The effects of the federal government shutdown have yet to affect Texas

A&M University and College Station to the extent seen in other areas, but side ef-fects could become more severe as the shut-down wears on.

The government shutdown began Oct. 1 and has affected thousands of federal employees who have been put on furlough until Congress can pass a funding bill.

The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum has been closed since the shutdown began, except for a few archives. Cole Harrison, junior economics major, has worked at the Bush Library as a public relations events and marketing intern for a year and a half. Despite the shutdown, Har-rison said he still has a job.

“All interns are hired through the Bush Foundation, not the Bush Library,” Har-rison said. “Even though the Library is closed, interns still have a job at the An-nenberg Presidential Conference Center, which is right next to the Bush Library.”

Harrison said workers at the Bush Library were informed about the shutdown days

before it went into effect.“I have always had some interest in poli-

tics, so I was following the days up to shut-down,” Harrison said. “Workers had plenty of meetings at the Library, so we knew on Monday that there was a definite possibility of a shutdown.”

Harrison said everyone is keeping their fingers crossed that the shutdown will end

l thursday, october 10, 2013 l serving texas a&m since 1893 l first paper free – additional copies $1 l © 2013 student media

thebattalion

Don’t forget about Yell PracticePatrick Mc-

Ginty (left) and Chris Powell help lead away-game Yell Practice on Sept. 26, two days before the Arkansas game. The next away-game Yell Practice is at 7 p.m. Thurs-day on Simpson Drill Field.

Jenna Rabel— THE BATTALION

insidelifestyles | 5MSC CoffeehouseJared Putnam, lead singer of “The March Divide,” will be playing an acoustic show at 6 p.m. Thursday in the MSC Flagroom.

sports | 4A&M to host NCAA tourneyFor the third straight year, Reed Arena and College Station were chosen Wednesday to host two rounds of the 2014 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

hillel | 6Holocaust survivor speaksErnest Wertheim shared his experiences Wednesday at Hillel about saving persecuted Jews from the Nazis during WWII by leading refugees down ski slopes in Czechoslovakia.

Former advisor to share lessons from Obama campaign

bush school

David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, will offer lead-

ership lessons from his time working with the Obama administration.

As part of the Bush School Distinguished Lecture Series, Axelrod will give the audi-ence a behind-the-scenes look at life in the White House and an insight into what Axel-rod learned from his experiences on the world stage.

The event will take place at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center, but reservations are due by Thursday.

Andrew Card, former Bush School dean and chief of staff for the Bush administration from 2000 to 2006, will serve as the mod-erator for the audience questions portion after the lecture.

An inductee of The American Associa-tion of Political Consultants’ Hall of Fame, Axelrod served as senior strategist to President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

Mary Hein, assistant to the dean of the Bush School, said part of Axelrod’s prestige comes from his work transforming the Obama cam-paign in 2008.

“It was the first time that social media was

really used to get the word out to young people,” Hein said. “He really was a person who took someone who probably wasn’t well known and now we have a president who has served for six years.”

Ann Bowman, Bush School professor, said she encourages lecture attendance because it is relevant to all students.

“Any student who thinks he or she could be affected by federal actions should go, which

should be every student, regardless of major,” Bow-man said. “As close as he was to the president of the United States, that’s reason in and of itself to go.”

Joseph Krek, junior his-tory major, said Axelrod’s experience coordinating White House speeches and

communication is interesting, given President Obama’s reputation for emotionally evocative speeches. Krek said he is interested in seeing Axelrod speak because he has a fresh perspec-tive to add.

“Not only because of his success in both the Clinton and the Obama administration but seeing him present his own writing, as opposed to a presidential candidate, would be a rare treat,” Krek said.

Homer Segovia The Battalion

David Axelrod

Students cope with government shutdown

politics

Jennifer Reiley The Battalion

I think it’s a tragedy that it had to happen because

even though we knew about it, my co-workers didn’t really see it coming. I’ve also had a lot of people ask me about the shutdown. It’s an eye-opening experience for students. People are becoming more politically interested.”

— Cole Harrison, junior economics major

See Shutdown on page 2

Last year, a fatal plane crash irrevocably changed the lives of one Aggie fam-

ily. On the anniversary of the death of her father, brothers and uncle, Alyson Ledet is using her story to change the lives of those around her.

