INDONESIA

 the country my mother was born.


What a strange, mysterious land - this land of the Spice Islands, and the Dutch East Indies Company colonials - this land that was sought by so many of the early explorers for its spicy treasures - this land that played such an instrumental role, indirectly, in the development of the New World as we know it.
This country has a special meaning to me because my mother was born there.

De Jensen zusjes in Bandoeng In 1908, at the age of 25, my grandmother, Gabriele van Doorn-Masson, boarded the ship *RANEE* and went to Java to visit her uncle who had already been living in Indonesia for quite some years. She arrived there on January 13th 1909.
In Bandung she met my grandfather, Carl Kreutz Jensen, a Danish business man. They lived Tjiateulweg 33 in *Villa Dania*, where my mother, Asta Erika Jensen was born, the youngest of 5 daughters (according to my mother, my grandfather was a great fan of Danish actress Asta Nielsen).

Oma en haar 5 daughters


On March 8, 1942 the Dutch East Indies were occupied by the Japanese army. Allied troops and foreign inhabitants were imprisoned in camps... These camps were located in schools, prisons, hut-camps and monasteries. Men and women (with little children) were separated and placed in different camps. My mother and my 2 sisters, ages 3 and 5, were placed in Tjihapit (Bandung) , Adek (Meester Cornelis) and Tjideng Camp - "Hell on Earth" - a women and children's internment camp set up by the Japanese in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia).
Board and lodgings in the 'Japanese Imperial Hotels' in the former Dutch East Indies were not free. The principle of the Japanese occupation army was that civilian prisoners had to pay for their own upkeep.
Japanese occupation took a tremendous toll on the Dutch and the native Indonesian population.

My grandfather died in 1921, when my mother was 3, my grandmother, who at that time lived Poetrilaan 22, died in 1943. She was buried at the "New Church Yard" in Bandung. Her grave is still there.

My mother and both sisters survived the camps and after being re-united with her husband (Henk van Ginkel - KPM) they immidiately left for Holland, were they settled in Haarlem. In October 1946 my sister Astrid was born.
On July 12, 1949, during the Indonesian revolt against the Dutch, KLM plane 'de Franeker' crashed near Bombay. Everybody on that plane was killed instantly... my mam's first husband was on that plane too...
On board were also 35 prominent American Journalists on their way home. Immediately the rumor started that it had been sabotage.
These Journalists had made a 'press trip' through Indonisia, by invitation of the Dutch Government. The trip was a big succes for the Dutch Government. The Journalists had become convinced that Soekarno was not the right leader to keep Indonesia free of communisme.
Before their trip to Indonesia the American Press opinion had been anti-colonial, so also anti-Netherlands...but that started to change now.
The crash suited the Indonesians.
Fifty years later a Dutch ex-top national service man said that 'Special Flight' de Franeker was sabotaged...
De crash van de Franeker
An American press trip to The Dutch East Indies in 1949.
Author: L. Zweers - Publisher: Boom-Pers, ISBN 9 0535 2640 4 (in Dutch only)

Bronze statue for the Dutch victims in the Japanese women's prison camps in the Dutch East Indies.

Bronze statue of the monument for the Dutch victims in the Japanese women's prison camps in the Dutch East Indies.
(1985 - Museum Bronbeek Museum about the militairy-colonial past and the KNIL (het Koninklijk Nederlands- Indisch Leger) Royal Dutch-Indonesian Army. )


Some History.


VOC Flag

"The East India Company Flag"

About 1600 a Dutch merchant expedition of three vessels sailed from Amsterdam to Java. This was the first of numerous journeys that left Dutch geographic names scattered over the globe, from Spitsbergen to Cape Horn and from Staten Island to Tasmania. These voyages resulted in the establishment or acquisition of many trading stations in Africa, Southeast Asia, and America.

In 1602 the Dutch parliament granted to the Dutch East India Company a charter that gave it a trading monopoly with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and west of the Strait of Magellan in South America. The charter also conferred many sovereign powers on the company, including the right to wage war and to conclude peace. The West India Company, founded in 1621, established colonies in the West Indies, Brazil, and North America.

The East India Company established itself first in the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and later on West Java, where Batavia (modern Jakarta) became the center of the company's enterprises. These enterprises were devoted mostly to trade and to the establishment of trading posts. Their functions generally did not include governing. Subsequently, pressed by the necessity of maintaining peace among the native rulers, the Dutch began to govern the territories (now called Indonesia) in order to maintain trade.

The Netherlands lost a war against Indonesian nationalists in the East Indies, and in 1949 the Netherlands formally transferred sovereignty in the East Indies (excluding Netherlands New Guinea) to the Indonesian government. Netherlands New Guinea remained under Dutch rule until 1962. Also, in 1954 Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles became equal members of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Rijstvelden in Bandoeng

Rice field in Bandung.


Interesting Links!



for you, mam

June 26, 1918 - †June 2, 1986

"For you mam, still miss you."

pink-ribbon


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