History student Wilma van de Wetering (RUU) interviewed historian of Czech origin Hanuš (Hans) Renner (born 1946) of the University of Groningen about his experiences in Czechoslovakia until 1968, when he came to the Netherlands. Renner came from a “bourgeois” background – his father ran a trading company – which made it difficult for him and his family to hold their own under communist rule. Nevertheless, he finished grammar school and began studying history in Prague in 1964-65. He followed with interest the liberalization that took place in Czechoslovak politics during the 1960s. During the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968, he found himself abroad and decided not to return to his country for the time being. He came to the Netherlands where his decision became final.

The 1956 Hungarian flow of refugees illustrates how the international community can quickly resolve a humanitarian crisis. The first asylum countries did not bear the brunt of their humanitarian response to the massive request for protection from the many Hungarians.
The 1956 refugee crisis also shows how broad support for refugee protection can facilitate inclusion.

Students from the Vakgroep Nieuwste Tijden at Ghent University conducted oral history interviews with 16 Hungarian refugees who came to Belgium in 1956.

In addition to the full transcripts, 10-minute summaries are available.

Migration is of all times. Time and again, people have said goodbye to their native land for various reasons, facing a sometimes very uncertain future. It takes courage to leave everything familiar behind and build a new existence on unfamiliar ground. The ‘Destined for Ghent’ project aims to record stories, rituals and traditions of people with a migration background and make them accessible to a wide audience. In all these stories, the focus is on life in the city of Ghent, on the strength and courage needed for a new beginning in a foreign environment.

‘Destined for Ghent’ aims to give migrants’ heritage a place within the growing focus on heritage in general and hopes to encourage migrants of different origins to record (or have recorded) memories of their personal migration stories.

The stories will be collected by ‘trackers’, volunteers who themselves have a migration history. The trackers are offered hands-on training that introduces them to the world of oral history. Armed with this knowledge, they go in search of witnesses to interview.

More than 50 trackers have now successfully completed the training. The first 27 interviews have been delivered. Trackers and witnesses together represent 32 of Ghent’s 159 nationalities.

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‘Destined for Ghent ‘ showed the results of the project to the public in various ways. The five duo-photos of trackers and witnesses on Heritage Day kicked off the project. A book, a multimedia application in STAM, an exhibition and numerous other forms of presentation will follow at a later stage.

‘Destined for Ghent’ is a project of AGORA, a Ghent partnership between the city council, various welfare organisations and national associations of migrants. The Integration Service is doing the coordination. Ghent University, STAM (City Museum), Amsab-ISG (Institute of Social History) and FARO (Flemish Cultural Heritage Support Centre) guarantee the scientific input in the project.

_{© Stad Gent – Integratiedienst/project ‘Bestemd voor Gent’}

Journalist and author Bòi Antoin has built an extensive collection of Bonairean cultural heritage on Bonaire in recent years. Makambanan na Boneiru (Dutch on Bonaire) is a small portion, 22 recordings, of the entire oral history collection that Bòi Antoin has built on Bonaire.

The interviews can be viewed online.

Japan’s capitulation marked the end of World War II, but also the beginning of the mass exodus of people with Dutch citizenship from the Dutch East Indies.

Some 100,000 Dutch Indians (both of European and European-Asian descent) arrived in the Netherlands on ships in the first years after the war. They came to recover from the hardships of war, internment camps and violence during the struggle for independence, which had erupted immediately after the Japanese surrender.

The series of interviews involves mostly short conversations (ranging from four to 40 minutes) with Dutch East Indies people. They discuss their arrival in the Netherlands and their assimilation into Dutch society. The material was used for an NOS radio program, broadcast in March 1971.

Interviewer(s): Dick Verkijk

Interviewees:

Ms. van Bamiset, Mr. Bochove, Mr. Corsmit, Mr. Doeff, Fermin February, Mr. Hakker, Mr. and Mrs. Heering, ir. van Helsdingen, Mr. and Mrs. Jans, Dr. Kraak, Prof. Dr. van Lier, Ms. Nicola, Mr. Oort, K. Pavilcek, father and son Pietersz, Mr. Pratacik, Coen Pronk, Mr. de Riemer, Mr. Robinson, drs. H. Ruiter, ir. J. Sluyters, prof. dr. J.D. Spekman, mr. and mrs. Tielman, ir. de Vries

Moluccans in the Netherlands

The interview project was conducted as part of the presentation and disclosure of collections. The purpose of the interviews was to capture stories for the renewed permanent exhibition starting in 2008.

