A 1926-born Dutch veteran recounts his experiences from 1944 to 1948. The interview covers volunteering in 1944, service with shock troops in the Netherlands, deployment to the Dutch East Indies, being wounded in combat in Soekarame, and his return to the Netherlands on the hospital ship De Grote Beer. This oral history was conducted by the Veteranen Instituut and archived by DANS Data Station Social Sciences and Humanities.
Use Cases
- Analyzing personal narratives of combat motivation based on the veteran's discussion of Dutch reasons for fighting in the Indies.
- Studying military unit culture and camaraderie based on the comparison between shock troops and conscript battalions.
- Examining medical evacuation and veteran care post-conflict based on the account of hospitalization in Lahat and transport on De Grote Beer.
- Researching the transition from military to civilian life for wounded veterans based on the narrative of being medically discharged and subsequent employment.
Strengths
- First-person narrative provides detailed personal chronology from 1944 to 1948.
- Interview covers multiple distinct historical phases: the end of WWII in Europe and the subsequent conflict in the Dutch East Indies.
- Specific locations and events are named, such as Vught, Zeeland, West-Brabant, Soekarame, and Lahat.
Limitations
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- The data is a single interview, limiting statistical analysis.
Provenance
- Source
- Veteranen Instituut
- Collection Method
- Oral history interview.
- Time Range
- Interview subject's experiences primarily from 1944 to 1948.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2025-10-24 03:47:23; freshness should be verified
- Geography
- Netherlands, Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia).