Violence is inextricably linked with war but the way that violence is recorded differs between conflicts. In the case of the Indonesian war of independence, various parties were fighting one another. That made talking about and depicting the violence a sensitive issue: which group was the victim and which group the perpetrator? In this theme, this question is considered from various points of view.

However, it should be noted that the material in this selection comes overwhelmingly from white Dutch soldiers. Their perspective is therefore inevitably overrepresented and that affects the choice of subjects. There are consequently only a few items about incidents of Dutch violence in this collection, while war crimes committed by the Indonesians – especially during the Bersiap – receive much more attention.

Even so, our aim in this theme is to show the violence of the Indonesian war of independence without letting one particular perspective dominate. In this context, it is important to query why some forms of violence were documented and others not. How do these sources colour our perception of the violence in this war?

3.1 Shot Down Like Dogs

Descriptions of extreme violence can occasionally be found among the many letters sent by Dutch troops. An example is this letter that was handed over to H.W. Felderhof, the procurator general of the Dutch East Indies, by R.A.H. Bergmann, an inspector in Parepare. The letter from an anonymous author describes what were termed ‘purges’ (zuiveringen) by KNIL soldiers in Suppa, South Sulawesi (the island formerly known as Celebes). In this operation, Dutch troops murdered around 200 Indonesians on 28 January 1947.

“Burnt a few kampongs to the ground, rounded up the population and, based on tips from some spies, shot over two hundred people down […] like dogs with our revolvers. […] Forgot to mention one interesting detail about this mass murder: lots of the soldiers were keen to get the rings off the fingers of the corpses. […] That's not for me, it goes against everything I feel and think, and everything I value. I find it impossible to see our idealistic, educative task anymore with this thick veil of murders and daily shambles.”