HISTORIC SCHWEITZER LETTER DONATED TO MUSEUM
November 29, 2006 - Curaçao
CCF Chairman Mrs. Millicent Smeets-Muskus is very pleased to announce that Mr. Jan de Boer has donated to the Fortchurch Museum an historic letter written by Dr. Albert Schweitzer in which he gives his blessing and permission to name a school in Curaçao after him. Dutch text and an English translation appear under the photo of the original document. Mrs. Smeets-Muskus and the members of the CCF express their profound gratitude to Mr. de Boer and his family for this benevolent addition to the Museum's historic collection.
Vereniging voor Prot. Christelijk Doctor Albert Schweitzer
Onderwijs. Postbus 555 Willemstad Lamberene - GABON
Curaçao, N.A. Nederlandse Antillen Frans Equatoriaal Afrika
27 december 1958
Beste heer de Boer, beste heer Kort,
U betuigt mij veel sympathie met het uitdrukking geven van de wens de tweede van uw protestants christelijke school mijn naam te doen dragen. Het is uw welwillende wens dat ik u daarvoor mijn toestemming geef. Ik hoop dat deze school aan de leerlingen die haar bezoeken, bekend zal maken met de geest van het Evangelie van onze Here Jezus Christus, dat zij groot respect hebben voor de leraren die hen opvoeden en hen onderwijzen, dat ze met een blijvende vriendschap tussen de leerlingen en hen verbonden verblijven, en dat zij hun hele leven lang dankbaar zijn voor hen die ze hebben onderwezen, zoals ik voor de mijne erkentelijk ben gebleven, al hebben die reeds vele jaren deze wereld verlaten. Wilt u mijn groeten overbrengen aan de heren predikanten, aan de onderwijzers en onderwijzeressen, en aan de leerlingen.
Met mijn beste gedachten uw toegewijd
ALBERT SCHWEITZER
Aan de school te Curaçao die mijn naam draagt
Met mijn beste gedachten. Albert Schweitzer
Lamberene, 20 januari 1959
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Association for Protestant Christian Education Doctor Albert Schweitzer
P.O.Box 555 Lambarene - GABON
Willemstad French Equatorial Africa
Curaçao
Netherlands Antilles December 27, 1958
Dear Mr. de Boer,Dear Mr. Kort,
You affirm great congeniality by expressing the desire to grace your second protestant Christian school with my name. It is your benevolent wish that I grant you my permission to this effect. I sincerely hope that this school shall introduce the students which attend it to the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they may have great respect for the teachers who educate and teach them, that the teachers and the students may be bound together by an enduring friendship, and that the students may be grateful for the rest of their lives to those who taught them, in the same manner as I have remained indebted to those who taught me, even though they have departed from this world many years ago.
Please extend my kindest regards to the ministers, the teachers, both male and female, and to the students.
With my most dedicated consideration towards you,
ALBERT SCHWEITZER
To the school in Curaçao which bears my name,
with my most dedicated consideration.
Albert Schweitzer.
Lambarene, January 20, 1959
"Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him."
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Albert Schweitzer,
M.D.,
OM, (
January 14,
1875 –
September 4,
1965) was an
Alsatian theologian,
musician,
philosopher, and
physician. He was born in
Kaisersberg in
Alsace-Lorraine, a
Germanophone region which the
German Empire returned to
France after
World War I. Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of
historical Jesus current at his time and the traditional Christian view, depicting a Jesus who expected the imminent end of the world. He received the
1952 Nobel Peace Prize in
1953 for his philosophy of "
reverence for life",
[1] expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the
Lambaréné Hospital in
Gabon, west central
Africa
Schweitzer died on September 4, 1965 at his beloved hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. His grave, on the banks of the Ogowe River, is marked by a cross he made himself.
His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre was the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre.