What do you think?
Rate this book
Jejak Hitler di Indonesia
SEKITAR 70-75 TAHUN yang lalu, kepulauan Nusantara bukanlah tanah yang asing bagi Pemerintahan Jerman yang dikendalikan Hitler. Ternyata kapal-kapal perang Jerman, termasuk kapal selamnya yang “menakutkan”, U-Boat, kerap melayari perairan Indonesia yang ketika itu dinamakan penjajah dengan Hindia Belanda. Bahkan, Angkatan Laut Jerman memiliki pangkalan dengan fasilitas yang cukup lengkap di Surabaya, Batavia, dan Sabang.
JEJAK NAZI HITLER di Indonesia juga tak terbatas pada sisa-sisa artefak pangkalan angkatan lautnya. Di Sarangan pada masa Perang Dunia II, masyakat Jerman membangun komunitasnya, lengkap dengan sekolah dan lahan pertanian. Juga di kawasan lereng pegunungan di Selatan Bogor yang sejuk, terdapat areal pemakaman bagi para pelaut militer Jerman dari kurun waktu itu. Juga, banyak perlengkapan PETA yang merupakan cikal-bakal tentara modern Indonesia dipasok oleh Jerman.
BUKU INI TIDAK HANYA mengisahkan tentang penggalan bukti fisik tentang “keberadaan” pemerintahan Jerman Hitler di Indonesia, puluhan tahun silam. Penulis juga mengungkapkan bukti-bukti, betapa tokoh di lingkaran dalam Hitler begitu antusias menyampaikan potensi luar biasa negeri zamrud katulistiwa tersebut ke telinga bosnya.
INDONESIA memang negeri yang lekat di hati penulis buku ini, insinyur Jerman Horst Henry Geerken. Selama 18 tahun sejak 1963, dia bekerja di Indonesia sebagai perwakilan perusahaan telekomunikasi Jerman. Untuk menulis buku ini, Geerken tidak hanya mengandalkan pengamatan dan wawancara langsung semata dengan tokoh-tokoh semasa dia bekerja di Indonesia. Dia juga memperdalam informasi dengan menggali berbagai dokumen di kantor arsip Jerman, Belanda, dan Indonesia.
JEJAK NAZI HITLER di Indonesia juga tak terbatas pada sisa-sisa artefak pangkalan angkatan lautnya. Di Sarangan pada masa Perang Dunia II, masyakat Jerman membangun komunitasnya, lengkap dengan sekolah dan lahan pertanian. Juga di kawasan lereng pegunungan di Selatan Bogor yang sejuk, terdapat areal pemakaman bagi para pelaut militer Jerman dari kurun waktu itu. Juga, banyak perlengkapan PETA yang merupakan cikal-bakal tentara modern Indonesia dipasok oleh Jerman.
BUKU INI TIDAK HANYA mengisahkan tentang penggalan bukti fisik tentang “keberadaan” pemerintahan Jerman Hitler di Indonesia, puluhan tahun silam. Penulis juga mengungkapkan bukti-bukti, betapa tokoh di lingkaran dalam Hitler begitu antusias menyampaikan potensi luar biasa negeri zamrud katulistiwa tersebut ke telinga bosnya.
INDONESIA memang negeri yang lekat di hati penulis buku ini, insinyur Jerman Horst Henry Geerken. Selama 18 tahun sejak 1963, dia bekerja di Indonesia sebagai perwakilan perusahaan telekomunikasi Jerman. Untuk menulis buku ini, Geerken tidak hanya mengandalkan pengamatan dan wawancara langsung semata dengan tokoh-tokoh semasa dia bekerja di Indonesia. Dia juga memperdalam informasi dengan menggali berbagai dokumen di kantor arsip Jerman, Belanda, dan Indonesia.
402 pages, Paperback
First published February 4, 2015
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 4, 2025
This book isn't good. I will summarize why below:
It's ~550 pages long, yet, if all the repetitions, chapters unrelated to the book's premise and unnecessary fluff were to be cut out, we would probably have a book of roughly 200 to 300 pages. A number of chapters deal with topics only tangentially connected to Indonesia during World War 2, something the author occasionally admits - before wasting dozens of pages detailing, for example, the voyage of some imperial german ship near Australia during the first World War.
In addition to this, a not insignificant portion of the book is less (historical) research and more author's opinion. Usually, it isn't clear where the former ends and where the latter begins.
The citation is god-awful and not up to any academic standard. Entire books are usually given as a source (literature), without any page references. Worse still, every now and then websites such as Wikipedia, the Axis History Forum (!) or random - occasionally dead - links are 'cited'.
In some cases, the author entirely foregoes citing any sources, claiming to have spoken to eyewitnesses or reporting on his own first-hand experiences. I am not accusing him of having made these interviews up - although he may as well have, i would not know and i could not check for myself - but i find this type of 'evidence' lackluster at best. What, are we to consider the word of a former submariner in the 60s, describing events that took place in the 40s (a 20 year gap!), as gospel? Even if his claims contradict information from other sources? I think not.
