai (Japanse militaire politie) gebruikt als hoofdkwartier en werd nu door de Nederlanders ingericht als commandopost. Later werd het overgenomen door het Indonesische leger, zoals ik kon ervaren tijdens mijn bezoek in 2000.

Op het Mexolie-terrein: Links, het huis van mijn ouders en de tennisbaan in 1933. Rechts, het huis als militair hoofdkwartier en dezelfde tennisbaan waar executies werden verricht.

Koloniaal geweld

In het NIOD-blog "Nederland en de Indonesische onafhankelijkheidsstrijd" van 13 augustus 2015 staat geschreven:

"In een nog nauwelijks publiekelijk opgemerkt boek geredigeerd door Bart Luttikhuis en Dirk Moses, Colonial counterinsurgency and mass violence (2014), plaatsen achttien Nederlandse en buitenlandse auteurs het conflict in een koloniale en internationale context. Een bijdrage, van de Zwitserse historicus Rémy Limpach, vraagt bijzondere aandacht.

Het boek van Luttikhuis en Moses (Routledge, 2014) kost $150. Gelukkig is het gebaseerd op een speciale uitgave van de Journal of Genocide Research, waarin ook een artikel van deze auteurs (vol.14, 3-4; pag. 257-276; 2012). Zij schrijven: "Soldiers entering the violent conflict, including those coming from a background of armed resistance against the German occupier in the Netherlands, could be socialized to regard ‘excessive’ violence as normal and acceptable." "Could be socialized", d.w.z. gewend doen raken aan het geweld.

 

 Interview J. Hueting. VARA uitzending Achter het Nieuws, 17 januari 1969.

J. Hueting, die in december 1969 hierover geinterviewed werd door de Volkskrant, geeft er een voorbeeld van. Hij vertelt tijdens een later bezoek aan dezelfde kampong waar ze toen jonge mannen te pakken hadden gekregen en langs de weg hadden neergezet: "Ik kan me pijnlijk goed herinneren dat de chauffeur van de voorste wagen, een Brabantse jongen, uit zijn truck stapt en zijn lichte mitrailleur meeneemt, een van de Owen guns die we gekregen hadden in J(?), het hoofdkwartier,.... en zo eens rondkijkt.... en naar zijn pistool-mitrailleur kijkt....en.....hij ontgrendelde de mitrailleur en schoot 2 gevangenen dood.... om z'n Owen gun te proberen..."

Indonesisch onderzoek

Ook van Indonesische zijde wordt onderzocht wat er in die Koloniale oorlog gebeurd is. Zoals hierboven gemeld vertelt Ravie Ananda op zijn in het Bahasa geschreven website in tientallen verhalen wat er tijdens de Politionele Acties 1 en 2 en later rond Kebumen gebeurd is.

In een reportage van Max van der Werff (NCRV TV) en de Indonesische onderzoeker Ady Setyawan, die Ravie Ananda hebben bezocht, wordt verteld hoe het Nederlandse leger op de weg van Gombong naar Keboemen een marktplaats bij het dorpje Karanganyar met artillerie beschoten heeft. Volgens Ravie's verslag ("Herinnering aan de kannonade op Candi-Karanganyar") vond de artilleriebeschieting plaats op zondag (Wage) 19 oktober 1947, waarbij 786 dorpelingen omkwamen en een tiental militairen (van het Republikeinse leger, TNI). Het is mij tot nu toe niet gelukt dit na te gaan in de archieven van de KITLV en NIOD, maar zijn verhaal vertoont grote overeenkomst met het bloedbad in Rengat op Sumatra op 5 januari 1949 (!), waarover gerapporteerd wordt in de NRC van 13/14 februari 2016. Bij die aanval kwamen meer dan 1000 Sumatranen om het leven.

Datum beide foto's: 8 augustus 1948. Links, van de website van Ravie Ananda, "Pancasila, Kebumen2013" (foto uit archief van het KITLV). Ravie's onderschrift suggereert dat de Nederlanders de terrorist Jatin zullen executeren. Rechts, Fotocollectie Dienst voor Legercontacten Indonesië. Reportage / Serie
[DLC] Evacuatietrein vanuit Gombong. Nummer archiefinventaris:
bekijk toegang 2.24.04.01. Bestanddeelnummer
3626. Gombong ligt even ten westen van Kebumen.

