Sumatran Shadows

by Peter Janssen

In 1957, Indonesia’s President Sukarno gave 46,000 Dutch citizens one month to evacuate the vast archipelago nation, known as the Dutch East Indies until 1949 when the government of the Netherlands acknowledged its independence after 300 years of colonial rule. Sukarno also announced the nationalization of all Dutch-owned enterprises in Indonesia, pulling the plug on what had been a source of vast economic prosperity and great private fortunes in Holland. Swept up in this frantic exodus was Nancy Janssen, a young American woman who had married Herbert Janssen, the scion of two wealthy Dutch business clans who had made their fortunes off tobacco plantations in North Sumatra. This memoir reveals the rise and fall of family fortunes and the journey of the Janssen family following the Sumatran exodus.

157 pages, Paperback

Published November 23, 2019