This photo album is the only one in the collection to have belonged to an Indonesian. Its owner was Sutarso Nasrudin, a soldier in the 1st Division of the Indonesian national army. The album is a friendship book that contains group portraits alongside love songs and battle songs. Thus the celebration of friendship goes hand in hand with a call to arms. It is not clear how exactly this object ended up in the Netherlands, but we do know what happened to Nasrudin. Written on the album cover are the words: “Seized in mid-Java 3-11 RI Owner Executed”. This information raises burning questions, particularly in the light of recent debates about returning colonial heritage items. Who does it belong to? A library in Leiden, the state of Indonesia or the heirs and descendants of Sutarso Nasrudin?
Photo album belonging to Sutarso Nasrudin, a soldier in the Siliwangi Division of the TNI. Central Java, 1948. Photographer unknown. KITLV A1070.