In een ander verhaal op de website van Ravie Ananda toont hij een voor mij aangrijpende foto (uit het KITLV archief), met een legenda waarin hij lijkt te suggereren dat de gevangene Jatin door de Nederlanders geëxecuteerd zal worden.  Maar het KITLV-bijschrift bij een foto van dezelfde gebeurtenis vertelt een ander verhaal:

"Een belangrijke bijdrage in het herstel van orde en veiligheid rond de Status Quolijnen (o.a. bij Gombong), levert de samenwerking tussen de Nederlanders en de Daerah (districts)politie. Zij bestaat uit agenten, gerecruteerd uit de kampongs en dessa's, die de patjol (schop) voor de karabijn hebben verwisseld. De Daerah-politie heeft in de afgelopen maanden geleerd efficient te werken. Enkele keren konden door deze politie grote en belangrijke arrestaties worden verricht. Het gelukte de Daerah-politie van Gombong de hand te leggen op een gevreesd terrorist met name: Jatin. Het is nog maar een jongen, maar desondanks heeft hij negen moorden en talloze plunderingen op zijn kerfstok."

Voor het lot van Jatin moet gevreesd worden. Maar door wie zal hij geëxecuteerd worden, door de Nederlanders of door Daerah-politiemensen? En wat waren dat voor mensen? Hoe verschilden zij van de KNIL-militairen in het Andjing Nica Bataljon dat nauw samenwerkte met de Daerah?

Een ingewikkelde geschiedenis

Na 60 jaar keerde ik voor het eerst weer terug naar Java. Voor mij was één van de raadsels van Indonesië, van de mensen daar, het ontbreken van haatdragende gevoelens jegens de Nederlandse toeristen (Dat was op Curaçao wel anders!). Ook in het filmpje van Max van der Werff wordt dit opgemerkt in een interview met een oude man.

Tijdens de Koloniale Oorlog (Politionele Acties 1 en 2) kwamen ~6000 Nederlandse soldaten om tegenover ~150,000 Indonesiërs. Dat lijkt een Israelisch-Palestijnse verhouding. Maar is dat wel zo? Zijn niet veel Indonesiërs omgekomen tijdens schermutselingen (moordpartijen) tussen eigen groepen? En als dat zo is, zou deze ingewikkelde geschiedenis de reden kunnen zijn waarom er geen speciale haat gevoeld lijkt te worden jegens de Nederlanders?

Een informatief artikel over deze ingewikkelde geschiedenis, ook wel de bersiaptijd genoemd, is dat van William H. Frederick (Ohio University) in de Journal of Genocide Research (vol.14, 3-4; pag. 359-380; 2012), getiteld "The killing of Dutch and Eurasians in Indonesia's national revolution(1945-49): a 'brief genocide' reconsidered." Op pag. 369 worden hoge getallen genoemd voor het aantal gedode Nederlanders en Indo's (Euraziaten). Zie echter het artikel van Bert Immerzeel in Java Post. Of het "genocide" genoemd moet worden blijft een vraag, maar duidelijk wordt gemaakt dat het buitensporige "dekolonisatie geweld" een gevolg was van Nederlands en Japans kolonialisme en van raciale spanningen, niet alleen tussen Indonesiers en Nederlanders, maar ook tussen etnische Indonesiers en Indo's.

De film "Merdeka" gezien in het Verzetsmuseum in Amsterdam: Hoe moeilijk, ja onmogelijk is het om de geschiedenis te verbeelden?

In de film "Merdeka" (Verzetsmuseum, Amsterdam) worden mensen als Hatta ("National Hero"; Minangkabauer), Nasoetion ("National Hero"; Bataker), en Abdulgani (jeugdleider van de PRI; de pemuda, republikeinse jongeren organisatie) geinterviewed. Ogenschijnlijk zonder haatgevoelens jegens Nederland vertellen zij hun verhaal en de voor hun gunstige loop van de geschiedenis na de Japanse capitulatie. De sympathieke indruk die de voor mij onbekende Ruslan Abdulgani in dit filmpje op mij maakte staat in schril contrast tot de feiten die Frederick in zijn artikel naar voren brengt over de PRI en over hen die er leiding aan gaven. De wandaden, begonnen in Surabaya en voortgezet op het platteland gedurende de bersiaptijd, waren van een ongekende wreedheid en de verdenking bestaat bij onderzoekers als Frederick, dat de Republikeinse leidinggevenden en zelfs Sukarno, ervan op de hoogte waren. Ik ben benieuwd wat Rémy Limpach en David van Rijbrouck hierover gaan zeggen.