Alyson, senior biomedical sci-ences major, lost her father Leon-ard “Len” Ledet, her two young-er brothers Paul and Mason and her uncle, Gregory, when Len’s small plane crashed on the way to

last season’s A&M and Ole Miss game.

“The day that I lost my father, brothers and uncle in the plane crash marks such a huge event in my life,” Alyson said. “That day to me now represents a reason to give back and to do good for people around me, a day to pay it forward.”

She has spent this week en-gaging in acts of kindness and

Family tragedy spurs acts of kindness

PAY IT FORWARD

The day that I lost my father, brothers and uncle in the plane crash marks such a huge event

in my life. That day to me now represents a reason to give back and to do good for people around me, a day to pay it forward.”

— Alyson Ledet, senior biomedical sciences major Jenna Rabel — THE BATTALION

Alyson Ledet passes out “Pay it Forward” cards in honor of her father, two younger brothers and uncle who were killed in a plane crash last fall. The cards encourage people to perform acts of kindness.

Alexandra Smith Special to The Battalion

See Ledet on page 5

BAT_10-10-13_A1.indd 1 10/9/13 10:56 PM

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ANSWERSto todays puzzles

The BaTTalion is published daily, Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the Memorial Student Center.

News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; website: http://www.thebatt.com.

Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising, call 979-845-2687. For classified advertising, call 979-845-0569. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Email: battads@thebatt.com.

Subscriptions: A part of the Student Services Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. First copy free, additional copies $1.

thebattalion The IndependenT STudenT VoIce of TexaS a&M SInce 1893

Jake Walker, Editor in Chief

page 2

“I think both parties are going to have to get better at compromising and recognizing that the needs of

the government are bigger than the needs of each party.”

Justin Ginn, sophomore electrical engineering major

Q:thebattasks What do you think it will take for

government shutdown to end?“The U.S. population [will need] to become more educated and Congress [will need] to set aside its differences and actually make a decision for once.”

Lauren Lundquist, land economics and real estate

graduate student

“It’s going to take both sides not being so stubborn and coming up with an active

plan.”Morgan Lawson, freshman international

studies major

“People are going to have to get involved and let Congress know what they want and when they

want it.”Zach Reveal, freshman psychology major

“The Republicans and Democrats are going to have to quit being so stubborn and

agree to disagree.”Jake Moyers, sophomore

communication major

soon, and although there are negative ef-fects, he said he was able to find a silver lining to the situation in that students have become more active in following politics.

“I think it’s a tragedy that it had to happen because even though we knew about it, my co-workers didn’t really see it coming,” Harrison said. “But I’ve also had a lot of people ask me about the shutdown. It’s an eye-opening experi-ence for students. People are becoming more politically interested.”

Members of the Corps of Cadets in the ROTC program, which works with contracted cadets, have only experienced minor effects from the shutdown. The shutdown has not stopped the monthly stipend contracted cadets receive from the federal government. Col. Hugh Hanlon, Commander of the Air Force ROTC at A&M, said the government shutdown is having minimal effects on the ROTC at the moment and members should expect money on time.

“Stipends and other entitlements are important to the cadets,” Hanlon said. “Those cadets who are contracted should still be paid on time, and those whose paperwork is being processed will be reimbursed.”

Hanlon said if the shutdown contin-ues, the situation within the ROTC may begin to change. The Air Force ROTC would begin to look for guidance from leadership in the Air Force for the next step.

“For now, it’s too early to tell what results the shutdown will have,” Hanlon

said. “That being said, we continue to monitor the situation and engage regu-larly with our higher headquarters.”

Commander D.J. Haynie, executive officer of the Naval ROTC unit, said everything is business as usual at the mo-ment and the government shutdown has not yet had major effects on the Naval ROTC either.

The shutdown has temporarily sti-fled some aspects of the research side of campus.

Erica Owen, assistant political science professor, said websites that host data from the census and from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Texas Census Research Data Center in College Station are both unavailable because of the shut-down, an effect that negatively impacts her research at Texas A&M.

“Our research is being held up be-cause we cannot talk to our census con-tact to get our proposal finalized,” Owen said. “And then, until the government reopens, you also cannot submit any new proposals.”

