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Rather than keep posting on the "Oswald in England" thread - I wanted to start a thread just for Albert Schweitzer College...

I'm starting to think that ASC has more to do with this than meets the eye...  why was it so hard for them to find?

1527423931_SWISSPOLICELOOKINGFORALBERTSCHWEITZERCOLLEGE.thumb.jpg.def90a63a0c07c4cfdc9d2fc3f8143c8.jpg

Seems they had a hard time finding it... but they shouldn't have as the School was in existence and in full force in 1960:

ALBERT SCHWEITZER COLLEGE   http://www.bjornahlstedt.org/bredband/college.htm

In the year 1959 to 1960 I spent some months in Switzerland in a college called Albert Schweitzer College.

It was situated in the eastern part of Switzerland in Graubünden in a little village called Churwalden near Chur.

In this college I and students from the USA, UK, Germany, Brazil, Holland and Sweden studied ethics, philosophy and other subjects. In the evenings we went out eating ‘college special’ which was a kind of sandwich with bündnerfleisch (ham) and eggs. Sometimes we went for trips to Lenzerheide and Parpan and for walks in the mountains. One thing that I remember very well is when we walked up on a mountain and came over the clouds. There were also opportunities for skiing.

In this college I met a girl from Brazil. We made trips to Italy (Lugano) and other places pretending that we were married. We left the college after 6 months and after some time in Sweden I traveled to her home in Brazil to marry her and after that she came to me in Stockholm. After a rather short time we found that we were very different and also because I was about to study and was still dependent on my parents it was best for us both to divorce.

I have searched for the words ‘Albert Schweitzer College’ and if you search for the exact phrase you will find a lot of documents referring to Lee Harvey Oswald a person who was associated with the assasination of president Kennedy. Oswald made an application to Albert Schweitzer College in March 1959 to attend a study course in the spring 1960. He did not go there though but instead went to Finland and the to the Soviet Union.

On the web you will also find some people who were at the college. If anybody tries to search for this College in the Internet and hits my website I would be happy if he or she would write a mail to me.

I have recently talked to a daughter to the director there Hans Casparis and I have also got a letter from a friend of the Casparis family. They have told me that the college was managed of Mr Casparis only for a short time after that I left and that they had a successor that was a reverend with a chronic desease. He in his turn was followed by another person who was less successful and the college had to close.This happened around the year 1968. Churwalden is now a ski resort. The building where the college was situated was hired by a meat-dryery which had earlier been a well-known hotel. Later on the meat-dryery became a shopping center and that shopping center reopened the hotel which has the name Hotel Krone.

691584125_KRONEhotelusedtobeASC.thumb.jpg.bd73a44aea7183b7989717115a4e3138.jpg

 

Turns out the school was heavily funded from the US... Boston area....   

780317664_FriendsofASC.thumb.jpg.8d7ae6929384943f56aa437e8b20bb1e.jpg

 

 

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Björn Ahlstedts is the person who posted that little blurb about attending ASC "for a few months" during the years 1959-1960

ASC sent a student list for the years 1956 - 1961; here is 1959-60 and he does not appear on the list...  so either this list is not accurate or Bjorn is full of it....  why then would this person post such things?

10 minutes ago, David Josephs said:

I have recently talked to a daughter to the director there Hans Casparis and I have also got a letter from a friend of the Casparis family. They have told me that the college was managed of Mr Casparis only for a short time after that I left and that they had a successor that was a reverend with a chronic desease. He in his turn was followed by another person who was less successful and the college had to close.This happened around the year 1968. Churwalden is now a ski resort. The building where the college was situated was hired by a meat-dryery which had earlier been a well-known hotel. Later on the meat-dryery became a shopping center and that shopping center reopened the hotel which has the name Hotel Krone

1472022189_ASCstudentlist1959-60.thumb.jpg.e3d887ddd400f7484683fd1be5ea6868.jpg

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Hi David,

No, I didn’t mean to “tease”. I had posted a link to some interesting things Greg Parker had written several years ago in an article entitled “Oswald and the Albert Schweitzer College”. But then I noticed that Jason Ward had recently provided a link to the same article on the “What is known about Oswald’s time in England?” thread.

