Pastoor Verbraak

Pastoor Verbraak was the Catholic military chaplain of Aceh — the Soldaten-Pastoor — who, alongside the Ambonese Inlands Godsdienstleraar Thenu (the Soldaten-Dominee), served as the geestelijk verzorger of the K.N.I.L. troops during the Van Heutsz era. He resided in Aceh for well over thirty years and acquired the honorary title of “first flanquer of the East Indian army.” His partnership with Thenu is held up in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the model of how a colonial garrison’s spiritual care was actually done — not by the book, but by two men of different confessions who recognised each other’s gezag and shared the work without disputing sacramenten en geloofsleer.

In Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947), Verbraak is the figure whom Musket immediately names when speaking about the position and significance of the military chaplain in the Dutch East Indies: “Musket, of course, immediately named the great soldier-priest Father Verbraak, who resided in Aceh for well over thirty years and acquired the honorary title of ‘first flanquer of the East Indian army.’”

Well over thirty years in Aceh

The honorary title — “first flanquer of the East Indian army,” the soldier who marches on the flank, the vanguard — is the colonial army’s marker of Verbraak’s status: the soldier-priest who was the first flanquer of the colonial army, the priest who marched at the vanguard. The title — strictly, “volgens het boekje volkomen fout” — was nonetheless known and used by all.

The Soldaten-Pastoor and the Soldaten-Dominee

“Dat was de Soldaten-Pastoor geweest, Thenu was de Soldaten-Dominee.” The pairing is the book’s. Both went on expedities with the troops in the Van Heutsz time and were the most faithful visitors of the Militair Hospitaal. When one was at one place and the other elsewhere, “de een kwam dan bij de kudde van de ander, wanneer die afwezig was.” Each gave his strengthening word to the other’s flock without discussing sacramenten en geloofsleer. The book is explicit about the tone: the conversation was simply that of “een edel en hoogstaand mens.” The model is offered as the colonial army at its best — the confessional division of the rulebook silently set aside by two men who recognised that a dying Javanese Catholic and a dying Ambonese Protestant needed the same thing from the man who came to their bed.

The comparison with Thenu

“Indeed, Verbraak was a truly great figure; yet the Indies may and will also not forget Dominee Thenu. Admittedly, Thenu was a figure of smaller proportion, but yet equally grown together with this land and its history of the last decades, grown together also with the Acehnese soldier.” The book’s comparison — Verbraak the truly great figure, Thenu the figure of smaller proportion but equally rooted in this land — is the marker of the two military chaplains of Aceh: the Catholic soldier-priest Verbraak and the Protestant soldier-minister Thenu.

Significance

Verbraak’s significance in both sources is as the primary half of the Thenu-Verbraak pair — the Catholic complement to the Ambonese Protestant dominee, the truly great figure beside whom even the beloved Thenu is a figure of smaller proportion. Together they embody the argument that the K.N.I.L. in Aceh was held together less by regulation than by the patient daily work of men whose gezag ran ahead of and outside the rulebook. The fact that Verbraak’s first name is not even given — that he is “Pastoor Verbraak” or “Father Verbraak” throughout — is itself a mark of this treatment: he is the type of the Soldaten-Pastoor, paired with the type of the Soldaten-Dominee.

Account from St. Claverbond Register (1939) — H. C. Verbraak S.J.

H. C. Verbraak S.J. was a Dutch Jesuit missionary and military chaplain who served in Aceh during the Aceh War (1873–1904) and wrote extensively on the conflict for the Catholic mission magazine St. Claverbond between 1889 and 1907. His detailed reports—covering military campaigns, ecclesiastical observations, and daily life in the garrison—remain a primary source for understanding the war from a missionary perspective.

Military Chaplaincy

Verbraak was stationed in Aceh as a chaplain to the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL). He celebrated his silver jubilee as a military chaplain in 1899, an event noted in the magazine with a special article by L. Regout. His role brought him into contact with soldiers and local chiefs, and he documented the war’s progress in regular “Kerkelijke beschouwingen” (ecclesiastical observations) that blended religious commentary with strategic analysis.

