By Margaret Laurens – October 30, 2013. The 5th Annual Indo Heritage Festival took place on a beautiful sunny late-summer day in The Gazebo in Haverstraw NY on September 7th 2013. The annual event brought together about 100 attendees Indos, and family and friends of Indos, from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and as far away as…
By Jamie D. Stern, Director of Research The Indo Project is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and celebration of Indo culture and history through education and raising public awareness. We present information that allows the world to see that we are an identifiable people, despite our world-wide dispersion due to expulsion from our homeland. Celebration…
Farewell to the Indies (translation of Weg uit Indië, published in 2012 in the Netherlands) tells about the adventures of two ten-year-old children during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies in World War 2 and the ‘bersiap’ period that followed. It is written for all ages from ten years upward. Hans Vervoort (Magelang,…
Conducted by Videographer Ben von Stockhausen Sign Up For a Free One-Day Workshop INTRODUCTION The collection of personal stories from the elders in our community is one of the main initiatives of The Indo Project. Personal historical diaries bring Indo History to life. We encourage Indo families to create their own extended family…
The following is purported to be the only written testimony about the Bersiap that has been discovered thus far. It is noted as a source in the English Wikipedia about the Bersiap. Who will now help our own refugees? Translated from an article in De Haagsche Post published on 4 December 1954. Translated by Kareen Richard. …
Although the end of Japan’s WWII occupation of the former Dutch East Indies is celebrated on August 15th (V-J Day), it was on September 2, 1945, more than two weeks later, when the official ceremony of Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces was held on the United States Navy battleship USS Missouri. It marked the end of…
On April 27, 2013, The Indo Project held its third Florida Kumpulan. In excess of 100 people attended. Needless to say, there was lots of good food, music, dancing and getting re-acquainted with old friends. Drawing prizes included spekkoek, Bols jenever and several baskets filled with Dutch and Indo goodies, such as drop, hagelslag, bumbu…
Willem Nijholt’s childhood, like Ilse Evelijn Veere Smit’s, was cut short when the Japanese invaded his homeland, the DutchEast Indies. Like Ilse, he survived the war years in a concentration camp and the revolution that came after. Like Ilse, he repatriated to the Netherlands and built a new life. But Willem never forgot his childhood friend, the…
The Netherlands was liberated on May 5th, 1945. On that date, however, there was no liberation of the Dutch East Indies, a former colony of The Netherlands. The Japanese continued to occupy the Dutch East Indies, as well as other parts of Asia, for months, after the liberation of Europe. The (National) Memorial festivities on…
This year’s annual memorial ceremony was presented once again by the ‘Comité 15 augustus 1945′ under the auspices of the Nederlandse Veteranen Vereniging Wapenbroeders USA. Last Saturday, August 10, 2013, a group of about 50 people came together at the Los Angeles National Cemetery. The President, Mr. Auke Mensink, welcomed the attendees gathered to commemorate those Dutch…