A TALE OF TWO FAMILIES IN THE DUTCH EAST INDIES

My Dutch grandparents met in an orphanage, married ''with the glove'' and left for ''Indie'' with rising expectations. How did they cope with Depression, Japanese Camps, Bersiap and the Dutch Indonesian War?
Bart Neervoort, successful business m
an in construction; and Andre Spoor, colonial administrator, were relatives and close friends. Their wives and daughters spent years together in Japanese camps, whilst their sons were students in the Netherlands under Nazi rule.For years communicatio
n was impossible. Liberation of Eindhoven offered them the chance to join the KNIL to help fight the Japs and rebuild their ''homeland.'' Japanese capitulation however did not herald peace but Bersiap followed by the de-colonization War. Here Andre'
's brother, General Spoor played a major role. Without passing judgement from our easy age, the author tries to understand how these ordinary people coped with extreme historic circumstances.
Marlies ter Borg-Neervoort is a philosopher and bridge
builder. She was born in Indonesia on Christmas Eve 1948 at the height of the Dutch-Indonesian war. It took her 60 years to become aware of the belligerent context of her birth.