☛ ... the most recent messages are on top !
From: Sancton
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 1:33 PM
To: Leopold PANDER
Subject: thoughts
Good morning, Leopold: Thank you for your reply.
I see from your note that my family must have been luckier than yours in Camp as we did received the occasional parcel from the KMA. Also being on the outside wall for some of those months, my mother was able to do some black marketing which I have always presumed was for all in Camp.
I know my mother had to sell a lot of the family trinkets, not that she had many to begin with.
The stress of it all must have contributed greatly to my father's early death in 1948. However he was also a very, very heavy smoker.
Also he had tried to re-enlist once war was declared, (he had been a Sgt with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Scots and been posted to China) Apparently he was turned down as he was too far away for the British to get him. He had lost two elder brothers in WWI.
I always feel sorry for my grandmother, as with so many families who lose family members in the war. I cannot imagine what agony families are going through these days.
Love to you all,
Christine
From: Leopold PANDER
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2023 9:38 AM
To: 'Sancton'
Cc: 'pierre.ley@telenet.be'
Subject: RE: belated birthday wishes?
Dear Christine,
Thanks for replying to my latest message to our Weihsien Group.
To answer to your question, I guess that we were in the same train arriving from Tientsin. A large group of Catholic Missionaries were in that train too and as I was told and read in books; they were singing joyfully. Was it to cheer us up ?? or were they just having a good time in that train? I wasn't two years old yet and my birthday was still one month ahead. Needless to say, that I didn't have a birthday party then, and I think that it was the same one year later. I vaguely remember my fourth birthday. We shared an omelette cooked by my father in our little dark room of Block-22 on what was our table ― an upside-down wooden crate, maybe an empty soap box and dad religiously cutting a thin slice of spam we received earlier that year with the American Red Cross packages. I don't remember much from Weihsien, but "that" ― I remember vaguely.
Hope all's OK for you and your family. I sometimes feel like a crooked guy living in a crooked house at the end of a crooked lane (etc.) ... The big problem is getting up in the morning but I presume that it is the same thing for all of us "old" folks. Ha! Ha!
Bien amicalement 😊
Leopold
From: Sancton
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2023 8:45 PM
To: Leopold PANDER
Subject: belated birthday wishes?
Dear Leopold:
have I missed your birthday? If I have all the best of wishes to you. Each one is precious for us, isn't it.
I was thinking the other day, how lucky we are that somehow with our early life in Camp and poor nutrition, that we are still living full lives, 80 years later. Gay was 91 years old when she died this month last year...with no medical history leading a very full and active life, playing the organ at church and directing the church choir. We are grateful to those who cared for us during those 2 1/2 years in Camp.
My family went into Camp in March 1943. Was your family on the same train I wonder?
We must all be horrified as to what is going on in the whole world now.
The terrible racism and nationalism.
A more cheery wartime book are the memoirs of Betty Webb, a 101 year old who was working on decoding at Bletchley Park. She writes in a very light hearted way. Of course, she was not in the front line but had the burden of not being able to talk about her wartime work till 30 or more years after the war's end. She did work in the Pentagon following the war's end in Europe for the war in Asia so must have covered some of the messages relating to us in China.
Hope all is well for you and your family.
Our love and best wishes to you all.
With gratitude as always.
Christine
From: Leopold PANDER
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2023 10:37 AM
To: '乐道院·潍县集中营博物馆'
Subject: RE: Alan Donald Nunn
Dear Weihsien Museum,
Thanks for your message and thanks, we are every day one day older and all is OK so far 😊
As for a “Mr. Nunn”, I searched the Weihsien Paintings’ website and found a Sergeant Nunn at:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/The7Magnificent/BIRD/book/hog_wild.pdf
SGT — Nunn, James Arnold — British — 1870701 (…) which doesn’t seem to be the right person!
From Norman Cliff’s scrap books, I remember of an incident … GoTo:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/NormanCliff/epilogue/index.php
and:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/NormanCliff/epilogue/DonovanOSS/DonovanOfOSS.htm
scroll to the bottom of the page and:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/NormanCliff/epilogue/DonovanOSS/JohnBirchAndI.htm
I, however, didn’t find any mention of a Mr. Alan Donald Nunn.
This message is forwarded to our Weihsien Group. Maybe somebody else can supply a more explicit information for you.
Best regards,
Leopold
From: 乐道院·潍县集中营博物馆
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2023 8:35 AM
To: 潍县绘画
Subject: Alan Donald Nunn
Dear Leopold,
How are you recently?
We were contacted by a descendant who claimed to be an imprisoned Ex-Weihsiener and said that his grandfather, Alan Donald Nunn, was an Australian paratrooper who crashed and was captured while flying near the concentration camp. His family learned from the Embassy of the British and United States of America in China that his grandfather had been imprisoned by the Japanese in the Weihsien concentration camp and later shot. Do you or other Ex-Weihsieners feel familiar with this name Alan Donald Nunn or know anything about it? May I also ask if the Weihsien concentration camp were all imprisoned civilians at that time, or if there were any military officers and other people in special occupations among them. If you are familiar with any survivors in Australia, could you please let us know the contact information so that we can pass it on to the descendant, perhaps he can find out more information in Australia?
Thank you very much for your help.
Best wishes，
The Courtyard of the Happy Way and Weihsien Concentration Camp Museum
乐道院·潍县集中营博物馆ldybgs@163.com
From: Angela
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2023 6:39 AM
To: pander.nl@skynet.be
Subject: Fw: greetings
Hello,
Many thanks to Leopold for article of Anwei the Norwegian
girl! Poor child & her mother & such a let down arriving in
Norway! Trying to catch up with old messages! Her memories
are immortal! Well you both went thru the days in camp but
alas for myself no memories! There/re still articles & such that
come up & thank you for posting.
cheers
Angela
#
