The noon bell also used for roll call notice.
© Mrs. Wilder

I remember:
... ringing the hand bell from time to time to wake the camp for morning roll call. I remember the roll calls..ichi, ni san, chi, etc.

I remember:
... my Dad, Frank dancing a pas de deux with Betty Lambert. I remember my Mom, Ruby, playing soft ball complete with chatter.

I remember:
... my Dad acting in Androcles and the Lion. And Fr. de jaeger (was it?) being the lions roar.

I remember:
... bed bugs and pouring boiling water on the beds, and getting scalded and being painted blue. Oh the embarassment in the showers.

I remember:
... being hungry.

I remember:
... the horror of eating powdered egg shells and how they didn't get wet in your mouth.

I remember:
... the B29s flying over and the crates and drums falling from the bombays and the 'chutes never opening. I remember when the 7 jumped from the B24 and we ran out of the gates.

I remember:
... my dad with the swarming of bees in the hospital.

I remember:
being sent to get the boiling water, carrying it and spilling it all over...yes! Then getting myself painted blue with Gentian Violet.

I remember:
... Androcles and the Lion, my dad was the christian who was willing to do anything to avoid being killed by the lion. I was so upset. Either getting ready for my first communion, or just had it.

I remember:
... Sister Eustella(?) was that her name? She played softball, was an American, and was a nun.

I remember:
having my first communion and getting a little lacy paper card and an armlet hand painted. (my ex has these and will not give them to me.)

I remember:
... walking on the corrugated tin roofs of the Japanese compund with (Leo? Leon?) older than I, and our feet were burning on the heat and we caught two fledgling pigeons for food. he cooked them and I brought half back to my family. I cannot remember who he was except that he was (Russian?).

I remember:
... that it was the counting. Three times a day, a.m. I also remeber meeting with Japanese later on in 1973 who asked me how come I could use chopsticks so well. When I told them I was in China and had been in a Concentration camp, none would admit to being in the military. Ah well we did business anyway.

Peter Orlich, radio operator on Weihsien rescue mission. [click on the picture]

I remember:
... I was the first to reach (American rescuer) Peter Orlich. He had a brush cut (flat top!) when I first saw him. He did not have his cap and he had his glasses taped with pink 'medical' as opposed to Scotch tape around his temples. I remember this very clearly. He was standing (as I remember) in a field of stubble, (Kaoliang? ) I remember him assuming I was a Chinese, maybe I looked like one? when he saw me, barefoot and only wearing shorts. Who knows, but he pointed to some printing in Chinese on his shirt or jacket or vest. There was printing all over in different languages. There was also the stars and stripes. I said to him in my impeccable English ''Excuse me, sir, but I don't read Chinese.'' He then asked me if I was from the camp, and how did I get out, so I told him the gates were opened. Then he wanted to know where his fellow jumpers were. I walked him back to the camp, and as we got closer I got pre-empted by some adults.

I remember:
... stealing coal from the Japanese compound with my late brother Mickey. We had our pockets full of coal and were walking just outside and he threw an Acacia tree seed pod up into the air. Wouldn't you know it, it hit a guard and he came around the trees and took Mickey into the guard house. I ran like a scalded cat...with my coal. My Dad had to go and get Mickey and apologise for him. It took all afternoon.

I also remember:
... going in the Japanese compound in summer walking on the corrugated tin roofs with bare feet and it was so hot. I was with someone whose name now escapes me. An older boy and we were after pigeons to eat. He caught one and we cooked it later.

I remember:
... the ''Swat the flies'' campaign. Wasn't the first prize a rat's skull with curved fangs?

I also remember:
... raising a dove in our room. I kept it on a shelf in the corner and it would eat from my mouth. Ended up eating it.

I remember:
... Mrs Howard as being always dressed in black but who made donuts outside her room which was next to ours.

The beautiful Henrietta lived in block 22 -- one of the first two rooms on the left of the building at the right of the picture ...
[click on the picture]

I remember:
... Mrs De Jong, mother of the lovely Henrietta, lol., who also fried cheese sandwiches when the Red Cross parcels came in.

Carol Orlich,
... Peter Orlich's widow, phoned me today from New York -- bubbling with delight at the printouts of these memories about Pete that I've been mailing to her. She said that Pete wasn't supposed to be parachuting because he wore glasses. But he wanted to be on the rescue team. So when he lined up to be tested with other volunteers, he slipped his glasses into his pocket and listened carefully to the men in front of him reading the letters from the eye chart. He memorized the letters so he could pass the eye exam. On his first practice parachute drop, his glasses flew over his forhead and he couldn't see. So for the drop into Weihsien, he taped his glasses to his head.
Mary Previte.

I remember:
... flying from the camp back to Tientsin in C46 or C45. It had steel seats along the fuselage with dimpled seats in it. I think the windows were oval with a little hole cut out in the centre.
All the luggage was strapped down along the centre of the plane so that we could not see the people on the other side. I remember watching the wall of luggage looming overhead when the plane banked. What a thrill for a 10 year old.