2 Raden Oemar Gandaprawira .

THE STORY OF OEMAR FAMILY (Children and grandchildren of Snouck Hugronje in Indonesia)

The complete name of Oemar is Oemar Gandaprawira. He was born in 1892 in Ciamis, West Java, Indonesia from the first wife , Rd. Sangkanaresmi. He is the second child of the family. After the death of his mother, and by the request of his dad, Oemar and his brother and sister were taken care by Raden Ayu Lasmitakusuma, the sister of Rd. Sangkanaresmi – the wife of The Ciamis Regent at that time, Rd. Arya Kusuma Subrata.

Although they lived with the Regent family, Snouck often visited and expensed his children needs. In 1906, Prof. Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje went back to Dutch. Oemar and three brother and sister accompanied him to the station , Gambir Station, Jakarta. This is a very touched separation because Snouck was never come to Indonesia. But he always sent money to his children monthly, 25 gulden each. He also sent letters to them. So it made their relationship closer, although only through letters.

After being left by his dad, Oemar became the leader of the family, although he was only 15th . he already took over his dad job for his brother and sisters. Oemar really loved them and was very attentive, even to his step brother, Joesoef – Snouck’s son from the second wife. Oemar worked in Train Company (on that time, we called it SS). He was placed in Padang – West Sumatera, and then went back to Bandung, with the last position as Megazijnbewaarder b.d. SS (this was found out from the evidence i.e. his retirement letter). Prof. Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje died in June 26th 1936. Oemar was stroken by that, he loved his father so much. He knew that his father remarried with a Dutch lady and got a daughter named Christien, from whom Oemar and his brother and sisters got 5000 gulden.

In 1912, Oemar Gandaprawira married Rd. Komalaningsih and had one daughter named Marie Gandaprawira. But they divorced in 1920. He was a widower for the next three years and he was really hard worker. From his earnings and his father’s inheritance, Oemar invested his money for lands and rice fields which are really vast, some decades hectares. He also bought some houses and stores. Then he married for the second time with Enok Rokayah, a beautiful woman from Bandung. From their marriage, they got 5 sons and 1 daughter. In the beginning of 1942, Oemar died because of a brain tumor and was graved in Bandung. In the same year, Japanese colonizer came to Indonesia, at the same time the Dutches were caught by them. Some of them were arrested and some of them were killed.

Because of the faces of Oemar’s Children looke like Dutches, they had to be evacuated and hid with Enok ato a village in the mountain. They just brought a little supplies of food and left their home all with its stuffs in it. Japanese colonizer left Indonesia in 1945, but until then the situation of Indonesia was still disorganized. So that Oemars’ children and wife lived in the evacuation place until 1948.