Jason wrote:

“Mervyn, found rhis [sic] great link about Oswald and the Albert Schweitzer college:

http://coverthistory.blogspot.com/2005/07/oswald-and-albert-schweitzer-college.html

This is an amazing point from Greg Parker's article.   Oswald needed an educational purpose in order to legally leave the US while still under military service obligation:
 
As an inactive Reservist, Oswald could be called up in a mobilisation any time during the balance of his enlistment (3 months) and therefore could not leave US shores without a legitimate reason. One reason recognized as legitimate by the authorities was “education". 

End quote.

More by Ed Ledoux and Greg Parker here:

http://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/t1167-albert-schweitzer-college-intuition

 

Edited by Tom Hume
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ok Tom... thought you'd treat me to some interesting word puzzles related to the college....    :cheers

The timing of the alternate Oswald getting out of the Marines in March 1959... and the application from March 59 seems a bit too coincidental for me

We are to remember that the passport book with all these travel stamps was LEE's....

When he lands in La Harve, etc....  

these photos are taken weeks apart

1381415567_Comparing1959PassportphotowithOswald1959.jpg.8c0357b7215bf448a1529f1f66ac70b3.jpg

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25 minutes ago, David Josephs said:

ok Tom... thought you'd treat me to some interesting word puzzles related to the college....

No again, David. Here’s the best I can do: “SCHWEITZER” anagrams to “Re: EZ SWITCH”. Grin.        
 

Edited by Tom Hume
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12 hours ago, David Josephs said:

eems they had a hard time finding it... but they shouldn't have as the School was in existence and in full force in 1960:

Both then and now there were/are many schools who specialise a little less in education and a little more in providing some kind of product or service to their students. 

The worst of them actively manipulate and defraud students, but most are taking money in return for something the "student" wants.   Diploma mills are one variety.  Another variety are the schools in Europe that aim at Americans solely for the purpose of providing a European vacation masquerading as a semester or year studying overseas.   In Oswald's case, he's required to stay stateside by law because he's on active military reserve - one exception is overseas travel for educational purposes.

Europe in this time is still recovering from the war and divided down the middle by an Iron Curtain - young Americans were an active target for both legitimate schools and less-legitimate businesses calling themselves schools.  Young GIs then and now are targets for schools seeking paying students.    I'm making no comment on what Albert Schweitzer College was or is - their purpose could very well be only for serious education.

I attach a few documents possibly of interest.

 

1 The CIA constructed a narrative of Oswald's defection

LHO_summer59.jpg


 


2. Marguerite Oswald receives a letter from Albert Scweitzer college
Shcwz1.jpg

schwz2.jpg

 

3. The FBI summarizes the content of their Oswald file pre-22NOV63 for the Warren Commission:
Scheweizer_bureau.jpg

4. The HSCA submitted interrogatories to the CIA asking what they knew about Oswald pre-22NOV63
Schweizer_no_cia_knowledge.jpg

 

SOURCES

1 - CIA-constructed Oswald narrative, part of the HSCA Russ Holmes work file, NARA 104-10423-10214

2 - NARA 104-10428-10116

3 - FBI Headquarters Oswald file, 105-82555, section 236

4 - NARA 104-10138-10297

Edited by Jason Ward
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9 minutes ago, Jason Ward said:

Both then and now there were/are many schools who specialise a little less in education and a little more in providing some kind of product or service to their students. 

The worst of them actively manipulate and defraud students, but most are taking money in return for something the "student" wants.   Diploma mills are one variety.  Another variety are the schools in Europe that aim at Americans solely for the purpose of providing a European vacation masquerading as a semester or year studying overseas.   In Oswald's case, he's required to stay stateside by law because he's on active military reserve - one exception is overseas travel for educational purposes.