The closing of the Bush Library has affected the city of College Station at large. Starting Oct. 21, the city plans to

recognize its 75th anniversary with the exhibit, “College Station: A Commu-nity History.”

Mike Neu, multimedia coordinator for the City of College Station and a city liaison to the 75th anniversary plan-ning committee, said the exhibit is an opportunity for residents and visitors to learn more about the history of College Station.

The exhibit was set to be in the Bush Library through Jan. 4 with events ev-ery month including film screenings, car shows and dinners in November. Neu said the Bush Library has been supportive of the exhibit with no additional costs to the city. If the shutdown lasts until Oct. 21, Neu said the opening would just be delayed. There are no plans to move the exhibit to an alternative location.

“[The Bush Library] is a unique fa-cility — [the] staff and resources are in-comparable to any other location in our community,” Neu said. “We expect the shutdown to merely delay the exhibit’s opening, and we will continue with plans to open at the Bush Library at the earliest possible date.”

Neu said the city of College Station itself is not experiencing effects from the government shutdown. However, a prolonged shutdown might mean tem-porary effects for different services in the community.

“There have been virtually no effects on city operations as a result of the fed-eral government shutdown,” Neu said. “If the shutdown lasts for a period of months, however, there is a possibility that services and programs which rely on grant funding in some departments could be temporarily affected.”

ShutdownContinued from page 1

It’s an eye-opening

experience for students. People are becoming more politically interested.”

— Cole Harrison,

junior economics major

Photo feature by Jade Bedell — THE BATTALION

BAT_10-10-13_A2.indd 1 10/9/13 8:32 PM

Mothers Against Drunk Driv-ing, which sparked the idea

for CARPOOL, will recognize the organization Thursday for keep-ing drunk drivers off the roads of Bryan-College Station.

According to MADD officials, CARPOOL, a student-run, non-profit organization that provides free rides to students and other members of Bryan-College Sta-tion, started in 1998 but has roots in 1997 when former student Jeff Schiefelbein got a DWI and had to go before a MADD Victim Impact Panel at which he heard a mother’s story of her daughter’s death due to drunk driving.

According to MADD, the story sparked in Schiefelbein the idea for what he said would be “the best designated driver program in the country.”

Michael Ariza, accounting management information systems graduate student and member of CARPOOL, said what started with one vehicle and one man’s desire to change his ways has become a program that has given hundreds of thousands of rides.

“It’s hard for us to measure [CARPOOL’s impact] just because if we take one drunk driver off the road, they may have made it home perfectly fine that night, but we may have saved them from a DUI, which could ruin their professional lives — we could have saved them from being involved in an accident that could have either killed them or someone else they may or may have not have known,” Ariza said.

As an EMT with College Station EMS and a volunteer for Cy Creek EMS in Northwest Harris County, Ariza said his first-hand experience has made him passionate about teaching others to be smart about

how they get home while intoxi-cated.

“As an EMT, I have seen the ef-fects of drunk driving accidents,” he said. “Preventing one accident can save multiple lives and I’d hope we saved many through our organiza-tion.”

Despite the serious mission, Ari-za said CARPOOL is an upbeat, fun organization and a great way to form relationships with people one would not otherwise meet.

Jake Ingle, director of fundrais-ing, said CARPOOL exemplifies the Aggie core value of selfless ser-vice.

“The most rewarding part of be-ing in CARPOOL is overhearing fellow Aggies bragging that their school has such an amazing service with selfless volunteers who are willing to give up so much of their time to help out and protect their fellow Aggies,” Ingle said.

The number for CARPOOL is available on the back of all stu-dent identification cards and gives rides from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout the school year. Ariza said anyone who calls between the open hours are guaranteed to get a ride.

“I would encourage everyone who needs to use CARPOOL, to use it,” Ariza said. “If you choose not to use us, get a designated driver or other safe ride.”

thebattalion

news page 3

thursday 10.10.2013

William Guerra — THE BATTALION

Though crafted as a mobility tool, the white cane used by

visually impaired individuals has come to represent independence and accomplishment.

The Brazos Valley Center for Independent Living, BVCIL, will bring the community together to celebrate this symbol of achieve-ment with the annual “White Cane Day” event.

Several stations will be set up at the center to demonstrate to sight-ed participants the experience of performing simple tasks as a visu-ally impaired person. Stations will include arts and crafts, sensory ta-bles and food tasting — and all will be done completely blindfolded.

The celebration will be held from 5-6 p.m. Tuesday at the BVCIL.

Insightful Connections, an ad-vocate student organization for visually impaired individuals, will

be in front of Rudder Tower from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday to inform the campus of White Cane Day.

Melissa Padron, Insightful Con-nections president and senior psy-chology major, said her organiza-tion will be publicizing the event because it helps educate students on the experiences of visually im-paired individuals.

“Although all participation is optional, most of our stations sim-ply allow people to get the feel for what it’s like to be visually im-paired, and use their other senses to figure things out,” Padron said.

Gia Alexander, BVCIL direc-tor, said White Cane Day was cre-ated in 1964 under President Lyn-don B. Johnson to call attention to white cane safety and mobility and to increase awareness of the visu-ally impaired experience.

Over the years, this national event has grown and expanded, and Alexander said the white cane has been molded into a symbol of ability, accomplishment and inde-pendence.

“White Cane Day used to be an event mainly held to inform other

people of safety precautions for the visually impaired,” Alexander said. “Now the white cane isn’t just seen as a safety tool — it is seen as a symbol of independence.”

Padron said Insightful Connec-tions will also hold a braille work-shop on Oct. 22 to provide infor-mation about blindness and visual impairment.

“We want to reach out to a va-riety of people, not strictly those who are visually impaired,” Pad-ron said. “We want to spread the word about our organization, and we are open to answer any ques-tions people may have about visual impairment.”

Tracey Foreman, Insight-ful Connections advisor, said the braille workshop will seek to pro-vide students with a visually im-paired experience through games like braille Uno, chess and check-ers.

“We’re planning on de-coding a few sentences [in braille] and playing a few games with large print and braille playing cards,” Foreman said.

Volunteers to don blindfolds to understand visual impairment

Samantha LattaSpecial to The Battalion

white cane day

Sensory activities include crafts, food tastings

Preventing one accident

can save multiple lives and I’d hope we saved many through our organization.”

— Michael Ariza,

CARPOOL member

National group recognizes CARPOOL

Kadie McDougaldThe Battalion

safety

Campus group started after run-in with MADD

BAT_10-10-13_A3.indd 1 10/9/13 10:39 PM

thebattalion

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battalionClassifieds

read the fine print.

Call 845-0569 To Place Your Ad

the

For the third consecutive sea-son, Texas A&M and Reed

Arena will play host to the first and second rounds of the 2014 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the University and the NCAA announced Wednes-day.

The first and second rounds

of the College Station portion of the tournament will feature four teams and take place either March 22 and 24 or March 23 and 25, depending on future scheduling by the NCAA.

“I think that the NCAA looked at our attendance, our

hospitality and our facil-ity, making the decision to come back a no-brainer,” said A&M head coach Gary Blair. “Our administration

has gone above and beyond in getting the tournament back to College Station for the third

year in a row.”College Station joins elite

company in Baton Rouge, La., and College Park, Md., as one of three locations nationwide to host the tournament for the third consecutive time. Additionally, A&M ranks as one of four uni-versities within the Southeastern Conference to host tournament games.

Among the 16 first- and sec-ond-round host sites last season, Reed Arena ranked fourth in attendance, totaling 13,111 fans through two days of play. Over the past two seasons, A&M has

led all locations in total atten-dance, pulling in 25,703 fans.

“The Bryan-College Station community and Texas A&M University have grown to provide outstanding support for women’s basketball, thanks in large part to coach Gary Blair, who has been such an ambassador for the sport,” said athletics director Eric Hy-man.

Reed Arena to host tourney 3rd straight year

James SullivanThe Battalion

women’s basketball

A&M lands job as host of first two NCAA rounds

After winning the first two sets Wednesday at Reed

Arena, the A&M volleyball team dropped three straight sets to vis-iting LSU.

The Aggies fell to 9-6 (1-3 SEC) and have lost three straight games.