Writings on Aceh

Between 1890 and 1907, Verbraak published dozens of articles in St. Claverbond, including:

“Atjeh op het eiland Sumatra. Verslag” (1890, 1891, 1894) – annual reports on the state of the mission and military situation.
“Kerkelijke beschouwingen over Groot-Atjeh en onderhoorigheden” – a series covering every half-year from 1894 to 1904, providing detailed updates on battles, troop movements, and the condition of Christian communities.
“Atjeh in vroegere dagen. Christenvervolgingen” (1900) – a historical account of earlier Christian persecutions in Aceh, linking to the martyrdom of Dionysius a Nativitate and Redemptus a Cruce.
“Reis naar Atjeh’s Noord- en Oostkust” (1905) and “Reis langs Atjeh’s en Sumatra’s Westkust” (1906) – travelogues describing the coastal regions and the challenges of communication.
“Een executie in Atjeh” (1907) – a vivid account of a judicial execution, illustrating the harsh realities of colonial justice.
“De St. Aloysius-kapel te Oeleë-Lheue, Atjeh” (1907) – a description of a chapel built for the garrison.

Legacy

Verbraak’s writings are invaluable for their immediacy and detail. They were later compiled and referenced by historians of the Aceh War. He was widely respected among soldiers and missionaries; a monument was erected in his honour at Kutaradja after his death, and his 80th birthday was celebrated in 1915. He died in 1918, and his passing was mourned in multiple articles in the Dutch Catholic press.

Account from Vierhonderd jaren missie (1934) — the Priesterheld of Atjeh

The mission jubilee volume of 1934 preserves, in the chapter “Pastoor H. C. Verbraak” (pp. 127–133, after S. Kalff’s “Een trits Indische Pastoors” in Koloniaal Missie Tijdschrift, Jaargang XII), the full biographical portrait of the soldatenpastoor of Atjeh. Pastoor H. C. Verbraak was a Dutch Roman Catholic secular priest of the Batavia vicariate who, as chaplain of the Netherlands-Indian Army, served for nearly thirty years (1874–1908) on the war-footing of Atjeh and became the most beloved Catholic figure of the Atjeh-oorlog — known to generations of soldiers as the soldatenpastoor (“soldiers’ pastor”) and to his biographer Kalff as the Priesterheld (“priest-hero”) of the colonial mission. Born at Rotterdam on 24 March 1835, originally destined for commerce, and ordained priest at Maastricht in 1869, Verbraak built the first Catholic church in Kotta-Radja in 1885, ministered to the wounded and dying through the postenlinie and at the military hospital of Panteh Perak, and was honoured with the knighthoods of the Nederlandsche Leeuw and Oranje-Nassau orders before a bronze statue was raised to him at Bandoeng in 1922.

Early life and ordination

Verbraak was born at Rotterdam on 24 March 1835 and was, in the words of Kalff’s sketch, “initially destined for commerce” (oorspronkelijk voor den handel bestemd). He turned to the priesthood only at the age of twenty-seven, entering the clerical state and receiving priestly ordination at Maastricht in 1869, after a year’s teaching at the college of Sittard. He then served at Tronchiennes near Gent and at Nijmegen before being appointed, by Royal Decree (Kon. Besluit) in 1872, as a R.K. geestelijke van den tweeden rang (Roman Catholic clergyman of the second rank) in the Nederlandsch-Indië.

His first posting was at Padang on Sumatra’s Westkust, where he remained only briefly. In 1874 he was transferred to his true field of labour — the oorlogsterrein in Atjeh (“the theatre of war in Atjeh”), where he would spend the greater part of his exemplary life.

The Kotta-Radja church (1885) and the chapel at Olehleh (1896)

One of Verbraak’s first concerns upon his arrival in Atjeh was the construction of a wooden church (houten kerkje) for the Catholic soldiers of the garrison. He had no funds for this work beyond his own savings and the gifts of a few believers at Padang and Batavia. The work therefore advanced slowly, hindered further by his own lack of technical knowledge and by the dishonesty of contractors, workmen, and suppliers who exploited his inexperience. As the sketch records, “the work was repeatedly halted, and in a tropical climate stillness meant decay” (stilstand achteruitgang).

