Veteran Institute Interview 507: Dutch Military Service in Indonesia Post-WWII

An oral history interview from the Veterans Institute (Veteranen Instituut) documenting the life of a Dutch conscript. The subject was a son of a Frisian greengrocer who was 11 at the start of the German occupation in 1940, served in the Dutch military, and was deployed to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in 1949. After the transfer of sovereignty, he was assigned for a year to the Central Transit Camps Batavia (CDKB) to handle administrative repatriation. The interview was published by DANS Data Station Social Sciences and Humanities on 2025-10-24.

Use Cases

• Analyze personal narratives of military conscription based on the detailed biographical timeline.
• Study administrative roles in post-colonial repatriation based on the mention of assignment to the Central Transit Camps Batavia (CDKB).
• Research the impact of WWII and the Indonesian National Revolution on individual lives based on the described historical events.
• Examine oral history as a source for understanding veteran experiences based on the interview format.

Strengths

• Interview provides a detailed, first-person account spanning from childhood during WWII to post-war military service.
• Specific historical context is given, including the year of deployment (1949) and the specific administrative unit (CDKB).
• Data provenance is clear, originating from the authoritative Veterans Institute and archived by DANS.

Limitations

• The actual interview transcript or audio file is not previewable; data content and length require manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; the structure and semantics of any associated metadata must be inferred.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for quantitative analysis.

Provenance

Source

Veteranen Instituut (Veterans Institute)

Collection Method

Oral history interview, likely recorded and transcribed.

Time Range

Interview subject's life from circa 1929 onward, with focus on events from 1940 to the early 1950s.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-10-24 03:22:20; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Netherlands (Friesland) and the Dutch East Indies / Indonesia (Batavia/Jakarta).