{"id":127456,"date":"2021-06-01T11:50:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T09:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=127456"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:39","slug":"uproar-about-de-oost-westerling-is-a-war-criminal-that-is-my-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/06\/01\/uproar-about-de-oost-westerling-is-a-war-criminal-that-is-my-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Uproar about De Oost<\/em>: ‘Westerling is a war criminal, that is my truth’"},"content":{"rendered":"

At long last, there is a film about the so-called ‘police actions’. De Oost<\/em> has led to outrage, especially among Indo-European<\/a> and Moluccan<\/a> Dutch people. This outcry intrigues me and the ‘why’ behind it even more. Historians Kees Ribbens and Lise Zurn\u00e9 explain how collective memories have influenced how De Oost<\/em> has been received.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A scene from De Oost, with Marwan Kenzari as Raymond Westerling.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDe Oost<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Even before its release, the film De Oost<\/em> (The East) by director Jim Taihuttu caused a furore. Last year, the Moluccan veterans\u2019 organisation Maluku4Maluku filed a police complaint against the makers of the film<\/a> on the grounds of it being \u2018a group insult\u2019 and \u2018sowing the seeds of hatred\u2019. The Federation of Dutch Indo filed a preliminary injunction demanding that the film makers include a disclaimer<\/a> emphasising the fictitious character of the film. The judge rejected this demand. Then Palmyra Westerling, the daughter of Captain Raymond Westerling<\/a>, was incensed at how her father is portrayed in the film. In an open letter<\/a>, she calls for a boycott of the film. According to her, the makers are \u2018falsifying history\u2019 and depicting the KNIL soldiers as \u2018Nazi war criminals\u2019. Just as interesting are the comments under social media posts and articles about this film. De Oost <\/em>is supposedly \u2018a nail in the coffin of our forefathers\u2019, \u2018a knife in the back of our Indies soldiers\u2019 and the makers \u2018should be ashamed of themselves for pissing over the graves of thousands of dead like that\u2019.<\/p>\n

De Oost portrays the controversial Captain Raymond Westerling<\/a>, commander of the Depot Special Troops<\/a>, part of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army<\/a> (KNIL) in the Dutch East Indies. The film is set in the former Dutch East Indies<\/a> in 1946, during the Indonesian War of Independence<\/a>. The story is about Johan de Vries, a young wartime volunteer in the Free Dutch Forces<\/a> who, under the leadership of Westerling, takes part in the massacre of villagers in South Celebes (now Sulawesi).<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t
\n\t\t\u2018In the collective war memories of Indonesians, Westerling is an out-and-out thug\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Westerling is a war criminal<\/h2>

The realisation that Indonesian history has a completely different face in the Netherlands only dawned on me a few weeks after I had arrived in Leiden for my studies. During a discussion in the lecture hall about Dutch Indies literature<\/a>, I mentioned that Indonesia had proclaimed its independence on 17 August 1945.<\/a>\u00a0However, my professor responded that Indonesians only gained their independence on 27 December 1949, when Queen Juliana signed the transfer of sovereignty on Dam Square in Amsterdam. That was the moment when I realised that Indonesian history, my<\/em> historical truth, is interpreted differently on this side of the world.<\/p>\n

Could something similar be going on in the reactions to De Oost<\/em> and Westerling? In the collective war memories of Indonesians, Westerling is an out-and-out thug. We learned at primary school that Westerling had blood \u2013 a lot of blood \u2013 on his hands: he was responsible for the genocide of 40,000 innocent people in South Sulawesi and the attempted coup against the then-President Soekarno.<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t
\n\t\t\u2018In the Netherlands, there is no single, broadly shared war memory of the period 1945-1949 in Indonesia\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t–<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKees Ribbens\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

No collective war memories<\/h2>

In that respect, the film corresponds to my perception of Indonesian history. But I can imagine that this portrayal is experienced as violent \u2013 or even worse: insulting \u2013 by Indo and Moluccan Dutch people whose (grand)parents served as KNIL soldiers or war volunteers in the Dutch East Indies. Does their collective memory of the Indonesian War of Independence also play a role in this?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Netherlands, there is no single, broadly shared war memory of the period 1945-1949 in Indonesia,\u201d says Kees Ribbens, endowed professor of Popular Historical Culture and War at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC). Ribbens studies how memories and images of war are expressed in popular culture and what these war memories still mean to this day.<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t