“There is no excuse, we got scared of losing,” said head coach

Laurie Corbelli. “LSU was more spirited and more focused. Our reaction — which has been our big issue as of late — is fear, and we hold back when we are afraid.”

Andrew White, sports writer

Senior setter Allie Sawatzky, No. 6, prepares to dig an LSU hit Wednesday during a five-set loss.

For the full story, visit thebatt.com

Bryan Johnson — THE BATTALION

I think the NCAA

looked at our attendance, our hospitality and our facility, making the decision to come back a no-brainer.”

— Gary Blair, women’s basketball head coach

Gary Blair

LSU tops A&M at Reed in five sets

BAT_10_10_13_A4.indd 1 10/9/13 10:49 PM

thebattalion

lifestyles page 5

thursday 10.10.2013

aggieland 2014

Dec. ’13 GraduatingSENIORS and GRADUATE STUDENTSTIME’S RUNNING OUT to have your portrait made for Texas A&M’s 112th yearbook and have pictures for your graduation announcements. Just walkin to the Student Media office, Suite L400 of the MSC, 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. this week. Or, for appointment email arphototamu@gmail.com or call 979.846.9690. ALL StudentS — juniors, sophomores and freshmen — have your portraits made for the 2014 Aggieland yearbook. Portrait sitting is free. It’s your yearbook. Be in it.

MSC Town Hall will once again bring Coffeehouse to campus — this time un-

plugged in the MSC Flag Room. After the first hour of student open mic

performances, the second hour will feature an acoustic show by Jared Putnam of “The March Divide.” The show will take place from 6-8 p.m Thursday.

Brittany Kaczmarek, senior nutritional sci-ences major and Coffeehouse coordinator, said she is pleased to bring a new voice to Texas A&M students.

“It’ll be just [Putnam] and his guitar,” Kac-zmarek said. “A very raw set, a more intimate setting, so that you can really listen to the lyrics. It’ll be just the artist and the audience.”

Kaczmarek said Putnam’s music is indie rock, which will be different from the last Cof-feehouse.

“I liked his sound,” she said. “It’s not some-thing we hear every day. He looks like he’d be fun to watch, and the kind of musician that we want to bring to the students.”

Opening for Putnam will be freshman biol-ogy major, Hunter Maples; junior university studies major, Nathan James Wells; and junior interdisciplinary studies major, Tyler Stafford.

Wells, a transfer student completing his first semester at A&M, said the timing of this Cof-feehouse is perfect as it falls just before his mid-term exams.

“Music is a good remedy to stress and all kinds of things,” he said. “The best thing in the world is performing it. I’ll be interested to

see the headliner — I’ve listened to some of ‘The March Divide’s’ music, and their lyrics are good.”

Putnam has traveled from his home in San Antonio to perform his music in all 50 states, across Canada and through Mexico. He said he is excited to do a Coffeehouse show with Town Hall because of the collegiate atmo-sphere.

“I’ve played a lot of colleges and a lot of shows at venues with a similar atmosphere,” Putnam said. “I know that some people feel that acoustic shows can be a bore, but I think I go out of my way to make sure folks are en-tertained.”

Putnam has put out several albums between touring with both of his bands — “The Con-versation,” and now, “The March Divide” —

and he said he continues to make music with as much passion as ever. The Coffeehouse audi-ence might hear some of Putnam’s new mate-rial.

“I do write my songs and lyrics, that’s one of the reasons I’m excited about playing this Thursday,” Putnam said. “Shows like this are a great outlet for trying out new songs.”

Putnam said he would enjoy talking to stu-dents about singing, songwriting and music.

“I’d love to talk to anyone that wants to talk to me,” Putnam said. “The best advice to any-one looking at making a living in music is to always stay focused and professional. It’s a lot more work than you’d think, but don’t quit.”

Emily ThompsonThe Battalion

Jared Putnam of “The March Divide” will headline Coffeehouse on Thursday with an acoustic set he says will be anything but boring.

Jared Putnam to headline MSC

Town Hall

SLOW IT DOWN

encouraging others to do so by passing out cards printed with “Pay It Forward: In loving memory of Greg, Len, Mason and Paul Ledet.”

These cards contained a picture of the Ledets and a list of ways to spread kindness.