The breakthrough came when the military artisans of the engineer detachment (detachement genietroepen) offered their free time to the project — for money and good words, on occasion for a cigar and a glass (“voor geld en goede woorden, bij occasie voor een sigaar en een borrel”). The church was thus completed, located on the line of the steam-tram from Kotta-Radja to Pakan Kroeng Tjoel, with about a hundred seats, the church and presbytery under a single roof. It was consecrated in 1885. On Sundays and feast-days Verbraak celebrated divine service there twice, whenever he was not in the field with the troops. The 1885 consecration is independently noted in the chapter on the Jesuit period of the mission jubilee volume: “in 1885 by Pastoor Verbraak the first church was consecrated at Kota-Radja” (In 1885 door Pastoor Verbraak het eerste kerkje ingewijd te Kota-Radja).

In 1896 a chapel-of-ease (hulpkapel) was built at Olehleh, the havenplaats serving Kotta-Radja, where Verbraak — after first performing his religious duties at Kotta-Radja — celebrated Mass and preached every Sunday. The Olehleh chapel thus extended Catholic ministry from the military seat of Kotta-Radja to its harbour.

The soldatenpastoor in the field

Verbraak’s chaplaincy was not exercised from the presbytery. He accompanied the troops on field-service — along the postenlinie chain, through ambush-prone jungle, and on the slow ossenkar (ox-cart) convoys that supplied the forward posts. Kalff’s sketch gives a vivid picture of the chaplain on the march:

“Bij zijn ommegang langs den postenketen, over een terrein waar de vijand in hinderlaag lag, sloot hij zich gewoonlijk aan bij een transport ossenkarren met proviand en andere behoeften voor de troepen te velde. … Bij zoo’n kolonne aanschouwde men pastoor Verbraak op zijn paard, een traag inlandsch biekje, terwijl hij in zijn zwarte soutane, met een grooten zonnehoed op het hoofd, zijn rozenkrans prevelde.”

When the column came under fire from an unseen enemy, Verbraak’s only precaution was to dismount and lead his horse by the bridle; he disdained to take cover in the ox-carts where he would have been safe from bullets. “They will not shoot him,” he used to say of the Atjehnese — “een zwartrok doen ze geen kwaad” (“they do no harm to a black-gown”) — “Dat ze op jullie schieten, ja, daarin hebben ze gelijk” (“that they shoot at you, yes, in that they are right”). When fire grew heavy and the soldiers feared his white helmet would draw a marksman, they would force him off his horse and form a protective ring around him, ultimately depositing him in an ox-cart — once in a cart of flour-sacks destined for the military bakery, so that he arrived at his destination safe but “as white-dusted as a miller’s boy” (* zoo wit-bestoven als een molenaarsknecht*).

His field-garb was famously shabby: a threadbare soutane and enormous, clumsy shoes — “no shoes at all, they were barges” (‘t waren haast geen schoenen, ‘t waren schuiten). When the post-commander reported that the field-altar — improvised from empty gin-cases draped with a white sheet — was ready, with the words “Au pastoor, de poppekast is klaar! Ge kunt van wal steken” (“Father, the puppet-show is ready! You can begin”), Verbraak answered only: “‘n Beetje minder oneerbiedig, jongmensch!” (“A little less irreverence, young man!”).

The Panteh Perak hospital and the cholera epidemic

Verbraak’s reputation as the soldatenpastoor was forged above all at the great military hospital of Panteh Perak, in the campement at Kotta-Radja. An officer of the Netherlands-Indian Army testified:

“Nergens was Pastoor Verbraak zóó in zijn element als in het groote militaire hospitaal op Panteh Perak. … Voor iederen zieke of gewonde had hij een vriendelijk bemoedigend woord, dat hem opheurte. Wist hij dat de verpleegde niet lang meer te leven had, dan zette hij zich naast diens krib, sprak hem berusting en hoop in, en dat alles in den gemoedelijken toon van een warm meevoelend vader.”

In the early phase of the Atjeh-oorlog the dreaded cholera broke out in the Kotta-Radja campement. The death-rate among the soldiers was so great that the hospital staff could scarcely be induced to enter the sick-ward. Verbraak — comparing him by the medical officer Dr. N. Munk to Pater Damiaan on Molokaï — stayed the entire period in the infected ward. Munk’s testimony, preserved in Kalff’s sketch, is the principal documentary witness to this episode:

“Maar midden in het visioen van die klagende zieken … verrijst in een schitterend licht het beeld van Pastoor Verbraak. Over de soutane heen de door herhaalde ontsmetting gevlekte en smoezelige zieken-kabaja, daar beneden de vaalblauwe geruite ziekensarong, een aandoenlijk groteske verschijning, waarboven het bleeke magere priestergelaat ernstige hartelijke deelneming uitstraalt … En pastoor Verbraak was de eenige, die vrijwillig de vreeselijke cholera-zaal bezocht.”

The testimony marks Verbraak as the sole voluntary visitor of the cholera-ward, who by his presence alone “kept up the courage” of the staff and the dying.

Extension of ministry to Pedir (1898)

When in 1898 the then-Colonel Van Heutsz took office as Governor of Atjeh, he informed Verbraak that the Government at Batavia had originally intended to attach separate chaplains to the forthcoming Pedir-expeditie, but that this measure had been set aside in the conviction that the predikant and the universally beloved pastoor Verbraak would distribute their spiritual ministrations between Groot-Atjeh and Pedir. “They were known figures among the troops, and could do more good than newcomers from Java.” Verbraak did not refuse the addition to his duties; he took Pedir on, in addition to his existing responsibilities. The episode marks the structural dependence of the colonial military chaplaincy on a single trusted figure.

Character, frugality, and charity

The Kalff sketch preserves a number of anecdotes that fix Verbraak’s character. He was famously frugal: when a visitor, seeing the small sum allotted for the household, asked “Daarvan kunt u toch zeker geen vruchten op tafel hebben?” (“Surely you cannot have fruit on the table from that?”), the answer was: “Vruchten? Kijk! Ik heb op mijn erf een paar papajaboomen staan, en wanneer die dragen, dan heb ik vruchten op mijn tafel. Anders kan ik het ook zonder doen!” (“Fruit? Look! I have a few papaya-trees in my yard, and when they bear, then I have fruit on my table. Otherwise I can do without!”).

A carafe of port stood perpetually on a side-table under a large portrait of the Pope. When teased about the proximity of spirituous liquor to the Holy Father’s portrait, Verbraak answered: “Nu, wanneer Z.H. het al zag zou hij het mij nog niet kwalijk nemen, want hij zou wel begrijpen, dat het daar uitsluitend voor bezoekers staat. Zelf drink ik dat goedje nooit” (“Well, even if His Holiness saw it, he would not take it amiss, for he would understand that it is there exclusively for visitors. I myself never drink the stuff”). When, on his tour of the posts, he had once let slip that zuurkool (sauerkraut) was among his favourite dishes, the news spread, and he was treated to sauerkraut at every post on his circuit — “zuurkool langs de geheele linie” (“sauerkraut along the entire line”). He swore thereafter never again to disclose his preferences.

His charity was lavish, even imprudent. He had been known to rescue from financial embarrassment persons wholly unknown to him who had embezzled trust-money — paying the deficit out of his own pocket before the day of reckoning. He arranged for the orphaned children of soldiers who died in his presence, placing them with families or in orphanages. He conducted a heavy correspondence on behalf of the dead and the dying, paying the postage and other expenses out of his “by no means rich purse” (lang niet rijken buidel).

Honours, retirement, and death

Verbraak’s standing in the highest military circles was such that, on the occasion of his twenty-five years’ priesthood — coinciding with his twentieth year in Atjeh — the Government recognised his services with the knighthood of the Nederlandsche Leeuw. Five years later, on his twenty-fifth year of residence, he received in addition the Oranje-Nassau order.