English summary:  " Decolonization-2"

Ravie Ananda, who lives in Kebumen and whose father worked at the same copra-factory Mexolie as my father, sent me photographs of his great-uncle, Ramon Maddamin. Ramon now lives in Dordrecht, but was born in Suriname, where he learned to speak Bahasa Indonesia (and Javanese). He visited the family of Ravie in Kebumen several times. I visited Ramon and his wife Marie in Dordrecht, where they showed me pictures and a movie about Kebumen.

Ravie has an elaborate website with many historical accounts about what happened in his town during the colonial war 1945-'49 and later. It appears that the house where my parents lived in 1933-'35 became a military headquarter and that the tennis court in front of the house had served as execution place in 1947.

On Dutch television a documentary has been shown by Max van der Werff about Ravie Ananda's story of the "Canonade ofCandi-Karanganyar", where hundreds of civilians were killed.

In spite of excesses performed by the Dutch, it was my impression during my visit to Indonesia in 2000, that the Indonesian people were not hateful against Dutch tourists. Could the reason for this be that it were not only the Dutch who committed killings, but also the Indonesians who committed atrocities against Dutch, Eurasians (Indo's) and their own people, when suspected not to be loyal towards the Republic? This complex history of the post-war period, the so-called bersiap, is described by William H. Frederick (Ohio University) in the Journal of Genocide Research (vol.14, 3-4; pag. 359-380; 2012), entitled "The killing of Dutch and Eurasians in Indonesia's national revolution(1945-49): a 'brief genocide' reconsidered."

(De)colonization

Walking through the exhibition "Colonial war, 1945-1949" (Dutch Resistance Museum, Amsterdam; 26th of November, 2015 / 3rd of April, 2016), two thoughts kept coming to my mind: Firstly, the notion how lucky I was never to have been in the position of those Dutch soldiers that had to shoot Indonesian villagers, mostly young men fighting for independence. Secondly, an awareness of what the photographs and interviews of the exhibition did nót show: that the cruelties of this war were related to and tolerated by the widespread feeling of superiority among the Dutch.

An ingrained colonial attitude of ~300 years of disrespectfulness towards the "inlanders", the native Indonesian people, had created a condition in which the atrocities could be admitted. Some 150,000 Dutch soldiers and officers, who had just experienced the German occupation in the Netherlands, had no clue about colonial relationships and only knew that the country was "our colony" (in dutch: "ons Indië") and that the Indonesian people were inferior.

 

The exhibition showed the cruelties of the colonial war, but not that what induced it: the feeling of superiority and the disrepectfulness by the Dutch colonists towards the Indonesian people.

We will probably read more about how this colonial attitude with its lack of respect has induced the reciprocal cruelties from Rémy Limpach, whose thesis will appear later this year. And probably also from the study about Indonesia of David van Reybrouck (the Belgian writer of "Congo"), which he announced (in dutch) when opening the Academic Year 2015-2016 at the Radboud University (Nijmegen).

And perhaps, on a more personal basis, from the letters (in french) of my mother as published in the Blog Postume. The letters reflect the self-evidence with which a Dutchman and Swiss woman install themselves as newlyweds in the colonies, in the village Kebumen on Java.

 

9th Edition (1891) of the Max Havelaar by Eduard Douwes Dekker. The book was given to me by my grandfather, who urged me to read it.

A reminder of colonial history.

1860. Publication of the "Max Havelaar". According to Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006) it was "the book that killed colonialism", because of its accusation of expoiting the Javanese people.

Sukarno cited the book as an inspiration in his plea for independence. After all, one of his teachers was Ernest Douwes Dekker, whose great-uncle was Multatuli, the author of this famous book "Max Havelaar".

1900. The Dutch think to have the whole colony of Dutch East-Indies or "Insulinde" under their governmental control.

1927, 4th July. Sukarno (1901-1970) establishes the Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI). After being arrested in 1929 and released in 1931, Sukarno had become a popular hero known throughout Indonesia.

1933. To repress Indonesian nationalism, governor-general B.C. de Jonge bans Sukarno to the island Flores. Others (Mohammad Hatta en Soetan Sjahrir) would follow. The colony changes into a police state.

1933 is also the year in which my parents arrived in Kebumen.

1942, March. Japanese occupation of the Dutch East-Indies.

1945, August 15. Japanese capitulation after the Nagasaki atomic bombing.

