Fwd: [weihsien_camp] Xmas

In the Chefoo School group, my big brother, Jamie Taylor, pumped water. Our big sister, Kathleen Taylor, washed clothes in the laundry.

Maida is so VERY right! How blessed we were that our Chefoo School teachers preserved our childhood. Even in a crowded internment camp and most of us separated from our missionary parents, our teachers wrapped us in comfortingly-predictable rituals and traditions—including school, including clean-and-tidy inspections, including mending torn clothes, including nice manners, including memorizing from the Bible. They continued expecting high standards for us. When we came to the USA in 1946, after a year without any school, I was placed ahead of my peers. I graduated from high school at 16 and graduated from college at age 20.

I was 9 years old in 1941 when I officially became an “enemy alien,” an enemy of the Japanese. When we girls landed in our Lower School Dormitory (LSD) in Weihsien, we were still too young to be assigned camp chores. But in winter we took buckets into the Japanese quarters and lugged out bucketfuls of coal dust, some of which we made into coal balls to dry outside in the sun. We used the rest of the coal dust to heat the pot-belly stove in our dormitory room. We young girls were entirely in charge of lighting and keeping that stove lighted. No surprise there. We learned in Brownies and Girl Guides how to build a fire. We practiced that while we waited to be counted at roll call. We also practiced semaphore and Morse Code. Oh, yes, and leap frog!
Remember?

Let’s hear. What were your Weihsien days like?

Mary Taylor Previte

To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com,MTPrevite@aol.com
Wed, 9 Jan 2019 at 19:21

Re: [weihsien_camp] Xmas

I was 15 at the time of liberation and all the boys of my age took their turn at pumping. For growing boys they would have been very hungry suffered more than us girls that way. I do not believe there was running water anywhere in the camp. It was all pumped by hand. My parents were teachers so that was my fathers job although he had an accident in our first camp in Chefoo so I’m not sure how much he was able to work. My mother a teacher cleaned latrines so many adults had to do jobs they had never done before.As school kids they tried to keep our lives as normal as possible and I remember on sunny winter days they’d send us outside to get much needed VITAMIN D. At fifteen 2 months before liberation I was proud to qualify for a camp job which was washing dishes in Kitchen 2. So they tried to keep us kids away from hard labor. When I arrived in Toronto and went in to Grade 11 I was up to that level and ahead in a subject like Latin.We were fortunate to live in a camp that was run so well by the internees and protected us kids as much as possible

Maida Harris Campbell

Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Wed, 9 Jan 2019 at 14:26

Re: [weihsien_camp] Re: The sisters in Camp

Kelly,

are any of her writings in the form of a diary? Thanks to Leopold Pander our Weihsien network has almost everything — but not a diary of an adult.
Has anyone a diary kept by an adult in Weihsien?

Mary Taylor Previte

L PR tapol@skynet.be [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Wed, 9 Jan 2019 at 09:36

RE: [weihsien_camp] Xmas

Dear John,

… thanks very much.
Your two sketches are really excellent. Perspectives correct. Almost a photograph! The brick wall and the electrified wire. One wire, or were there several electrified wires on that wall? The grave mounds in the fields outside. They (the sketches) will be on the website shortly 😊.

By the way … all through this website many of you have been writing about “pumping” water. My mother often mentioned the horrors of the pumping chores and of how much my dad had suffered from pumping. Especially for a “banker” who wasn’t drilled for that sort of job. He also had to carry buckets of water? Hot water! What did the pumps look like? Handle pumps? Rotating pumps? Were all the pumps the same? Big? Small? Did all the water go into towers? Did you have water on the top floor of the hospital? … so many questions …

… all the best …
Leopold

PS Just finished the “Weihsien” tab of the new menu. I am actually busy with the “Duck Mission” tab. Found new info about “Lieutenant Colonel Willis Bird” on the Internet. OSS stuff. It is a big chapter ― give me time. Please let me know if there are mistakes or maybe things you cannot find … with all my recent “improvements”.

KELLY HUNSAKER hunsakermountain@msn.com [weihsien_camp]
To:Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
Wed, 9 Jan 2019 at 07:48

Re: [weihsien_camp] The sisters in Camp

If Christine Talbot wishes to speak to me about my aunt I would love it.

Kelly Hunsaker

KELLY HUNSAKER hunsakermountain@msn.com [weihsien_camp]
To:Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
Wed, 9 Jan 2019 at 07:46

Re: [weihsien_camp] Re: The sisters in Camp

Yes, Sister Eustella was definitely NOT on the Gripsholm.
She was in Weihsien until the end, and then returned to her school in Tsingtao where she stayed until 1949. I am her Great Niece and have many of her writings (or those that still exist). Her birth name was Gertrude Bush and she was attached to the School Sisters of St Francis out or Wisconsin.

Kelly Hunsaker

John Hoyte johnhoyte12@gmail.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Wed, 9 Jan 2019 at 02:27

Re: [weihsien_camp] Xmas

Leopold:

Thanks for yours. Here are a couple of sketches that I did as a twelve-year old in Weihsien Camp. I did duty on that water tower, pumping up water for an hour. The second pic is from the top of the hospital, looking over the camp walls towards the Japanese compound.

Hope they will do.
All the best,
John

Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Tue, 8 Jan 2019 at 14:09

Re: [weihsien_camp] Re: The sisters in Camp

Several groups of Sisters were interned in Weihsien.

Sister Eustella could NOT have been on the Gripsholm, 1943, if she saw our American rescuers parachuting to liberate Weihsien — August, 1945.

Most Americans were evacuated from Weihsien in a prisoner exchange in 1943, shortly after the Chefoo School arrived in Weihsien in September, 1943.
In this exchange, Americans were shipped on the Gripsholm.

Mary Taylor Previte

L PR tapol@skynet.be [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Tue, 8 Jan 2019 at 10:33

RE: [weihsien_camp] Re: The sisters in Camp

Hi !

… in the Weihsien-Paintings’ website, go to:
http://weihsien-paintings.org/KellyHunsaker/Letters/p_EML.html

… the “nuns” are in Ron Bridge’s listings …
… all the best,
Leopold

Albert de Zutter albertarthur@sbcglobal.net [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Tue, 8 Jan 2019 at 08:58

[weihsien_camp] Re: The sisters in Camp

In addition to the names Mary provided, there was Sister Hiltrudis,who was a member of the same order as Sisters Eustella, Donatella and Blanda.
Another sister that I recall was Sister Bede, of a different order.

Albert de Zutter

Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Tue, 8 Jan 2019 at 02:53

Re: [weihsien_camp] The sisters in Camp

Wonderful! I kept in touch with Sister Blanda for a while in 1985 after the President Sr. Mary Lea Schneider of Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, contacted me. This President had read my Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine Story, Song of Salvation at Weihsien Prison Camp, on an airline flight! She wrote that several of their Order of Saint Francis (OSF) nuns had been in Weihsien.

She sent me a book, A Cross in China: The Story of My Mission, by Sister Servatia. It includes details of their time in Weihsien. I found it fascinating to compare their experiences in Weihsien with ours.

Mary Taylor Previte

'A. Knuppe' annemoen@tele2.nl [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Mon, 7 Jan 2019 at 22:56

[weihsien_camp] The sisters in Camp

Christine Talbot asked for the names of the American sisters in camp.
The names that I remember and their appearances are Sister Eustella, who was Mother Superior, Sister Donatella, a beatiful, tall nun with lovely dark eyes and Sister Blanda.

There were others, but I can’t recall them.

A Happy new Year to all of you!

tapol@skynet.be [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Sat, 5 Jan 2019 at 12:09

RE: [weihsien_camp] Xmas

Dear John,

Many thanks for your permission …

Took me time, but I just finished recopying the excerpts for the Chinese episode of your book into the Weihsien Paintings’ website.
I think that I will keep your tab in the “Blogs” menu but I will add it also in the “Chefoo-Group” tab.

By the way, … do you have any “Weihsien” sketches you would like to share with us too? I remember that during my long discussions with Father Hanquet, he often mentioned Alyosha’s fall.

… all the best,
Bien amicalement,
Leopold

Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Fri, 4 Jan 2019 at 04:14

[weihsien_camp] Joyce Ditmanson Cotterill

What very sad news!

Joe Cotterill, who celebrated his 100th birthday in England two years ago, phoned me tonight that his wife, Joyce has died from a brain aneurism. Joe and Joyce , who have lived in Oxford, England, have been spending their winters in usually-warmer Arizona, USA. Joyce’s funeral will be held this Sunday, January 6 in Arizona. Joe will then return to England, closer to family.

In Weihsien, Joyce studied science with Eric Liddell and was one if the last people Eric Liddell spoke to before his death in the hospital. Joyce was daughter of Brigadier Stranks, who lead the Salvation Army in Weihsien and lead the Salvation Army Band.

I have asked that someone send us an obituary.

Mary Taylor Previte

Terri Stewart tksweaver@verizon.net [weihsien_camp]
Tue, 1 Jan 2019 at 02:40

[weihsien_camp]