In 1908 he left Atjeh, and the garrison raised a borstbeeld (bust) to him at Kotta-Radja. From 1908 to 1912 he held a less fatiguing post at Padang, more suited to his advanced age. He then retired to Magelang in central Java, where he died in 1918. His body was buried with military honours. Later, on 27 January 1922, a bronze statue was unveiled at Bandoeng in his honour, at which ceremony Generaal Dijkstra delivered a commemorative address and the Very Reverend Pater van Hoof, on behalf of the Bishop and the clergy, expressed their thanks. The ceremony is independently noted in the mission jubilee volume in the context of the Pastoor Verbraak-Stichting, the foundation to which the existing military homes were transferred in the same period.

Significance of the Kalff account

Verbraak’s significance for the encyclopedia of Achehnese history, in the Kalff account preserved by the mission jubilee volume, is twofold. First, he is the principal documented Catholic figure of the Atjeh-oorlog: a chaplain whose thirty-year presence on the war-footing of Groot-Atjeh and Pedir spans the whole central phase of the conflict, from the consolidation of the Dutch bridgehead at Kotta-Radja in 1874 to the surrender of the pretender-sultan in 1903 and the subsequent civil-government transition. Second, he is the agent of the first sustained Catholic institutional presence in Atjeh — the Catholic Mission of Koeta Radja-Atjeh — through the 1885 consecration of the Kotta-Radja church, the 1896 Olehleh chapel, and the later development of the mission under the Zusters van Schijndel. His career thus straddles the military, religious, and institutional histories of late-colonial Atjeh, and his bronze statue at Bandoeng remains the most visible monument to that intersection.

Account from DLP-84-Atjeh

The summary entry in DLP-84-Atjeh frames Pastoor Verbraak as a Dutch missionary-priest of the Sociëteit van Jezus (Society of Jesus) who served as the soldier-pastor — aalmoezenier (almoner-chaplain) — of the Dutch colonial forces in Atjeh from 1874 until his death. The DLP-84 sketch specifies the institutional reach of his chaplaincy: his parish (Dutch: parochie) extended over forty forts and ten sea-posts (Dutch: veertig forten en tien zeeposten), and his duties spanned the battlefield, hospitals, and the homes of soldiers, providing comfort to the wounded, administering last rites (Dutch: laatste olsel), and writing letters for families back in Europe. He served for thirty-three years under tropical conditions (Dutch: drieëndertig jaar onder tropische omstandigheden), which eventually exhausted his health.

The DLP-84 entry also documents the social composition of the chaplaincy’s audience and the resistance Verbraak encountered. The European minority within the colonial army consisted largely of shipwrecked individuals (Dutch: schipbreukelingen — here in the figurative sense of the morally stranded or the socially displaced) who gave little value to spiritual assistance, and Verbraak often faced resistance from the colonial authorities themselves. Nevertheless, his self-sacrificial love (Dutch: zelfopofferende liefde) won him the gratitude of countless soldiers, who regarded him as the “good spirit” (Dutch: goede geest) of the entire Indische Leger. He was honoured with a bronze and stone monument during his lifetime, and after his death a more costly monument was erected by the grateful soldiers. His statue in Bandoeng further underscores the importance the colonial authorities placed on his service.

Account from Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh (1911)

P. H. R. Beuming devoted the closing sketch of Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh to Verbraak under the title Pastoor Verbraak op Atjeh — Een aangename herinnering, describing a visit the chaplain paid in 1896 to the benting of Edi, an overseas post on the east coast of Atjeh.

The circuit of the posts

Beuming explains the system: Verbraak visited all the fixed garrisons in Atjeh by turns, so as to give the Roman Catholic soldiers the opportunity of observing their religious duties. Because of the great distances of the overseas garrisons and the many bentings of the geconcentreerde linie, had de volijverige pastoor een zeer uitgebreid gebied te doorreizen en verliep er een geruime tijd tusschen elk bezoek — the zealous priest had a very extensive district to travel and a considerable time passed between each visit.