1945, August 17. Sukarno proclaims Indonesian Independence, which started a diplomatic and armed resistence to the Netherlands. Sukarno formulated his ideological thinking in 5 principles known as "Pancasila".

How come that I had never learned about this philosophical formulation of the Indonesian state? It was the young Ravie Ananda from Kebumen who enlightened me just last year!

1946, November. British soldiers have been withdrawn from Indonesia and replaced by some 150,000 Dutch soldiers.

1947, 21 July. The Dutch launch "Operatie Product" (Eerste politionele actie), breaking the Linggadjati Agreement by entering Republican-held territories and outraging world opinion. The Republican army, TNI (Tantara Nasinal Indonesia) could not offer much resistance.

1948, 19 December. Following the defeat of a communist rebellion, the Dutch launch "Operatie Kraai" (Tweede politionele actie) causing again international outrage. The temporary capital of the Republic, Yogyakarta, was captured.

1949, 27 December. Complete transfer of sovereignty by Queen Juliana to Indonesia in The Hague. Sukarno flies from Yogyakarta to Jakarta, where he held a triumphant speech at the governor-general's palace.

Overseeing now all these complicated facts, what political awareness had penetrated to a Dutch individual like my father at the time? After surviving the POW camp and being repatriated in December 1945, he went back to Indonesia "to help restoring the colony" in 1946. He stayed for two years; it became a disaster.

The feelings of superiority of the colonial Dutch towards the Indonesian people led "our colony" to a catastrophe. Can we learn something from that? Did we learn something from reading Multatuli's "Max Haverlaar" of 1860?

Presently, we are struggling with feelings of superiority towards our islamitic fellow citizens. We do not accept them causing some of their young boys to go to IS. People are becoming afraid that they will disrupt our society. Yes, if we do not accept them the way they are, "l'histoire va se répéter".

Kebumen, past and present

The Mexolie factory in 1933/4

In 1933 Kebumen was a small kampong in the south of Java. My parents came to live and work there at the age of 29 (Oscar) and 26 yrs (Nelly). It will not have been easy for a swiss girl who didn't speak dutch nor malaysian, to adapt to colonial Netherlands-Indies and to Asian people she had never met. But, from the letters she writes to her parents (see Blog posthume), the newlyweds were full of energy, enthusiasm and hope for their new life together.

They drew for their parents and friends the map below. Indicated with numbers are:their house (1), houses of director and other staff (2-4, 9), station (7), tennis court (8), central park (alun alun, 29), mosque (27), palace of the Prince (26), prison (31), hospital (14), ice factory (16), a Japanese shop (18) and a Chinese shop (19), market (pasar, 21), post office (23), hotel Juliana (24), and the Mexolie factory (6, 10).

 

  

Map of Kebumen, drawn by my parents in April 1934. As indicated by the compass, North points downward.

Immediately after their arrival my father started to work in the Mexolie factory close to their house. He had to do administrations but, knowing some chemistry,he was also involved in checking the quality of the oil and in producing by-products.

  

Notebook with protocols (e.g. for saponification of butyl alcohol) and a drawing of a reducing valve.  How did this little booklet (10x16 cm) survive the Japanese camps?  We will never know....

Batak intermezzo

My aunt Vivian Woldringh-Coster (born 11 December 1927 in Bandung) lived until about her fifth year in Parapat and later in Tarutung near lake Toba in Sumatra. A year ago she told me what she remembered while showing me an album with photographs. When I showed these pictures to Julia Tampubolon, who was born and raised there, she could recognize most of the locations!

Pictures from the album of Vivian Woldringh-Coster. Left: Vivian (~4 yrs) with a governess from Suriname. Right a kampong near Banuarea; the tree could be from the Durian.

On September 3, 2015, I went with Hilbert van der Meer and his visitor, Julia Tampubolon, to the University Library of Leiden. Julia was looking for the book of a german missionary, Friedrich Eigenbrod. He wrote a story about the conversion to christianity of her great-grandfather, Sarbut Tampubolon; however the story was written in or had been translated to the "Batak-Toba" language. So, Julia had to tell us what Eigenbrod had been writing about.

The book about Sarbut Tampubolon, written by F. Eigenbrod in Batak language, found in the University Library Leiden.