The last problem i have with this book is a little more difficult to explain. While the author does not necessarily defend the Axis powers of World War 2 outright, his obligatory condemnation of Nazi Germany's as well as Japan's actions are most certainly overshadowed by a continuous and usually one-sided criticism of the allied cause. Ordinarily, this would not be problematic. However, topics which are controversial (and controversially discussed!) in historical academia are not presented in such a way: the literature used is very limited and usually biased. Using the memoirs/autobiography of a former Nazi official as a main source of information, for example, is, simply put, sloppy work, if not outright misinformation. Writing, it was 'unfortunate' that a certain course of action was not taken, which would have aided Nazi Germany during the war, is revealing. The Bengal Famine of 1943 is simply renamed to Bengal Holocaust, and the author claims that the indian colonial administration's actions (or lack thereof) are comparable to the Nazis' actions (in other words, the actual Holocaust). The author later downplays war crimes committed by the indonesian partisans fighting the returning dutch colonial authorities - right after having - rightly - criticized the Dutch for having double standards (in short: The Dutch criticize the Germans for occupying the Netherlands and molesting it's population, but then do the same in Indonesia, now in the role the Germans formerly had). And he does this after repeatedly criticizing the Allies for allegedly downplaying their own war crimes, while highlighting those of the Axis. What a wonderful parallel!
This fits right in with the author reproducing outright conspiracy theories, such as a german bomber (Ju 390) reaching the USA during World War 2.
Also, the book is really fucking boring like 60% of the time.
I don't recommend it. I learned very little.
It's ~550 pages long, yet, if all the repetitions, chapters unrelated to the book's premise and unnecessary fluff were to be cut out, we would probably have a book of roughly 200 to 300 pages. A number of chapters deal with topics only tangentially connected to Indonesia during World War 2, something the author occasionally admits - before wasting dozens of pages detailing, for example, the voyage of some imperial german ship near Australia during the first World War.
In addition to this, a not insignificant portion of the book is less (historical) research and more author's opinion. Usually, it isn't clear where the former ends and where the latter begins.
The citation is god-awful and not up to any academic standard. Entire books are usually given as a source (literature), without any page references. Worse still, every now and then websites such as Wikipedia, the Axis History Forum (!) or random - occasionally dead - links are 'cited'.
In some cases, the author entirely foregoes citing any sources, claiming to have spoken to eyewitnesses or reporting on his own first-hand experiences. I am not accusing him of having made these interviews up - although he may as well have, i would not know and i could not check for myself - but i find this type of 'evidence' lackluster at best. What, are we to consider the word of a former submariner in the 60s, describing events that took place in the 40s (a 20 year gap!), as gospel? Even if his claims contradict information from other sources? I think not.
The last problem i have with this book is a little more difficult to explain. While the author does not necessarily defend the Axis powers of World War 2 outright, his obligatory condemnation of Nazi Germany's as well as Japan's actions are most certainly overshadowed by a continuous and usually one-sided criticism of the allied cause. Ordinarily, this would not be problematic. However, topics which are controversial (and controversially discussed!) in historical academia are not presented in such a way: the literature used is very limited and usually biased. Using the memoirs/autobiography of a former Nazi official as a main source of information, for example, is, simply put, sloppy work, if not outright misinformation. Writing, it was 'unfortunate' that a certain course of action was not taken, which would have aided Nazi Germany during the war, is revealing. The Bengal Famine of 1943 is simply renamed to Bengal Holocaust, and the author claims that the indian colonial administration's actions (or lack thereof) are comparable to the Nazis' actions (in other words, the actual Holocaust). The author later downplays war crimes committed by the indonesian partisans fighting the returning dutch colonial authorities - right after having - rightly - criticized the Dutch for having double standards (in short: The Dutch criticize the Germans for occupying the Netherlands and molesting it's population, but then do the same in Indonesia, now in the role the Germans formerly had). And he does this after repeatedly criticizing the Allies for allegedly downplaying their own war crimes, while highlighting those of the Axis. What a wonderful parallel!
This fits right in with the author reproducing outright conspiracy theories, such as a german bomber (Ju 390) reaching the USA during World War 2.
Also, the book is really fucking boring like 60% of the time.
I don't recommend it. I learned very little.
February 1, 2019
110 - 2019
February 8, 2020
The best book I have ever read about this subject! Highly recommended!
November 6, 2015
Appeasing the Indonesians, selling books and glorify as a German in Indonesia, or should we say; East Asia? Terrible writing, absolutely no real scientific resources and a urge to define everything the Dutch did as a colonial power as wrong, no background check and no real interest in the real facts from both sides. Complete pulp fiction.
November 6, 2015
Appeasing the Indonesians, selling books and glorify as a German in Indonesia, or should we say; East Asia? Terrible writing, absolutely no real scientific resources and a urge to define everything the Dutch did as a colonial power as wrong, no background check and no real interest in the real facts from both sides. Complete pulp fiction.
November 6, 2015
Appeasing the Indonesians, selling books and glorify as a German in Indonesia, or should we say; East Asia? Terrible writing, absolutely no real scientific resources and a urge to define everything the Dutch did as a colonial power as wrong, no background check and no real interest in the real facts from both sides. Complete pulp fiction.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews