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Fred Seiker

Discussion in 'WWII Obituaries' started by GRW, Jun 7, 2017.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    "Engineer Fred Seiker was captured and held in a prisoner of war camp in Thailand in 1942, and was subjected to horrific abuse.
    He was one of more than 180,000 forced labourers made to build the Burma Railway which was started 75 years ago.
    The construction of the infamous railway line saw 16,000 Allied servicemen, including 7,000 British troops, and 100,000 Asian labourers worked to death.
    Mr Seiker was once tied to a tree with barbed wire by Japanese guards for stealing a tin of fruit, while on another occasion he was tied to the ground with barbed wire while one guard pumped water into his body via a hose and another jumped on his stomach.
    Mr Seiker said he suffered 'nightmares for life' after finally escaping the camp in 1945 when the guards left following the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. After finally returning to Holland in 1946, he moved to the UK in the same year and later wrote a book on his harrowing experiences called 'Lest We Forget'. He is pictured here in tears at a memorial to those who served and were killed in Burma at Alrewas in Staffordshire
    Mr Seiker survived to tell the tale and later wrote a book, called 'Lest We Forget', about his experiences which received worldwide critical acclaim.
    The work even received backing from Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming and was published in Mandarin.
    Mr Seiker died peacefully at his home in Worcester on June 1."
    WWII veteran who helped build Burma Railway dies aged 101 | Daily Mail Online
     
    The Alerted Beast, lwd and Otto like this.
  2. The Alerted Beast

    The Alerted Beast Member

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    The Japanese had a long history of doing horrible things to prisoners and POWs. My family and friends call me the Stone-cold because my lack of empathy and emotion but the evil deeds that they committed during WWII (like Unit 731 experiments on Allied POWs) turns my stomach so bad that my blood pressure drops low.
     
  3. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Old Jock McCallum who lived across the road from me as a kid was also a Burma Railway survivor. To the day he died, he look about 120 and walked like a half-shut knife. He was only in his early '80s when he died.
     
  4. The Alerted Beast

    The Alerted Beast Member

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    I've seen people that look quite old for their actual age because of living in harsh conditions, but I still wonder how can a human survive something like Burma Railway Construction.
     

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