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The Corts Foundation is a Dutch non- profit organization founded in 2003 with the legacy capital of Kees Corts, whose interest in the Indonesian history led to the support of many interesting projects.

The main goal of the Foundation is to support projects and initiatives concerning the archives of the Dutch East India Company in the 17th and 18th century, and the history of World War II, especially the Japanese occupation of Indonesia and the Dutch-Indonesian war (1945-1949).

At the moment two major projects are being realized. These multi-year projects concern the digital preservation of archives and the translation of Japanese official publications in English, respectively. The former is the DASA project, carried out in collaboration with the National Archives of Indonesia (ANRI), which aims to preserve digitally and make accessible on the Internet a selection of the Dutch East India Company archives. The latter is the Senshi Sosho project, in which official Japanese publications concerning the Japanese attack on and subsequent occupation of Indonesia during WWII are being translated to be eventually published in English.

Mission and Vision

The vision of the Corts Foundation is to make an important contribution to the preservation and dissemination of documentary heritage in the field of the History of World War II and Asian-European Relations so as to safeguard information on common and national history.

The Foundation focusses on four areas of interest.

Organization

The Foundation is a non-profit organization working for the general benefit. It was founded in 2003 in order to secure the capital of Kees Corts, and to define its mission. The board of the foundation consists of a President, a Secretary General and a Treasurer and several other members. The Foundation employs experts for professional work on the Foundation projects.

History

C.W. Corts MSc was born on 24 May 1920 into a Dutch family living in Sumatra, where his father practised medicine. In 1939 Kees Corts returned to the Netherlands for his tertiary education with his parents and younger brother, Philippus. World War II proved to be a disastrous tragedy for the family, as Philippus was executed.

The Corts House

The Corts House, where The Corts Foundation is formally established, is located in Enkhuizen, The Netherlands, at the Westerstraat 158 and is an architectural and historical monument dating back to 1617. Kees Corts’ grandfather practised as a dentist there. Kees bought the house and donated it to the foundation. The Corts Foundation is now in charge of restoring and maintaining the Corts house. In 2011 additional decorative ornaments of the facade were repainted in their original colors.