Launch Website A Farewell to the Dutch East Indies

January 12th 2009

On the 18th of December Mr. J.C.G. Wiebenga, chairman of the foundation Het Gebaar (‘The Gesture’), opened the website A Farewell to the Dutch East Indies belonging to the National Archive in The Hague. Mrs. M. Bussemaker, State Secretary of Health, welfare and sport received the book Verhalen in documenten over het Afscheid van Indië (Stories in documents about the farewell of the Dutch East Indies), which is linked to the project.

The website was enabled by a subsidy from the foundation Het Gebaar. A foundation in which various organizations, foundations and people collaborate on a great diversity of projects on behalf of the East Indian community. The website A Farewell to the Dutch East Indies gives access to 175.000 domestic and foreign archive pieces from 1945 to 1950. By making the documents accessible, it is possible to discover more of one’s own, East Indian family history, but also to get insight into unique source material about the 1940s from the USA, Great Britain and Australia (among others).

The website offers a variety of search possibilities to the visitor. The simplest search engine allows one to search ‘freely’ on words in the text of the various documents. Besides that, there are search possibilities through an interactive time bar and a map. Different themes and subject matter refer to relevant archive blocks and documents in the collection. Finally, an instruction movie explains how to go about the search.

Foreign archives
Documents can be consulted from the period of the British military command on Java (1945-1946). They are an important source of information about the events directly after the Japanese capitulation. The website also offers access to sources from Australia that give surprisingly detailed information about East Indonesia during the liberation and the period thereafter.

On www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief you can find a selection of photographs from the A Farewell to the Dutch East Indies site.