It was no wonder, therefore, that men were glad to see him again. Life in the benting was so extraordinarily monotonous that men achter die ijzerhouten blindeeringen kinderlijk blij kon zijn, als men weer eens iets van de buitenwereld vernam — behind those ironwood blindages one could be childishly glad to hear something of the outside world.

The arrival at Edi

Scarcely had the arrival of the government steamer on which the priest had left Oleh-leh been signalled on the roadstead when a patrol of thirty bayonets under a European sergeant marched out of the benting to fetch Pastoor Verbraak from the landing place and bring him safely inside.

About one o’clock in the afternoon the sentry on the northern bastion gave on the tong-tong the signal Patrouille in ‘t gezicht. From the banquette the little band could be seen approaching in the distance, the Europeans distinguishable from the natives by their white gaiters standing out sharply against the dark uniforms; and in the middle of the patrol the practised eye soon recognised den edelen soldatenvriend in zijn priesterkleeding — the noble soldiers’ friend in his priest’s dress.

He was greeted most heartily by the post commander and the other officers, while as he went to the officers’ quarters the rest of the garrison brought him respectfully the military salute, which he answered with a Goeden dag jongens. Alles wel?

Beuming’s portrait

Beuming’s first impression was unforgettable. Though slight of build, Verbraak disposed of a tremendous Ausdauer; his already fairly advanced age did not in the least prevent him making a stiff march in the burning midday sun. In all his movements lay a springiness that compelled admiration, and in the calm glance of his eyes een onbeschrijfelijk zachten gloed, die vertrouwen wekte — an indescribably gentle glow that awakened confidence. Wie pastoor Verbraak eenmaal ontmoette, hield van hem — whoever once met Pastoor Verbraak loved him.

On his left breast, Beuming records, shone the Knight’s Cross of the Nederlandschen Leeuw, the Officer’s Cross in the Orde van Oranje-Nassau, the Kratonmedaille and the Eereteeken voor belangrijke krijgsverrichtingen — the decorations also listed under his portrait in the book, which describes him as de algemeen beminde oud-aalmoezenier van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, thans rustend pastoor te Padang.

The visit

After refreshing himself in the commander’s dwelling he went first to the sick-room — most overseas posts and main bentings then had sick-rooms and an officier van Gezondheid. For every sick man he had a consoling or cheering word; to one he gave some cigars, to another delicacies. The sick native soldiers were not forgotten either: to them he gave tobacco and strootjes to make seroetoes, Javanese cigarettes, and it was plain how grateful they were for those small gifts.

After the midday meal, about five o’clock, he walked with the commander along the soldiers’ quarters and visited the canteen. Here he was among his boys, many of them old acquaintances. Wat deed het dien oogenschijnlijk ruwen soldaten goed, dat zij weer eens hartelijk werden toegesproken — how it did those outwardly rough soldiers good to be heartily spoken to again. Beuming records the name the army gave him: Men heeft hem “den Vader van Atjeh” genoemd, en werkelijk dien naam verdiende hij ten volle, want hij droeg zijn jongens een echt vaderlijke genegenheid toe.

The mass in the canteen

The following morning a temporary altar was erected in the soldiers’ canteen at the priest’s direction. As a mark of respect for the soldiers’ friend, nearly all the European soldiers attended the service, whatever their confession. Zelden zag ik een indrukwekkender plechtigheid — seldom did I see a more impressive ceremony — Beuming wrote: far from the inhabited world, between four plank benting walls, in a military canteen, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered and God’s word proclaimed.

In his sermon Verbraak carried his hearers back to the fatherland and in thought to the relations they had left behind. In glowing words he sketched the life of the Indies soldier who sacrificed youth and life for the flag of the Netherlands, and urged them to stand firm amid the countless temptations to which the Indies soldier was exposed, among them het verfoeilijke concubinaat. Beuming preserves his closing words:

Mannen, bedenkt, dat gij Europeanen zijt en dat gij hier in Indië een naam te verliezen hebt; zorgt er voor, dat Nederland trotsch kan zijn op zijn zonen in ‘t verre Oosten. Ik weet het, gij moet hier een harde school doormaken, maar blijft vooral Christen, dan vormt zij u tot zelfbewuste leden der maatschappij. Blijft mensch, zoowel in ‘t dagelijksche leven, als in den krijg.