“Looking back a year ago, I can’t picture myself doing this at all,” Alyson said. “Now I can’t picture doing anything else. Constantly thinking of others helped keep my mind off the sadness of it all. I know in my heart I had the exact amount of conversations and memories with my brothers, father and uncle. God blessed me with the perfect amount of time with them to carry on what they taught me — to help people.”

A few of the items Alyson listed on the cards were, “Pay for the per-son in line behind you,” “Offer a seat when there are not any left” and, “Bake cookies for someone.” She said these types of small actions

were the ones that made her feel the most loved after her family’s loss.

Alyson began the “Pay it For-ward” campaign on Sunday, the an-niversary of the crash. She also cre-ated a Facebook event and invited more than 7,000 people.

Len and his brother Gregory owned a mobile dentistry practice that provided services for nursing-home residents across Texas, so Alyson spent the day personally honoring her father’s passion for as-sisting the elderly by passing out the cards and cookies to nursing homes around College Station.

“She was smiling all day, on a day that should have been a day of mourning,” said Kelsey McDonald, junior interdisciplinary studies ma-jor and friend of Alyson. “To get to see Alyson in the midst of ultimate pain fall deeper in love with Jesus, to see so much hope where it feels hopeless, was so amazing.”

The Ledets and friends also went to the College Station fire and po-lice departments to pass out cards and treats to emergency personnel.

“Alyson makes sacrifice after sac-rifice for people,” McDonald said. “Her feet sink deep wherever she is. She has a constant curiosity for what others around her are going through.”

Alyson said she wanted to re-turn the love and support that was shown by the College Station and Aggie communities. In the last year, Alyson said thousands of families, friends and students have gathered around the Ledet family to offer prayers and kindness.

“The A&M community did so many things,” Alyson said. “So many people who didn’t even know my family were truly affected by the story just because they were Aggies. People coming together for my family made everyone else so close. I have never felt so loved in my entire life. I truly could not have done this without the blessing, strength and energy from others around me.”

Last year on Oct. 9, Sigma Chi, the fraternity Len was instrumental in bringing to campus, partnered with Alyson’s sorority, Zeta Tau

Alpha, to conduct a candlelight vigil that thousands of students attended to remember Len and his impact at A&M.

Lee Beauchamp, Class of 1975, a friend of Len and former inter-national president of Sigma Chi, spoke at the vigil. Texas A&M did not recognize Greek organizations while Len was a student, he said, but this did not stop Len from bringing Sigma Chi to campus.

“I asked the international presi-dent at the time why he did allow Sigma Chi to start on a campus with no Greek orientation, and his an-swer was, ‘You must have never met Len Ledet,’” Beauchamp said.

Beauchamp said Alyson and Lau-ren, Len’s daughters, were mature, outgoing and contagiously positive after the death of their father.

After spending two weeks at home, Alyson said she received tre-mendous support from the student counseling center and her professors when she returned to campus.

Through the kindness she has im-mersed herself in, both in action and

in reception, Alyson said the anni-versary has become a day of service rather than mourning. She said the experience has helped her under-stand the importance of sharing her story and her faith.

“Very few people experience things in life where they lose ev-erything around them, and the only thing left in focus is God,” she said. “God has turned this tragedy into a blessing. My life has his handprints all over it. I am honored that this happened to my family and that God has revealed his plan to me. I really hope Pay it Forward was not just a one-day thing. I want to keep it going. We are not promised tomorrow. We are not promised anything. To live life for ourselves would be foolish, but to live our life for others — that’s how God created us to live.”

Alyson’s Pay it Forward cam-paign will continue through this week and she will be handing out more cards this weekend.

LedetContinued from page 1

COURTESY

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Class Councils Applications for Class of 2017Class Offi cers are currently out!

Visit classcouncils.tamu.edu for more information and applicationsApplications due Monday, October 14th at 5pm

thebattalion

newspage 6

thursday 10.10.2013

More than half a century ago, Holocaust survivor Ernest Wertheim risked his

life to lead persecuted Jews down ski slopes to safety, evading Gestapo gunfire along the way. He sat before A&M students Wednesday at the Hillel Building to share his tale — a story still relevant today, he said.

Wertheim, 93, gave his first-hand account of a period of time that grows more distant with each passing day. The lecture ultimately had to be moved to a larger room to accom-modate the crowd.

