Hans Rookmaaker - Childhood and Youth

Childhood and Youth

Born in The Hague, the Netherlands Hans was the last born in a non-Christian family of colonizers with non-white blood, his grandmother having been half Indonesian. He was largely raised in Indonesia, but returned to Holland to join the Royal Netherlands Navy. Already as a teenager he had begun what would become an extensive collection of African-American music. As a junior officer, he began to study ship construction at Delft University prior to the start of World War II. There, prior to the war, Rookmaaker met and became engaged to Riki Spetter, who was Jewish.