Europe in this time is still recovering from the war and divided down the middle by an Iron Curtain - young Americans were an active target for both legitimate schools and less-legitimate businesses calling themselves schools.  Young GIs then and now are targets for schools seeking paying students.    I'm making no comment on what Albert Schweitzer College was or is - their purpose could very well be only for serious education.

I attach a few documents possibly of interest.

 

1 The CIA constructed a narrative of Oswald's defection

LHO_summer59.jpg


 


2. Marguerite Oswald receives a letter from Albert Scweitzer college
Shcwz1.jpg

schwz2.jpg

 

3. The FBI summarizes the content of their Oswald file pre-22NOV63 for the Warren Commission:
Scheweizer_bureau.jpg

4. The HSCA submitted interrogatories to the CIA asking what they knew about Oswald pre-22NOV63
Schweizer_no_cia_knowledge.jpg

 

SOURCES

1 - CIA-constructed Oswald narrative, part of the HSCA Russ Holmes work file, NARA 104-10423-10214

2 - NARA 104-10428-10116

3 - FBI Headquarters Oswald file, 105-82555, section 236

4 - NARA 104-10138-10297

Jason, if LHO applied to attend Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland and on March 4, 1959, he paid the necessary deposit fee in order to satisfy US Marines that he had a legitimate reason for leaving, it would seem that it was his intention to attend college in Switzerland between April and July 1959.

At least his mother thought so, and she became worried when her son did not show up at college and no one there had heard any more from him.

Obviously LHO told his mother that he was going to college in Switzerland and she obviously believed him enough to become very worried by June 1960 when she contacted the college directly. In September 1960, the college confirmed that they had received an application from LHO and that he had sent them the required deposit.

Up until this point in time at least, the assumption by his mother was that her son was in Switzerland attending college.

Now jump down to the FBI document (3) above.

How come, before the college sent the reply in September 1960, to LHO's mother's letter in June 1960, the US Marines had already given LHO a "undesirable discharge" in August 1960?

What exactly is an "undesirable discharge"?

It seems that LHO's mother triggered the investigation with her enquiries which obviously were forwarded to the U.S. Embassy in Paris for investigation into the whereabouts of her son. She must have contacted Fort Worth Police, or FBI in Fort Worth who then forwarded the enquiry to the U.S. Embassy in Paris. When they drew a blank - probably by contacting the college as well - the information about LHO being classified as a missing person must have reached the U.S. Marines who then issued their "undesirable discharge".

So what does all this reveal?

1. LHO's mother really did believe her son was going to college in Switzerland in 1959.

2. LHO's mother did what any parent would do when she discovered that her son had never arrived at the college: she became worried and began contacting authorities.

3. If LHO saw his mother just before taking off for New Orleans where he boarded a freighter for France, then it seems likely that his destination was the college in Switzerland.

4. Even after taking the side trip to England on a liner, LHO stuck to his story and told UK Immigration that he was going to college in Switzerland and he was going to be in England for a week prior to leaving for college.

5. Immediately after his arrival in England and clearing Immigration he must have met someone who told him that there was to be a change in his plans. He was not going to Switzerland but to Helsinki, Finland. Or was he told that? Only his flight plan would confirm that and we don't know his flight plan. So he may have been told to go to Stockholm, Sweden, and then he was told to go on to Finland.

In any event, for someone to have control over LHO to that extent where his own plans are instantly torn up and replaced by a mysterious time line, means that LHO had somehow or other come under the control of something akin to U.S. Marines where orders are given and never questioned, and promptly obeyed.

Now who could that someone have represented?

 

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21 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

How come, before the college sent the reply in September 1960, to LHO's mother's letter in June 1960, the US Marines had already given LHO a "undesirable discharge" in August 1960?

What exactly is an "undesirable discharge"?

Oswald's defection was a noteworthy event to the Marines and a newsworthy event for everyone else in America.   I believe the Marines downgraded his discharge to "undesirable" because he surrendered to the enemy as it were.  Oswald made a point of telling the US Embassy in Moscow that he intended to share his knowledge from the Marines with the Soviets.  I'm too tired to find and post the documentation around that, but let me know if you want it.   