Wertheim discussed his vivid memories of Jan. 30, 1933, the day Adolf Hitler came into power. He said his father was temporarily kidnapped that day and his mother was told to flee her home, leaving behind no traces. Already, he said, he and his family were ex-periencing the beginning of what millions of people would later endure.

“We are all rooted in our community,” Wert-heim said. “Even though Washington is not acting very American-like, we are rooted here. Col-lege Station is your home, and to up and leave your home is much easier said than done. A lot of Jewish people didn’t think that what happened could have happened. Unfortu-nately a lot of us had not read Hitler’s book, ‘Mein Kampf,’ and if we had perhaps our eyes would have opened. Even so, we always hope for the best. We hoped for the best.”

Wertheim went on to tell his audience how he saved lives in unorthodox, but effective, ways.

“A man approached me and asked me if I wanted to lead people out of Germany and down the ski slopes of Czechoslovakia,” he said. “When you’re young, you’re sometimes more enthusiastic than you should be, but that comes with age. I took ski lessons, and that ski instructor showed me the way into Czechoslovakia without running into border control.”

Though the border control did not often catch people, Wertheim said they represented a constant danger as he guided refugees down the slopes on multiple occasions.

“I did this three different times, taking nine or 10 people,” he said. “We could never be seen together, we stayed in different hotels and they had to know how to ski, otherwise it wouldn’t work. Oftentimes, border control would shoot at people who decided to do this, so we had to be careful. I would go first, and people followed me. It was the Quakers who were waiting for us at the bottom, and they didn’t know where we were going, but they

helped us.”He said he stayed in the safety of a family

that was able to develop a signal to let him and his family know if there was trouble. If people came in, a green button would come on and they would know it was safe. But he knew that if the red light came on, the Gestapo was downstairs.

“One day, the red button came on,” he said. “My father said to me, ‘Son, disappear. Just disappear.’ It turned out that those were the last words my father would say to me. I went down, outside, over the fence and I got out. Dad had said to get out. I thought, ‘Alright, what next?’ I couldn’t go back. I saw things that you don’t want to hear about, things that gave me nightmares for many years. I saw my beautiful synagogue burned, along with the Torah and everything else. But that night, I managed to get on a subway and stayed with a lady landscape architect with whom I was

working. That was the end of my relationship with my dad.”

Wertheim learned how to censor what he said to avoid alerting those in control about what was really going on, and said he remembered some memories so clearly it was as if they happened yes-terday. Eventually, he was afforded an opportunity to leave Germany. Many

obstacles stood in his way, but he was able to seize his chance.

“The train started to move, and I decided that I was going to be on it,” he said. “They were shooting at me, but the conductor at the time — a Dutch conductor — opened the door for me. I went to my cabin, and a few minutes later, I was in the Netherlands. It was an experience.”

The A&M Horticulture Department and Texas A&M Hillel brought Wertheim to B-CS. Jon Rahmani, senior kinesiology major and student in charge of community outreach at Hillel, said he approached the evening the way he does when any new person comes to town.

“We want Hillel to be a second home,” he said. “A home away from home.”

Wertheim, a still-practicing landscape ar-chitect, traveled to Texas A&M from Califor-nia and Rahmani said a small group of students were lucky enough to host Wertheim for din-ner before the lecture in order to foster a sense of community and familiarity before he spoke in front of such a large group of people.

Alex Brown, sophomore kinesiology ma-jor, was invited to the lecture by a friend and said he was glad he decided to come.

“It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Brown said. “Since the Holocaust was a ma-jor part of history, it’s a controversial thing to talk about. You hear secondhand stories all the time, but to hear the real thing is pretty exciting.”

Community relives history with Holocaust survivor

Emily Thompson The Battalion

a&m hillel

Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION

On Wednesday night at the Texas A&M Hillel, Holocaust survivor Ernest Wertheim recalled his experiences growing up in Germany during the Nazi regime and his work to help rescue fellow persecuted Jews.

My father said to me, ‘Son, disappear.

Just disappear.’ It turned out that those were the last words my father would say to me.”

— Ernest Wertheim, Holocaust survivor

Ernest Wertheim explains his involvement in Nazi resistance

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