03 Jul Fifth printing Soldaat in Indonesië

Soldaat in Indonesië 1945-1950 (Prometheus, 2015), written by Gert Oostindie, in collaboration with Ireen Hoogenboom and Jonathan Verwey is now in its fifth edition. The publication is based on letters, diaries, albums and memoires of members of the Dutch military during the decolonisation war in Indonesia between 1945 and 1950. The media described the book as ‘staggering’ (NRC Handelsblad), ‘thoughtful’ (Het Parool) and ‘ground-breaking’ (Nederlands Dagblad) and was nominated for the Libris History Prize 2016.

In 2016, on the initiative of the Indonesian publishing house Obor the book was made available in an Indonesian edition entitled Serdadu Belanda di Indonesia 1945-1950: Kesaksian perang pada sisi sejarah yang salah. This book was presented by Gert Oostindie in September 2016 in the Erasmus House in Jakarta and followed by a two week tour in Indonesia filled with a large number of lectures, interviews and debates.

Soldaat in Indonesië 1945-1950 is based on research by researchers, interns and students of the KITLV-project ‘Dutch military operations in Indonesia 1945-1950’ that has run since 2012. As of the 1 September 2017 this project will merge into the large-scale, joint research project ‘Decolonisation, violence and war in Indonesia, 1945-1950’ that will be carried out by KITLV, the Netherlands Institute for Military History (NIMH) and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The project has been made financially possible by the Dutch government, due to its decision on 2 December 2016 to lend its support to a broad inquiry into the events of this period.

KITLV will be responsible for the synthesis and will carry out the subprojects ‘Regional Studies’, ‘Bersiap’ and ‘the Social Aftermath’. For the first two subprojects the group, together with Indonesian colleagues, will carry out research in several Indonesian regions.

For more information see:
http://www.ind45-50.org/en/home
http://www.kitlv.nl/research-projects-decolonisation-violence-and-war–in-indonesia/