NEW GROUND BROKEN!!!!
Sunday Public Talk is officially part of the Conference Program.
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Man imprisoned by Nazis speaks about taking a stand
By Matt Holsapple, Journal and Courier
Battle Ground Middle School students heard a firsthand account of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust by a speaker who encouraged them to stand up for their convictions.
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COMPELLING WORDS: Allison Phebos (from foreground to back), Sharonda Arnett and Marlena Edmondson, listen Friday to Rudolph Graischen speak of his experiences growing up as a child in Nazi Germany at Battle Ground Middle School.
(Photo by Frank Oliver, Journal and Courier)
Rudolph Graichen, who was imprisoned by the Gestapo for being a Jehovah's Witness, told students that no matter what happened to him, he never regretted standing up to the Nazis and refusing to denounce his faith.
"Don't ever let yourself get pushed into doing something you know is not right," Graichen said. "The Nazis in Germany were a minority. The majority of people were not Nazis -- they were just cowards."
In 1937, when Adolf Hitler came to power and Graichen was 8, there were about 25,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany. As they did with many other groups including Jews, the Nazi Gestapo began systematically arresting Jehovah's Witnesses.
Men of Graichen's congregation, including his father, were arrested and Graichen and his twin sister were taken from their mother and placed in a reformatory school, where they were told they couldn't be harmed by their mother's "unfit ideas."
"You know who ends up at reformatory schools -- real bad kids," he said. "It's a bad place to be."
While at the school, Graichen was under constant pressure from teachers and peers to denounce his
religion and join the Hitler Youth.
"Schools were in competition to have 100 percent participation; nothing else was acceptable. The teacher in my class was always one little boy short of 100 percent," he said.
Although the teacher used several tactics -- shame, anger, exclusion -- to persuade him to join, he still refused. Years later, he continued to resist and was finally arrested for being in possession of books about his faith.
He spent four years in prison -- more than one of those years was in solitary confinement -- but he said he does not regret standing up for what he believed was right.
He reminded students at Battle Ground that just because everyone else seems to be conforming, does not mean conforming is the right thing to do.
"You have to make decisions," he said. "Maybe someone will offer you a cigarette, or some dope. Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean you should."
Besides his talk at Battle Ground, Graichen is in Greater Lafayette to participate in the Holocaust Remembrance Conference this weekend at Purdue University.
At both 4:30 and 8 p.m., he will give presentations with James Pellichia about the battle between conformity and consciousness in Germany during the Holocaust. The later session will focus on Graichen's own experiences, while the first will discuss ways to work the issue into classroom discussions about the Holocaust.
Pellichia, a writer and filmmaker who serves as associate editor for Watch Tower Publications, said the decisions that Jehovah's Witnesses and others had to make about conforming to Nazi efforts is similar to the peer pressure that young people are faced with every day.
He has helped developed a study guide and conducts workshops that assist educators in showing kids how elements of the Holocaust relate to their own experiences.
For example, he said, many of the tactics that Nazis used to pressure young people into joining their youth organizations are the same ones that today's gangs use to recruit new members.
"I think kids need that today," Pellichia said. "They have lots of pressure to cave into."
Graichen said he hoped that hearing about his experiences would help kids stand up for what they believe in -- even when that means going against the crowd.
"It's not because everyone does something that it is right," said Graichen. "Many people do not have the inner courage to stand up for their convictions."
Today
Class of 1950 Lecture Hall
Purdue University
1 p.m. - Registration
1:30 p.m. - Session Chair: Myra Mason
1:35 p.m. - "Radical Islam and Global Terrorism." Hillel Fradkin, president, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C.
2:35 p.m. - "Working Together for Common Needs." Grace Feuerverger, professor, University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
3:25 p.m. - "Learning From Wounded Knee - A 1973 Footnote to 1890 American History." Harlington Wood Jr., circuit judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Springfield, Ill.
4:30 p.m. - Concurrent workshops
1. "Radical Islam and Global Dialogue." Don Mitchell, moderator
Participants: Rev. Stanley Bomgarden, Fazrul Ismail, Robert Melson, Tom Ryba, Imam Mikal Saahir. Resource: Hillel Fradkin
2. "Jehovah's Witnesses: Conscience vs. Conformity." Mike Carson, moderator. Resource: Rudolf Graichen, James Pellechia
3. "Teaching the Holocaust." Donna Schurman, Tami Hicks and Trudy Nelson, moderators. Resources: Paul Parks, Robert Ringel, Norman Salsitz
4. "Learning Peace - Living Peace." Judy Myers-Walls, moderator. Resources: Grace Feuerverger, Harlington Wood Jr.
5. "Sweatshops: Human Rights - Human Dignity."
6. "Recognizing Differences in Sex and Gender." Breck Jones, moderator
6:30 p.m. - Supper (donation $5, students $3), Hillel Foundation, 912 W. State St., West Lafayette
Class of 1950 Lecture Hall
8 p.m. - Survivors and Witnesses. Session Chair Dean Margaret Rowe
Presenters:
1. Rudolf Graichen, Jehovah's Witness survivor of the Holocaust, interviewed by James Pellechia
2. Paul Parks, Purdue distinguished engineering alumnus, Army engineer World War II, "The Camps Remembered and Facing Racial Discrimination."
3. Norman Salsitz, "Surviving Against All Odds."
4. Robert Ringel, "A Post-Shoah Search for My Heritage."
Sunday
Concurrent sessions
10 a.m. - Kingdom Hall Jehovah's Witnesses, 4111 Soldiers Home Road, West Lafayette. Rudolf Graichen, survivor, "Bearing Up Under Persecution" (presented in Spanish)
10:30 a.m. - Hillel Foundation, 912 W. State St., West Lafayette, "Resolving Differences." Grace Feuerverger, facilitator
10:30 a.m. - Dayton Memorial Presbyterian Church, 731 Walnut St., (Indiana 38) Dayton. "The Miracle of Surviving." Norman Salsitz, survivor
Noon brunch, Hillel Foundation, (donation $5, students $3)
Class of 1950 Lecture Hall, Purdue University
1:30 p.m. - Session chair Marla Bluestein
ROTC Color Guard - "Star Spangled Banner"
Mayors' proclamation: Dave Heath, Lafayette; Sonya Margerum, West
Lafayette
Memorial tribute
Flame of Remembrance - Candle of Hope
2:10 p.m. - "Freedom for My Father." Jin Xu, daughter of Wenli Xu, Chinese political prisoner
Resolutions
Rev. Stanley R. Bomgarden, chair
2:30 p.m. "War Against Terrorism Since Sept. 11," Lt. Col. Joseph Corrigan, Pentagon Liaison to Congress
3:20 p.m. - "Winning the War Against Terrorism." Todd Rosenblum, senior adviser to Sen. Evan Bayh on foreign affairs and national security
4:15 p.m. - Student panel: "Terrorism in Our World Today." Elliott Dickinson (student chair). Participants: Emre Gunay, Kevin Mercer, Marko Nilsson, Rachel Santellano
5 p.m. - Workshop reports
