01-05-2025
Interview with PhD researcher Sander van der Horst on Indonesian students in Leiden who joined the resistance against the Dutch and German occupiers. According to Sander, some students were already building an underground network before the war, prompted by years of Dutch censorship and espionage.
Sander van der Horst was interviewed by Myrthe Timmers for the website of Leiden University. The interview is also available in Dutch.
On the eve of World War II, Leiden was home to the largest Indonesian student community in the Netherlands. Many of these students joined the resistance against the German occupation, and later some fought for Indonesia’s independence.
PhD candidate Sander van der Horst (Leiden University and KITLV) explores the political history of Indonesian students in the Netherlands. According to him, some students were already building an underground network before the war, prompted by years of Dutch censorship and espionage. ‘When the first anti-colonial political party of Indonesia, the Indische Partij, was founded in 1913, its leaders were almost immediately sent forcibly to the Netherlands,’ Van der Horst explains. ‘That marked the starting point for anti-colonial resistance in the Netherlands.’