She told us that the book described how the father of her great-grandfather, Guru Sumillam Tampubolon, had dreamed about his newborn son: that he would become someone to be respected and well-known with great influence towards other people because he would have charisma and power. So Sarbut became spoiled by his proud father in his very early age, even as a gambler and when he made “trouble”. Later, Sarbut became a leader, fighting with his Aceh comrades against the Dutch, burning churches  and  dutch army posts in the area of Toba. He was exiled to Padang and Aceh by the Dutch. He had to go into hiding in a cave on the shore of lake Toba. He fought together with Sisingamangaraja against the Dutch

{From Wikipedia: "Sisingamangaraja XII (1849 – 17 June 1907; "raja" means king), was the last priest-king of the Batak peoples of north Sumatra. In the course of fighting a lengthy guerrilla war against the Dutch colonisation of Sumatra from 1878 onwards, he was killed in a skirmish with Dutch troops in 1907. He was declared a National Hero of Indonesia in 1961 for his resistance to Dutch colonialism."}

During his wanderings Sarbut met the famous Lutheran missionary Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen, who "adopted him as a son".

Sarbut died on 11 September 1905; he had a son named Pamilang Tampubolon; his son was Guru Tiodorus Tampubolon, who married Lena Sitinjak. They had four sons and four daughters, of whom Julia is the youngest. They represent the 17th generation of the Tampubolon family.

Julia was born in a village called Harianboho on the western shore of lake Toba.

Houses and rice fields (2012) near Harianboho, the birth place of Julia Tampubolon.

Modern Kebumen

Kebumen is now a town with more than 1 million inhabitants. I found a web site about modern Kebumen and Julis helped me to translate it.

Left: Ravie Ananda's web site: http://kebumen2013.com/pdf-materi-sejarah-singkat-pmk-sarinabati-panjer-kebumen/. Right: Julia Tampubolon, helping me with the translation of the web site of Ravie Ananda, written in Bahasa Indonesia.

Photographs of the Copra factory in Kebumen (1860-1930) from the Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam. Many of these prints were also in my father's archive. Web site Ravie Ananda: http://kebumen2013.com/foto-pabrik-mexolie-kebumen/

On his web site Ravie Ananda describes how the Copra-factory in Kebumen developed from ~1860 to the 1920s. In the 1930s there were 3 classes of houses for those who worked in the factory. The houses were built in a classic european style. For the core staff they were located west of the factory. For ordinary employees 25 units were built, each containing a well. There were also public lavatories with wells. For covering the roofs, tiles were made with tile-press machines imported from Germany. Besides these houses many other buildings have been built as indicated on hand-drawn map of my parents.

Left: With the help of a picture of 1933, we found the house of my parents when we visited Kebumen in 2000. It had become a military post. Right: The buildings, the drying fields for the copra and the electricity poles have not changed much....

From 1961 to 1972 the production of copra-oil increased again, giving more work to local people. The factory also produced ice blocks. However, in 1986 the Mexolie (now called "Sari Nabati", meaning pollen oil) went bankrupt. Machines, steel frames and lorries were removed and sold. The factory was used for the storage of, for instance, sugar products. It was neglected for about 25 years.

In the past years, reconstruction plans are being carried out for the development of the factory area. There are plans to make an amusement park, but also a library and a museum, a recreation place for children, a sports center, swimming pool and a hotel. On the picture below a section of the drawing from 1934 is being compared with a section of the GoogleEarth map of April 11, 2013 from Kebumen as posted by Ravie Ananda. The green area belongs to a military post, the red area to the former Mexolie/Sarinabati factory.

Comparison of the drawing of 1934 with the map from GoogleEarth, slightly tilted to a similar position. The North now points upward.

When all the building plans become realized, it remains to be seen what will remain of the old buildings and houses of the Mexolie/Sarinabati factory. According to some people these buildings can be considered to represent the historical and cultural heritage of modern Kebumen.

New buildings (a hotel?) are being constructed at the factory site.

This picture was taken in April 2015, when Channoch M. visited the town where he was born in 1940.

"Oh...Keboemen"

When clearing up my mother's belongings after her death (1984) in Switzerland, my fatherfound her camp diary and letters in a wooden box. This led him to document their experiences during and after the Japanese camps in the dutch colony from 1942 to 1946.

Father, Oscar, transcribing my mother's diary and letters from the camp, found in the wooden box; 1984.

But who was my father, who broke up his study of civil engineering in Delft to study the chemistry of oil and soap in Groningen and Berlin and who brought his Swiss wife in 1933 to Keboemen in the Dutch East Indies? Was he longing for the land of his childhood or was he sent by his rich father, director general of the "Nederlands-Indische Handelsbank" (NIHB) in Amsterdam?

