Film will tell story of Dutch Indonesians

The Oregonian, Joe Fitzgibbon, November 05, 2009, 2:43AM

Joe Fitzgibbon/Special to The Oregonian

Michael Hillis (with boom mike) and filmmaker Marlin Darrah (with camera) interview Josephine and Ulrich Wollrabe (right) outside the U.S. Custom House in the North Park Blocks. The documentary being filmed will tell the story of Dutch Indonesians, such as the Wollrabes, who were imprisoned during World War II. Priscilla McMullen (left of the Wollrabes) and Bianca Dias-Halpert are involved in fundraising for the project.

Josephine Wollrabe's smile drops as her husband, Ulrich, recounts their imprisonment in Indonesia by the Japanese during World War II.

Hard labor. Disease. Never enough food.

"They gave us a baby bottle filled with rice as a day's ration," said Josephine Wollrabe, 71, who became a prisoner of war at age 4. "It was crowded and we were always hungry."

Friends and relatives fell ill. Many died. But the pair were young and strong and survived.

More than 60 years later, married and living in Gresham, the Wollrabes and others around the United States are taking part in a documentary about the little-known story of people known as Dutch Indonesians, or Indos.

Last year, the Wollrabes met Michael Hillis, a part-time teacher and history buff whose wife is Indonesian. Hillis, of Portland, wanted to preserve the Wollrabes' story.

"I didn't have any film experience but thought this account and dozens like it needed to be told," Hillis said.

Marlin Darrah, a Portland documentary filmmaker whom Hillis met through a mutual friend, said he was drawn to the powerful stories.

"You've got this wonderful mix of legacy, travel film and something right off the History Channel," Darrah said.

Next month, Darrah and Hillis will travel to Indonesia, The Netherlands and within the United States to shoot interviews and scenic footage while lining up sponsors and contributors. Plans call for completing and distributing a 90-minute film by 2011.

The filmmakers say about 300 first-generation Indonesians and roughly 2,000 to 3,000 children and grandchildren live in the United States.

When the Japanese invaded Indonesia, Ulrich Wollrabe, who has Indonesian, Chinese and Dutch heritage, was 9 years old.

His and his future wife's families were part of the ruling class in what was then called the Dutch East Indies. But war and the horrors of prison camps changed their privileged way of life.

Two years after the Japanese surrendered, the Wollrabes' families were rounded up again in a vicious civil war.

In 1950, the two joined boatloads of other Dutch-speakers expelled to their ancestral homeland.

"We were Dutch citizens but treated like outcasts when we arrived," said Ulrich Wollrabe, now 76. "We were definitely not wanted."

Wollrabe became an aircraft mechanic and married Josephine in 1960. But they faced continued discrimination and two years later, with their 6-month-old son, they joined other refugees fleeing to the United States.

The young family struggled through odd jobs until Ulrich Wollrabe finally landed work as a machinist in Fairview.

For years, they lived quietly and raised their four children. Few friends or co-workers knew of their past.

"People thought that I was a Native American or Mexican," Wollrabe said. "Indos don't go around announcing who they are -- it's not part of our DNA."

When they discovered other Indos in the metro area, the couple organized a reunion of more than 300 people. In 1986, they started the Insulinde Club.

"We wanted our heritage to go forward and to help our children understand and be proud of their Dutch and Indonesian roots," he said.

So do others involved in the film project. Bianca Dias-Halpert, part of the Indo diaspora in Seattle, wants to help build school curriculum around the film. Priscilla McMullen, an Indo from Boston, is trying to raise money for it. She said many first- and second-generation Dutch Indonesians suffer from "heimwee" or homesickness.

"There's great melancholy among our parents and grandparents because they were forced from their motherland," McMullen said. "This could help them not feel so lost."

Related Articles:

Obama pledge to Native Americans

Indonesia offering world class locations for film shooting