Julia Henriette Jaarsma-Adolfs (Semarang 24 September 1899 – Amsterdam 16 November 1975) was the first woman of Indo-European descent to practice law Indische Courant, 28 march 1927 in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). She studied at Leiden University in the Netherlands and practiced in Surabaya from 1927De Telegraaf, 28 april 1972. to 1961 and made a name for herself as a criminal defence lawyer. Her clientele included many prominent business figures from the Peranakan Chinese community.Indische Courant, 28 februari 1940. In addition to her legal career, she held various administrative and leadership roles in the social, religious, and political life of European-oriented Surabaya.
She championed women’s rights, was an active member of the pre-war Roman Catholic community, and, in line with the Indo-European Alliance (IEV), she campaigned for property rights for Indo-Europeans.(e.g.) Soerabaijasch Handelsblad, 17 june 1936 During the Japanese occupation, she took on leadership roles in civilian internment camps where she was interned.Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, toegangsnr 401, inventarisnr 467 (p.7-8). https://www.niod.nl/en archive Gedangan and Lampersari. After Indonesia gained independence on 17 August 1945, Jaarsma-Adolfs continued to work in Surabaya in both the legal profession and real estate until 1961.Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, NL-HaNA, BuZa / Schadeclaims Indonesië, DDR en Egypte, toegangsnr 2.05.407, inv.nr. 2741 She eventually moved to Monaco. A scholarship bearing her name is presented by the University of Amsterdam as a research grant for law students.
Early life Julia Henriëtte Adolfs was born on 24 January 1899 in Semarang, Central Java to Henriëtte (née Donkel) and Cornelis Gerardus Adolfs, as one of eight children. Her father, known as Gerrit (1871-1945), was the youngest son of a shipwright from Amsterdam, who, without formal qualifications, had moved to the Dutch East Indies in 1894, where he married Henriëtte Donkel, known as Jet (1874-1949). She was most fluent in Javanese, of mixed origin, a descendant of Dutch East India Company soldier and later major Donkel.Nationaal Archief, toegangsnr 1.04.02, VOC: Opvarenden. Christian Donkel, from Berlin (Germany) remained with the VOC until his death in 1761, making a military career. As captain he co-signed the Treaty of Giyanti. He moved to Semarang, reached the rank of major, headed a small militia and was involved in building Fort Vredenburg in Yogyakarta. Julia was their second child and eldest daughter. Her older brother Gerard, known as "Ger" would become a renowned self-taught painter. The father was known for his skill as an amateur painter, photographer and musician. The mother's family, of Javanese - Dutch ancestry worked in the rail and hotel transport business in Semarang. The young family grew to include eight Indo-European children whilst moving from village Kunduran to Blora and Gundih before finally settling in the city of Surabaya due to father Gerrits career with the Samarang–Joana Stoomtram Maatschappij (SJS).https://oorlogsgravenstichting.nl/personen/1367/gerardus-cornelis-adolfs Gerrit Adolfs, buried at Kembang Kuning in Surabaya, wrote in Letters from Insulindia about his early colonial experiences, railway career and daughter Julia.De Locomotief, 18 July 1896; Adresboek 1904: 7; Nationaal Archief, 2.20.15 Personeelsdossiers der Zustermaatschappijen (Indische stoomtrammaatschappijen), 1882-1966, 1-6. As adults, nearly all siblings resided in the same area, in and around Bengawanstraat (Jalan Bengawan) in the European district of Darmo.
Julia was the only girl from her family with a university degree. She completed her primary and secondary education (HBS) in Surabaya and passed the state examination in 1921. Through distant relatives of her father in the Netherlands and taking on jobs she managed to continue her education overseas. She enrolled in Leiden University and completed her doctoral examination to practice law in the Dutch East Indies in 1926.Kroon en Blok 1925: 335. In 1927 she became a member of the Association of Female Alumni in the Indies (VIVOS).In 1939 she sang Italian songs for VIVOS (Driemaandelijksche Mededeelingen van de Vereeniging in Indië van Vrouwelijke Oud-studenten, jrg. 16, afl 2, juni 1939. At another meeting she sang French songs in various genres and lectured about worldly and liturgical music history. She must have been one of the few Indo-European members, given the racially discriminatory nature of the society of the time. In October 1927, Jaarsma-Adolfs joined the board of the local branch of the Association for Women's Suffrage.Indische Courant, 5 oktober 1927 In Dutch East Indies active voting right was to be introduced in 1941. In that role she delivered various public lectures, including on prenuptial agreements under the Marriage Act.Indische Courant, 22 februari 1928
Legal career Late 1926 Adolfs returned to Java, as the first female lawyer of the colony. Early 1927, she joined the law firm in Surabaya of Sytze Jaarsma. Five months later they got married but Julia continued to use her maiden name professionally. Socially, she was known as Mrs Jaarsma or Jaarsma-Adolfs.Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, 23 mei 1932. March 1927, she was appointed as a procurator at the Court of Justice in Surabaya. She handled both public law and civil cases, mostly for the defense, including cases of murder, rape, fraud, illegal gambling, opium smuggling, extortion, usury, counterfeiting, and theft. She made a name for herself as a formidable defense lawyer. In 1972, Ludvig E. Movig, a former judge in the Netherlands and colonial Indonesia, remarked: "She was certainly a defense lawyer of stature and the best I encountered during my nearly fifty-year career".De Telegraaf, 28 april 1972. The newspaper printed his name wrongly as ‘Movis’ whereas it entails Mr. Drs. Ludvig E. Movig (1898-1989) who worked at the courts of Sukabumi, Malang, Surabaya, Pamekasan and Lumajang between 1929-1942. During 1946-1952 he worked in Roermond, as a judge between 1953-1963. The 1972 quote was part of a debate about alleged professional gender inequality at legal courts. Though she argued cases on family, inheritance, or real estate law, her specialty was criminal law.
