Guided by Spirits: Gustav Potthoff
One of the most resilient and amazing people I have ever known is Gustav Potthoff.
A while ago some friends and I interviewed Gustav, a folk artist and former prisoner of war for a short video documentary about his forced labor on the Burma-Thailand death railway. (Truly, we'd rather produce a full-length feature film, and the necessary $350,000+ notwithstanding, we still might!)
Here's a sneak peek at coming attractions...
Gustav Potthoff was born in what is now Indonesia shortly after the end of World War I. His father was a German sailor captured during fighting in the South Pacific and later held prisoner near Gustav's home island. His mother was a native Indonesian.
Enlisted in the Dutch Colonial Army, Gustav fought the Japanese invasion into Asia and the Pacific starting in 1941. Like so many other soldiers, he was taken prisoner by the Japanese when the Allies surrendered in early 1942. Gustav was made a POW on his birthday, March 11th. He was only 18 years old.
After being made prisoner, he was sent on a prison ship to Rangoon, Burma, to await further dispersal to camps. After languishing on the ship for several months, the prisoners were sent to a camp near the town of Thanbyuzayat to start working with other POW's on Japan's new Thai-Burma railway—later known as the Railway of Death. Starting in Burma and ending with his August 1945 release from the camp near Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Gustav worked with other POW's on the railway. Due to the severe conditions, brutal treatment, and lack of medical care, many of his fellow prisoners did not make it out alive.
Now living in the United States, Gustav continues to remember and honor his fellow POWs who worked alongside him during those hellish years, and the spirit of a fellow prisoner compels him to paint beautiful, haunting scenes from that time.
Gustav, we are thinking of you and wishing you well!