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From: The Stratfords
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2022 6:07 PM
To: Leopold PANDER
Subject: Re: Weihsien camp re Brecht 's letter
Brecht's letter caused an immediate flashback to Weishien.
I was eleven at the time, my brother, Peter four and Christine six months old. They were too young to remember.
I still bear the impact of hundreds of priests and nuns who served as missionaries in China. They were living examples of of true Christian living, choosing menial jobs such as cleaning latrines and washing hundreds of tin plates in water that was less than clean in the kitchen;all the while, smiling and cheerful. And the sight of the Dutch priest/ cooks singing Dutch songs when food was scarce and people were hungry.
I remember the sound of plain chant sung by hundreds of voices in the assembly centre, literally raising the roof on Sunday mornings, and at Easter, the sight of five Bishops on the altar.
On a lighter note, I stood on my bed to watch a baseball game between American priests , some of them professional, playing the Dutch priests in black soutanes, beards flying, as their teammates shouted 'lope, lope'.
Then the adventures of Father Scanlan, an Australian Trappist, a mild mannered monk, who proved to be a skillful black marketeer. He walked up and down saying his prayers, stopping only to scoop up eggs and packets of sugar passed to him by a Chinese contact.
Brecht has every reason to be proud of his great uncle. As for me, these wonderful people have nourished my faith throughout my life. May they rest in peace.
Once again . thanks to you, Leopold, for being the guardian of our shared past.
Gay Talbot Stratford
From: Leopold PANDER
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2022 4:08 PM
To: 'Brecht Schotte'
Subject: RE: Weihsien camp
Dear Brecht,
Thanks very much for your message and interest in our Weihsien-paintings’ website.
Speaking of languages, English is perfect for me though I don’t have the speaking practice any more. My everyday language is French and I have the basics for Flemish.
Congratulations for your website. Very professional. You are using the “Grid” techniques with the full-screen images. Great.
Is your main subject about WWII and not WWI ― “The Great War” ? I Googled your address and noticed that you live in the middle of the battlefields of the Great War. That was just a little more than a hundred years ago.
As for using the pictures from our Weihsien-paintings’ website, yes ― it will be an honour for us. This website was created twenty years ago, nonprofit and free access to all. All the data has been freely and generously given to me from all over the world. Our hope is that it may be used for the knowledge of what happened in a civilian concentration camp in China during WWII. Many people in our country are not quite sure that there even was a war raging on the other side of the planet 80 years ago ― in the Pacific. Many people even ignore that Belgium had officially declared war on Japan ― December 20, 1941.
In your message, you write that you are in possession of documents, photos .(…) a badge ― all relating to Weihsien. It will be a pleasure for me to add all you have to our website. Send them to me in a suitable definition ― 300 dpi. As for the reproductions, you may need for your museum let me know which ones ― in which case I will send them to you in HD (…) providing I have them. I remember that the first documents I scanned (twenty years ago) were done with a 4Mpix camera. !! Now, I am better equipped with a good A4-flatbed scanner.
Of course, I will also forward this message ― in bcc ― to our Weihsien chat group. I hope that some ex-prisoner might want to know more about you and/or Gaspaar Schotte who was imprisoned in Weihsien by the Japs.
Best regards,
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Leopold.
From: Brecht Schotte
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2022 5:49 PM
To: weihsien@proximus.be
Subject: Weihsien camp
Dear mister Pander,
I write you in English as I do not know what language you speak. (No problem to answer in Dutch or French)
I am Brecht Gaspar Schotte. My grand uncle Gaspar Schotte was a missionary in China for the Scheut mission.
He was a prisoner in Wheisien. I still have some items and pictures from his time in China and Wheisien.
Knowbody in the family knew much about this as he never talked about it. He died when I was born so sadly I never knew him. I was named after him.
I am very happy I discoverd your website. What a great work! Congratulations! I see you are Belgian to?
I am the founder of a World War Two museum 'Klein Engeland, The Secret War Museum'.
It is a resistance museum. See my website and facebook page (it is just renewed, not finished and should be translated in French and English)
I want to give the items of my uncle a place in the museum. I was wondering if I could use information and texts from your website?
The story of the Belgian prisoners in China is unknown to most of the Belgian people and I want to change that with an exhibition.
I also like the story of father De Jaegher and Hanquet. I would like to tell this story in the museum too.
If you want, I can send a picture of Gaspar's Wheisien 'badge' and scan some pictures I have from him.
I already found his signature on your website, that gave me a thrill!! It is the last one on the right in the attached image.
Kind regards,
Met vriendelijke groet,
Brecht Schotte
Molenweg 2
8650 Klerken
www.kleinengeland.be
Tel: 0497/329818