I imagine the Marines would do this today if a Marine joined al-qaeda, "ISIS", or the Iranian Republican Guard.   

Back in the days of the draft - which didn't end until the 1970s, the status of one's military discharge was a big deal.   It could keep you from employment if it was undesirable and Oswald spent the rest of his life trying to get this designation changed.   Downgrading a discharge status was a form of punishment, still in use today.

21 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

5. Immediately after his arrival in England and clearing Immigration he must have met someone who told him that there was to be a change in his plans. He was not going to Switzerland but to Helsinki, Finland. Or was he told that? Only his flight plan would confirm that and we don't know his flight plan. So he may have been told to go to Stockholm, Sweden, and then he was told to go on to Finland.

In any event, for someone to have control over LHO to that extent where his own plans are instantly torn up and replaced by a mysterious time line, means that LHO had somehow or other come under the control of something akin to U.S. Marines where orders are given and never questioned, and promptly obeyed.

Now who could that someone have represented?

This is a lot of speculation, which is fine of course, but it might be too much speculation for me to spend a lot of time on discussing.  Plenty here will engage you on this though!   I am more comfortable with agreeing that the evidence suggests Oswald fully planned on school in Switzerland until some time after arriving in Southampton.  I do ask why the US government would piss Oswald off by retroactively downgrading his discharge status to UNDESIRABLE if the government is in some way involved in his defection?    

 

 

Jason  

Edited by Jason Ward
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6 minutes ago, Jason Ward said:

This is a lot of speculation, which is fine of course, but it might be too much speculation for me to spend a lot of time on discussing.  Plenty here will engage you on this though!   I am more comfortable with agreeing that the evidence suggests Oswald fully planned on school in Switzerland until some time after arriving in Southampton.  I do ask why the US government would piss Oswald off by retroactively downgrading his discharge status to UNDESIRABLE if the government is in some way involved in his defection?    

 

 

Jason  

Jason, the only speculation by me is what happened after he left Immigration at Southampton, and before he boarded a plane from Heathrow to somewhere.

That window of speculation is very small.

If you agree, and you seem to agree with my timetable up until the moment when LHO's mother started asking where her son was, and that timetable has LHO going to college in Switzerland for which he had previously made application and paid a deposit; then it all comes down to his very brief stay in England and an abrupt change in his plans.

That is the narrowed focus of my questions and speculation - since I offer no solution - except that whoever caused LHO to change his plans, TOLD LHO about the change to his plans and clearly LHO did change his plans.

To suggest that he never intended to go to college in Switzerland is where the train of logic really does leave the rails. There is NOTHING to suggest otherwise, and all of the HARD evidence points to LHO going to college in Switzerland.

Forget the USSR for the moment and concentrate on LHO in England in real time.

For LHO to make such a change and to do it in a secretive manner when everything else he had done up until this moment in time was no secret, then someone had such a hold over him that their power and authority had to be akin to the power and authority of the U.S. Marine Corp. (No! I am NOT in any way suggesting that it was the U.S, Marine Corp., I am merely saying that whoever it was had THEIR KIND of power and authority over LHO.)

Mervyn

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3 hours ago, Jason Ward said:

I do ask why the US government would piss Oswald off by retroactively downgrading his discharge status to UNDESIRABLE if the government is in some way involved in his defection?    

Jason

This, for me, has been one of the biggest questions or thoughts I have as well Jason. I’ve thought about this many, many times and the only way I could justify it is perhaps his being “off the books” and compartmentalized? Perhaps they (hypothetical handlers) didn’t even want to  hint at his defection being false? I suppose it would make sense of LHO was primarily going to the USSR primarily on his own with a bit of help in the background but then again, I’m with Bagley, Roman and other evidence that strongly suggest LHO was being helped. Hell Lee told Snyder that “they told me...” I have never definitely learned who “they” are...boy would I ever love to know....

Just speculation city unfortunately but fun to do from time to time lol.

Edited by B. A. Copeland
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