Antonie Hendrikus Colijn (13 April 1894 in Ambarawa – 11 March 1945 in Muntok) was a Dutch amateur mountaineer who in 1936 led the Carstensz Expedition, being the first to climb the Carstenszgebergte in New Guinea. Colijn was the eldest son (of three) of the

Hendrikus Colijn Hendrikus "Hendrik" Colijn (22 June 1869 – 18 September 1944) was a Dutch politician of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP; now defunct and merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal or CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands fro ...

, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1925 to 1926 and 1933–1939. After studying at the Free University Amsterdam and gaining his doctorate at the Delft Technical University in 1919, Colijn joined the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and worked for them in

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

, in the United States, Romania and, in the 1930s, in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

(now Indonesia). He was stationed at Tarakan, an island east of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

when the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies. He assisted the destruction of oil installations before they were captured, and he was subsequently sent, under Japanese supervision, to Balikpapan, to deliver an ultimatum to the military commander there to surrender the local oil installations, intact. He was sent to Java, from where he tried to flee to

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, but his ship was bombed by the Japanese. He reached the coast of

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

, was captured and interned at

Palembang Palembang (, Palembang: ''Pelémbang'', Mandarin: 巨港 (Jùgǎng), Hokkien: 舊港 (Kū-káng), Jawi: ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River in the ea ...

. On 11 March 1945 he died from exhaustion and illness in an internment camp at

Bangka Island Bangka is an island lying east of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is administered under the province of the Bangka Belitung Islands, being one of its namesakes alongside the smaller island of Belitung across the Gaspar Strait. The 9th largest island in ...

. Colijn was posthumously awarded the Bronze Lion. His wife and daughters were also interned but they survived the war. Helen Colijn, a daughter of Anton Colijn, wrote ''The Power of Song'', a book about survival in a women's camp, upon which the film '' Paradise Road'' (1997) is based.

Bibliography

* ''Naar de eeuwige sneeuw van tropisch Nederland: de bestijging van het Carstenszgebergte in Nederlandsch Nieuw Guinee''. Amsterdam: Scheltens & Giltay, 1937 (5e druk: 1949). * "De Nederlandsche expeditie naar de Cartensztoppen", in: ''De Berggids'', 1937, nr.3.

Literature

* Ballard, Chris, Steven Vink and Anton Ploeg, ''Race to the Snow; Photography and the Exploration of Dutch New Guinea, 1907-1936''. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2001

References

External links

interview met Jean Jacques Dozy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colijn, Antonie Hendrikus 20th-century Dutch explorers 1894 births 1945 deaths Delft University of Technology alumni Dutch mountain climbers Explorers of New Guinea People from Semarang Regency Recipients of the Bronze Lion Shell plc people Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni Dutch people who died in Japanese internment camps Children of prime ministers of the Netherlands