— Men, remember that you are Europeans and that here in the Indies you have a name to lose; see to it that the Netherlands can be proud of her sons in the far East. I know it, you must go through a hard school here, but above all remain Christians, and then it will form you into self-conscious members of society. Remain human, in daily life as in war.

These moving words, Beuming records, visibly gripped all present. Knowing so well the countless dangers threatening the moral life of the Indies soldier, Verbraak knew how to strike the right chord, and many a man already on the slippery slope he thereby saved.

Departure and later meetings

About nine the next morning the priest left for the overseas post Segli, some twelve hours from Edi. The farewell was hearty and the garrison saw him go with regret. When Beuming later returned to Groot-Atjeh he had the pleasure of meeting him repeatedly.

The letters and the hospital

Beuming records two further practices. It was known among the soldiers at Koeta Radja that they could give their letters for their relations in the Netherlands to Pastoor Verbraak, who then saw to the postage: he knew his men, and knew that writing home was often neglected on account of the postage. Het behoeft zeker niet vermeld, hoezeer hij daardoor aller harten won.

In the great military hospital at Panteh-Perak he was a daily guest, visiting above all the ward where the wounded lay. Scarcely had a transport of wounded arrived when he hastened there. Many sons of the Netherlands who then rested on the Petjoet cemetery under the shade of the coconut palms he had attended in their death struggle; sitting by the deathbed of a mortally wounded man he could be heard to say, with a voice trembling with emotion, Mijn zoon, kan ik wellicht nog iets voor U doen? It had become a real need to him to carry out the last wish of his beloved boys.

When the arrival of one of the boats of the Indische Paketvaart was signalled at Oleh-leh he was immediately in the hospital to bring the joyful tidings to those to be evacuated with speed: Weest verblijd, mannen, de boot is aan.

At every burial at Petjoet, onverschillig tot welk geloof de overledene ook behoorde — irrespective of the faith to which the deceased belonged — Verbraak was present; Beuming notes his presence at the funeral of Lieutenant K. H. Westendorp on 11 March 1896.

Beuming’s closing tribute

Writing in 1911, Beuming records that after a stay of more than thirty years in Atjeh the beloved former chaplain was then enjoying his well-earned rest at Padang, having carried away the esteem and respect of all who in those thirty years had formed the garrison of Atjeh. Het Indische leger is trotsch op zijn beminden oud-aalmoezenier. Onze pastoor is voor ons een baken geweest ginds in ‘t verre Oosten — our pastor has been a beacon for us there in the far East.

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Photo caption (page 376): ‘Pastoor Verbraak en Ds. Thenu, Atjeh’s groote geestelijken uit den actie-tijd.’

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 49, 376.

Sources

Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “Dominee Thenu.”
Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), the chapter on den zieleherder.
Register op de eerste 50 jaargangen van het missietijdschrift der P.P. Jezuieten “St. Claverbond”, 1889 tot en met 1938, samengesteld door Herman Hagdorn S.J. en Jacques Dinjens (Nijmegen: Stichting St. Claverbond, 1939).

Vierhonderd jaren missie in Nederlandsch-Indië, 1593–1934 (Batavia: Algemeen Comité van Voorbereiding tot de Feestelijke Herdenking van 400 jaar Missie in Ned.-Indië, [1934]), “Pastoor H. C. Verbraak,” pp. 127–133, after S. Kalff, “Een trits Indische Pastoors,” in Koloniaal Missie Tijdschrift, Jaargang XII.

DLP-84-Atjeh.pdf, pp. 4-5.

DLP-84-Atjeh.pdf, pp. 6-7.

DLP-84-Atjeh.pdf, p. 8.

Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911; uitgegeven ten bate van het te stichten Herstellingsoord voor Rijks-Ambtenaren). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br N 82-144

Acknowledgement of sources. This article combines material from the publications cited above; the material newly added derives from Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh by P. H. R. Beuming (Amsterdam, 1911). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 49, 376.

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