Transcript for the Piece Audio version of RN Documentary: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times - War and Memory
Radio Netherlands presents Vox Humana. In this programme, The Best of Times, the Worst of Times, Dheera Sujan looks War Remembrance
MUSIC – MILITARY MARCHES LP “Madjoe” Tr 4 Feesmarch 250 jaar Batavia
LP 101.937 Comp: trad. Perf F.Markus. STEMRA 681417814
This Dutch military march, like most music of the genre was designed specifically to evoke a sense of nationalism and pride. And for war veterans the music must stir a myriad of emotions – the horrors of war, the brutalities, the grief, but also the intense comradeship that war inevitably brings with it. Many veterans talk of the wars they participated in even 50 years ago as the shaping event of their lives.
In Europe the spectacle of war and its remembrance is everywhere. Fields in France, Belgium and The Netherlands are still turning up traces of the thousands upon thousands of men who died there in the course of the last century. War monuments, plaques and tributes to fallen soldiers occupy the place of honour in almost every European city, town and village. The remembrance of war is a way of bringing personal stories, family myth and national collective memory together.
JW – family stories 1’30
Right now theres a vast pop interested in history.. historical remembrance
3
Professor Jay Winter teaches history at Yale University in the United States and he’s spent years studying the way we remember war and how it shapes individual and national identity.
JW – war + identity ’38
War is a moment when the stories we tell… immediately obvious
Dr Petra Groen is a Dutch military historian
Petra – different wars ‘42
In the collective memory of the D.. 2nd w war
Jw –who’ll listen? ‘11
How society frames the– issue is who’s going to listen
SFX – propaganda film
Marten family background ‘26
I had 6 brothers… ..from the Japanese
Marten Schafsma is now 76 years old. He was a young man of 19 when he volunteered to go to fight in Indonesia. He was one of 120,000 Dutch troops who were dispatched to what Holland still regarded as the East Indies – the jewel in their 400 year old empire. Like so many of his comrades, he was not informed that in actual fact, he was being sent there to put down the nationalist movement of a fledgling independent country. The troops poured out of their transport ships to a world they’d never experienced before
Marten – 1 ‘18
In the 1st place, it’s a beautiful country.. ..loved the Indonesian people
SFX – propaganda film
This Dutch propaganda film shows the transport ships bringing soldiers to Indonesian shores. What it doesn’t show is that along with the novelty and the beauty came mortal danger.
Joop Hueting was also one of the soldiers.
Joop ‘43
I remember it with mixed feelings.. ..my emotions
Marten 3 ‘29
It was also exciting.. ..on the end kicked out
War can be the ultimate adventure but as Professor Winter points out, it can also leave a dark imprint on the soul.
Jw – how to integrate ‘58
but after war….. completely leaves the lives of the people who go through war
SFX – reunion military
Marten –silence ‘24
A long time.. didn’t talk about Indonesia
8’30
Petra – to forget ‘30
It wasn’t a nice time to remember…. ..this war
Stef – economy ‘54
One of the most important explanations.. ..going on
Stef Scagliola has written a book about the Dutch Policing Actions in Indonesia.
10
Marten – forgetting ’37 (poss out except for last sentence)
The people in Holland../..every day
REMOVE PETRA MYTHS CLIP FROM HERE
JW – national consensus 1’25
Memories become difficult.. the two can’t live together indefinitely
Henk 1 ‘46
My name is Henk Koetsier.. ..hundreds of people
14
It was through Reverent Koetsier that I met Gus Blok a veteran of the Indonesian war who’s experiences of a war more than 50 years ago still visibly haunt him today.
Gus 1 ’28 (here or move?)
You should not do to others.. ..ashamed of it
JW - traumatic memory indiv 2’00
Traumatic memory….act of self preservation
Marten photos 1 1’00
Here is the checkpoint.. the victor, yes
Gus 2 ‘47
At school I had to.. …taken up arms
17
Henk 1’13
My experience is that most of the vets.. .. mental situation in great crisis
While the Second World War became the yardstick of Dutch bravery and heroism, the
war with Indonesia was marked if not by a total blanket of silence in the Netherlands, then by a handful of widely accepted myths. Dr Groen.
Petra – myths ’48
There are several myths.. ..till the 60’s
JW – no audience ‘24
The way in which memories operate..(who is prepared to listen)..empty
19’00
Marten photos 2
Here begins the funerals.. many crosses yes
It was only 20 years after the event that The Netherlands began to collectively unpick the myths that surrounded the war with Indonesia and the true stories began to emerge
Stef – silence psychoan 1’10
Different from now….about Indonesia
Although war trauma had already been identified as a condition as far back as the First World War, an individual’s need for psychiatric help was not a very socially acceptable option until the 60’s - at least in the West
22’30
Jw – psychoan cult ‘58
The notion of traumatic memory.. not so clear
Marten – photos 1’51 (maybe fade in ctre to allow jw photographic in there)
Here begins the funerals of my comrades….. ..proud feeling
Jw – Photographic ‘45
There is a great field of doc.. ..that exist
Maybe up on Marten photos at end of jw
JW can’t always heal 1’05
It is entirely unclear .... ..predict
You’ve been listening to The Best of Times, The Worst of Times. The programme was produced and presented by Dheera Sujan for Vox Humana, and has been a Radio Netherlands presentation.