Thirty years later (2013), my Swiss cousin, Catherine Marchand, transcribed the letters sent by my mother to her parents in Switzerland, as described in my previous blog, written in dutch: http://woldringh-naarden.blogspot.nl/2015/07/op-reis-naar-wo-ii.html

The weekly letters of my mother are written in french. The "Blog posthume" starts with a letter written on November 14th, 1932 from Laren (Holland) describing how she had to convince one of the directors (G.A.Dunlop) to let them go together to the Netherlands-Indies:

http://java1933.blogspot.nl/2015/06/larenhollande-14-novembre-1932-comment.html

In October 1933 they settle in their house in Keboemen:

http://java1933.blogspot.nl/2015/07/15-octobre-1933-keboemenkebumen-hotel.html

On December 11th, 1933 she writes to her father in Switzerland: "The next day Mr and Mrs Röhwer absolutely wanted to lead us to a large underground cave, a curiosity in the country. So starting at 7 am in the morning, we visited the cave and had breakfast at 9 am. Then, on the way back, we went to the coast. My dear! such a spectacle, no, I could not believe my eyes and could not realize that it was me who had the chance to see such a sight, coming from fairy tales. Heat at least 45°C, true, but what does that matter. First we walked through rice fields separated by bamboo forests, Papali, bamboo forests, so beautiful, so beautiful, then sand dunes from where we saw the sea at our feet.

Blue sea, blue sky, in the horizon mountains in a purple haze, almost out of sight a grey sand bank on which tidal waves of 2 meters high come to die, making clouds of white foam while flowing back. The tidal waves are very strong on the south coast and do not allow swimming. Throughout this landscape were natives fishing for crabs, shrimps and women with large, brightly colored jars for making salt. Oscar took pictures, but they are not yet ready."

Father's photograph of the south coast of Java.

On December 15th, 1933 she writes to her mother that for the first time she felt homesickness: "...a longing for the cold, the rain, the snow, the wet streets shining in the glow of street lamps, the shops in town decorated and illuminated. But it only lasted a short moment...."

Note: "Oh...Keboemen" refers to a sighing of my mother when she remembered the first happy years in the Netherlands-Indies.

The copra factory "Mexolie"

Copra is the dried meat of the coconut harvested from the coconut palm. These trees were in every kampong; the coconuts were collected and transported (by the Chineses) to the factory, where they were first split and dried before pressing out and extracting the oil.

The drying field of the Mexolie factory in Keboemen in 1933.

In the 1910's and1920's there were many oil factories combined into the "OFI" (N.V. Oliefabrieken Insulinde in Nederlands-Indië). In that period dr. Albert Jan Kluyver spent several years (1916-1919) on Java as scientific consultant; later he became head of the laboratory of OFI in Bandung. He then heavily critisized the manifacturing of by-products. (Back in Holland Kluyver became the 3rd professor - after Beijerinck and G. van Iterson - of the "Delft School of Microbiology", and famous for his contention about the "unity in biochemistry". During the war Kluyver offered a job to Mrs. Woutera van Iterson in Delft. She met there Jan B. le Poole, who had just built the first electron microscope in the Netherlands, the "EM100". Later, in 1952, she became head of the Laboratory of Electron Microscopy) at the University of Amsterdam, where she was my promotor in 1974.)

Cover of a book by dr. R.N.J. Kamerling, a study describing the decline of the "OFI".

On the level of management, the OFI was critisized in 1918 by a principal agent of the NIHB ("Nederlands-Indische Handelsbank) in Batavia, Conradus Woldringh (my grandfather). He warned that the administrators of OFI were incompetent and too autocratic (p.74 of the book of R.N.J. Kamerling about the OFI; T. Wever bv, Francker, 1982). Although the directors in Amsterdam were annoyed and told him to mind his own business, it appeared that he was right: In 1923 the OFI had to be liquidated which resulted in the foundation by the NIHB of "Mexolie" (Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Oliefabrieken). Conradus Woldringh went to Amsterdam where he became director from 1921 to 1935 (documented in the book of W.L. Korthals Altes, "Tussen cultures en kredieten", Amsterdam 2004). But he must have known how difficult the future of Mexolie in the dutch colony would be. Why then did he allow his eldest son, my father, to go to the factory in Keboemen? And what became of the factory in present-day Kebumen?