Many of Adolfs’ clients were of Indonesian, Arab, or Chinese descent.In particular Chinese businesses preferred to operate under Western law since 1900 (Dick, H.W. (2002) Surabaya, City of Work. A Socioeconomic History, 1900-2000, Center for International Studies, Ohio University, 43). Along with the lawyer Mr Ploegman, she was one of the lawyers most favoured by the Chinese business community in Surabaya.Indische Courant, 28 februari 1940 In 1934, she defended, among others, the notorious Ang Tjay Tjoen, known in East Java as the "Loan Shark of Singosari,Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië, 21 augustus 1934De Indische Courant, 20 augustus 1934 despite her having previously been a board member of the local Anti-Usury Association.Indische Courant, 14 march 1931. The law firm of Adolfs and Jaarsma moved several times within Surabaya's Chinese quarter.Indische Courant, 25 january 1927. Chinese clients remain important; in 1939 the law firm moves from Kembang Jepun 15 back to Chineesche Voorstraat, this time to number 92. Earlier the firm resided on numbers Earnings from her legal practice were invested in real estate. The properties she purchased were renovated and rented out furnished through Woningbureau Versluis N.V. Soerabaia. At the outbreak of war, she owned 90 properties, including the property at Darmokali 10 which was turned into her private residence.This set of buildings on the 6000m2 site was built in 1914 for a Chinese businessman, designed by architect J.P. Pinédo and operated for some time as Hotel “Villa Georgina”, while still registered as Darmokali number 4. Throughout the entire Japanese occupation of the Indonesian archipelago (1942-45), Adolfs and Jaarsma's law practice was forced to remain closed. From April 1946, Adolfs immediately became part of the newly established "Provisional Lawyers' Organisation," providing free or reduced-rate legal aid to the poor in the chaotic post-war period.Nieuwe Courant, 28 maart 1946Nieuwe Courant, 19 april 1946 Her legal cases, including those involving corruption, fraud, murder, and arms trafficking, continued to be widely reported in the press, earning her the nickname "lawyer of notorious cases." 1 In 1952, she handled three high-profile political cases.De Vrije Pers, 4 august 1952De Vrije Pers, 23 september 1952 These included a conflict between the Sarbufis trade union and Liem Seeng Tee, the director-owner of the Sampoerna conglomerate (which included a cinema and tobacco factory), which reached the Supreme Court.Java-bode, 6 august 1952 She also defended Dutch nationals accused of the multimillion-guilder robbery of the Java Bank in 1950 Java-bode, 26 september 1952 and represented Tjia Tik Sing, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Perdamaian, in a defamation case brought by the P4P trade union.De Vrije Pers, 29 may 1952 After 1952, no further mentions of her legal activities appeared in the Dutch-language press.
Faith and Charity
In April 1936, Adolfs assumed a key role in Surabaya's socially and politically active Catholic community. She was elected chair of the newly established Catholic Central Organisation (KC), an umbrella body for various Catholic institutions in Surabaya, including schools, social associations, and a hospital Steenbrink 2007: 595Indische Courant, 21 april 1936Indische Courant, 4 mei 1936 At that time, there were approximately 20,000 Catholics in Surabaya. Her three daughters attended a school run by the Ursulines.
Adolfs was active in various initiatives, such as founding a Catholic Scientific Association to promote public debate on how scientific advancements could be reconciled with the Quadragesimo Anno encyclical. In honour of the coronation of Pope Pius XII, the Apostolic Prefect of Surabaya, Monsignor Verhoeks, held a grand reception in March 1939 at the home of Jaarsma-Adolfs on Darmokali 10. The event was attended by more than 600 people, including many dignitaries such as the Governor-General of East Java, C. van der Plas.Indische Courant, 14 maart 1939 Together with his wife, Mrs A. van der Plas-Pleyte, she was part of the governing board of the Emmabloem collection in 1939–1940, a charitable organisation dedicated to the prevention of tuberculosis.Soerabaijasch Handelsblad, 5 november 1940 In 1940, Jaarsma-Adolfs also organised a fancy fair to raise funds for the social work of Catholic missionaries in Indonesia. That same year, she joined the board of the new catholic secondary school (future HBS) for boys SMA Katolik St. Louis. Also in 1940, Jaarsma-Adolfs became a board member of the Surabaya branch of the Central Commission for Women's Labour in Times of Mobilisation (COVIM).COVIM. www.oorlogsbronnen.nl. Geraadpleegd op 11 december 2023Indische Courant, 19 april 1940 In 1960, she was awarded the papal honour Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, the highest honour awarded to a lay person, for proven fidelity and good service to the church and the pope. She had devoted more than 25 years of her life in service of the church and society in Surabaya.
Politics