The interviews focus on events and experiences in the years 1930 – 2008.
They mainly discuss the Netherlands, Indonesia and the Moluccas. Themes include KNIL, military police, residential areas Zeeland, residential area Elzenpasch, women’s emancipation, Moluccan church, management of residential areas.

Interviewers: Jeanny Vreeswijk-Manusiwa and Nanneke Wigard.

Interview project in collaboration with Imagine IC with former residents residential resorts: Lunetten, Woerden, IJsseloord (Cappelle aan de IJssel), Op de loop (Echt), Wyldemerck (Balk)

The interviews were conducted with the aim of collecting stories about daily life in a number of residential areas to be processed into a website with photographic material from existing collections. On this website the stories of eleven people of the first and second generation emerged, including Catholic Moluccans, Muslim Moluccans and Protestant Moluccans. How did they experience their arrival in the Netherlands?
What was life like in the settlements and how do they look back on it now? This website is no longer
on the air anymore.

It mainly talks about the Netherlands, Vught, Woerden, Capelle a/d IJssel, Harich, Balk.
Themes include residential area Lunetten, residential area IJsseloord, residential area Op de Loop, residential area Wyldemerck, Catholic Moluccans, politics, Muslim Moluccans, Protestant Moluccans, emancipation, help victims of civil war.

Museum Maluku has several interviews in its collection collected for various reasons.
The interviews discuss events and experiences in the years 1930 – 2006.
They are mainly about the Netherlands, Groningen and Indonesia, the Moluccas. Themes include camp elders, Carel Coenraadpolder (CC polder), Commission Rechtspositie Ambonese Militairen en Schepelingen (CRAMS), Dutch Royal Navy.

Interviews were prompted by the death of Gerrit ter Haars (Overijssel Dutch East Indies New Guinea Working Group) brother in Indonesia during the Indonesian war of independence and his feeling that Dutch veterans had been wronged.

Both Collection Overijssel (formerly Historical Centre Overijssel) and NIOD facilitated the interviews
facilitated by providing cameras and tapes. The objective was to
generate more attention to this war and all those involved through the publication of a book.
Participants were found through personal networks and snowball sampling.

The interviews focus on events and experiences in the years 1942 – 1962.
They mainly discuss Indonesia, the Netherlands and New Guinea. Themes include Second
World War, Indonesian revolution, reoccupation, independence struggle, war volunteers, conscripts, veterans, Darul Islam, TNI.

De oorlog ver weg, 1942-1949
Nederlands-Indie, de Japanse bezetting en de politionele acties

Auteur: Gerrit ter Haar

Uitgever: Gigaboek, Broek op Langedijk, 2013

ISBN: 9789085483755

De oorlog ver weg, 1949-1962

verhalen via interviews van burgers, militairen die de oorlog in Indië hebben meegemaakt

Auteur: Gerrit Ter Haar

Uitgever: Abc Uitgeverij, 2015
ISBN: 9789079859238

Archive and inventory no: D H 1565. The cassette tapes have been transferred to the AV collection of the KITLV.

The interviews are part of the working material resulting from the curriculum at the UvA on the history of the former Dutch East Indies led by Theo Stevens. P. Schuurmans was allowed to use these interviews for her doctoral thesis Adapting to Holland. The collection consists of the research material belonging to Schuurmans’ thesis.

Besides transcripts of several interviews, the collection also contains a notebook with notes and completed survey forms.

The interviews focus on events and experiences in the years 1942 – 1963.
They mainly discuss Indonesia and the Netherlands. Themes include World War II,
Indonesian revolution, migration, repatriation.

Publications linked to the collection: Schuurmans, P. (2002). Adapting to Holland: research
on Indonesian Dutch and their experience of repatriation 1950-1963 [Doctoral thesis]. University
of Amsterdam.