(Clockwise from left) Michael Scheck, Wesley Aroozoo and his wife Ho Shengjuan, and the documents belonging to Scheck's relatives. - COURTESY OF WESLEY AROOZOO
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): In November 2022, Brisbane resident Michael Scheck received an e-mail from Singapore informing him that documents belonging to his father and uncle had been found. His first thought was that it was a scam.
The 63-year-old told The Straits Times: “I have never before heard (of someone) offering to give me something, so I initially ignored the e-mail, although the sender wasn’t actually asking for anything.”
It was only after the sender contacted his daughter and son through LinkedIn and after Scheck had verified the credentials of the sender, that he replied.
The sender – film-maker, author and film lecturer Wesley Aroozoo – was 6,100km away in Singapore and the documents he had were a chance find he came across while browsing on e-marketplace Carousell in April 2022.
The set of documents – which he bought for around S$80 – also includes work booklets dating back to Nazi-era Germany, postage stamps and family photographs.
He searched for leads on the original owner of the documents for eight months.
The documents belonged to two German brothers Woldemar and Wolfgang Scheck, who were born in 1922 and 1924 respectively, and detailed their employment before and during World War II.
One certificate documents Woldemar’s immigration to Australia in 1967, along with his wife and four children, with the youngest listed as a seven-year old Michael Scheck.
Aroozoo, 39, told The Straits Times that the Nazi swastika symbol on the booklets had caught his eye while he was scrolling through Carousell.
The lecturer in the film programme at Lasalle College of the Arts said: ”It drew my attention immediately. I knew these are pre-WWII or WWII items and they hold a lot of history. But I didn’t know that it had a lovely human side to it as well that deserved reconnection.
“The documents held so much info on the life these two men led during a time in Germany that was uncertain, and I felt strongly that their family should have these documents returned to them at all cost.”
While the immigration documents had pointed the way for Aroozoo, he was led down many dead ends.
The first lead came only in October when he chanced upon a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that showed the names of employees of train operator Queensland Rail.
Unable to open the file, Aroozoo scanned through lines of code, finally spotting Scheck’s name amid the jumble of letters, numbers and symbols.
He reached out to the rail operator and was eventually put in touch with Scheck, who works as a principal software and systems engineer at the company.
The pair eventually met at a hotel in Brisbane in January this year, with Aroozoo’s wife, Ho Shengjuan, in tow to help film the journey for a documentary he plans to make.
Scheck said: “I was amazed at the effort that Wesley went through to get in touch with us. Most people who discover documents like this would probably just throw them in the bin. The amount of effort Wesley put in speaks of his character.”
Aroozoo said that after returning the documents to Scheck, they chatted for another hour.
He said: “There was an immediate sense of satisfaction after he left. I just turned to my wife and said, ‘Wow.’”
Aroozoo said that this was not his first such search for the background of vintage items he has found on Carousell, and unlikely to be his last.
Recounting his childhood visits to thrift shops and the thrill of discovery he felt, Aroozoo said: “Rummaging through bags of items with my family members was fun and perhaps these old historical items make me feel safe.”
He said that the successful return of Scheck’s family documents and photographs was only possible because of the technology available today.
“Finding Scheck was a lucky strike and the experience of the search was one of the most valuable takeaways for me,“ said Aroozoo.
