Today: High: 71, Low: 53 Thursday: High: 62, Low: 55 Friday: High: 58, Low: 44
Daily Egyptian WEDNESDAY
PHOTO COLUMN, PAGE 6: Gus Bode says know who your friends are.
OCTOBER 21, 2009
VOLUME 95, NO. 42
12 PAGES
!"#$%&"'($)(#*''*+%" !"##$% Holocaust survivor and author shares memories of tribulations faced in World War II
!&'()*% +,"-.,% ,&//.+% Nick Johnson DAILY EGYPTIAN
NICK39@SIU.EDU
JULIA RENDLEMAN | D AILY E GYPTIAN Lexie Tourville, 12, left, of Murphysboro, waits for Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan to speak while her friend Kathryn Dunning, 12, of Murphysboro, reads Lazan’s book, “Four Little Pebbles.” The book is an account of Lazan’s family’s tribulations under the Nazi regime and life in prison camps during WWII. Dunning’s mother Kristy said Kathryn has had a strong interest in the Holocaust ever since she read “The Diary of Anne Frank” in third grade. “I think she empathizes with the children of the Holocaust and what they went through at her age,” Dunning’s mother said. “If people are interested, it won’t happen again,” Kathryn Dunning said. Tourville and Dunning joined hundreds of people who came to hear Lazan speak at the First Methodist Church in Carbondale Tuesday.
Christina Spakousky DAILY EGYPTIAN XTINA25@SIU.EDU
The foul odor of filth and death still haunts Marion Blumenthal Lazan. Lazan said she spent her days as a child searching for four pebbles of the same size and shape while trapped in a German concentration camp during the Holocaust. Lazan and her family spent six and a half years in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, living like refugees with little food, water
!!W
e as children saw things that no one of any age should have to see.
or sufficient housing. “We as children saw things that no one of any age should have to see,” Lazan said. Lazan spoke to more than one hundred people at the First Methodist Church in Carbondale. She recounted memories of the Ho-
— Marion Blumenthal Lazan Holocaust survivor locaust and signed more than 80 copies of her book, “Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story.” In her speech, Lazan said Nazi soldiers crammed her family and 600 other Jews into the barracks of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Following Hitler’s rise
to power, more than six million Jews were forced into concentration camps scattered throughout Germany. “We were pulled and dragged out of cattle cars and greeted by German guards who were shouting at us and threatening us with the most vicious German dogs by their sides,” Lazan said. “To this day, I still feel a certain kind of fear when I see a German shepherd.” See SPEAKER | 3
A Jimmy John’s delivery driver was the victim of an armed robbery at the 500 block of East Forest Street Monday, according to police and shop sources. After exiting the vehicle, the driver was approached by two unidentified males in black hooded sweatshirts at about 8:56 p.m., a Carbondale police report stated. The suspects took the food order and money from the victim and fled. The report also stated the driver believed one of the suspects had a weapon at the time. The driver was unharmed. The suspect called Jimmy John’s on South Illinois Street several times from a private number and asked the driver to bring change for $100, said Joseph Davolt, the employee who took the suspect’s calls. Davolt said the suspect first asked the order be sent to 510 S. Forest St., but then called back and changed it to 505 S. Forest St. “He kept calling back asking, ‘Hey, is it gonna get here? When’s it gonna get here?’ and finally when it got there, he robbed (the driver),” Davolt said. Jimmy John’s management declined to comment. The police report describes one suspect as 5 feet 6 inches tall and the other as 5 feet 8 inches tall. Police did not release the amount of money taken in order to aid the ongoing investigation. Nick Johnson can reached at 536-3311, ext 263.
!"#$%&'#()*%+,-.)%%'*/.&0*1.&*2&%3'(*43"4%&*3/3&%"%'' Madeleine Leroux
!DAILY EGYPTIAN
MLEROUX@SIU.EDU
Elyse Hiller and Lisa Geissler are training to complete a nearly 40-mile walk this weekend to raise money for breast cancer research. The two university employees are leaving Friday to participate in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Charlotte, N.C. According to the Avon Foundation Web site, the walk covers up to 26.2 miles Saturday and an additional 13.1 miles Sunday. According to the Web site, the goal is to raise money to support breast cancer research and help men and women
diagnosed with breast cancer get the medical care they need. Hiller, a financial aid adviser, said the two became interested in the walk this past summer while vacationing with friends in Florida. A friend from South Carolina encouraged them to join the walk after going out and walking together several times, Hiller said. Hiller said the two were hesitant at first because of the commitment required. “You have to raise $1,800, and whatever you don’t raise you have to come up with yourself,” Hiller said. Both have surpassed their $1,800 goal. Hiller said she has raised more
than $1,900 and Geissler said she has raised $2,100 so far, but both are still accepting donations. “It was pretty stressful for a while because we didn’t know if we would raise the money,” said Geissler, a telecommunicator with the Department of Public Safety. Geissler said her grandmother and several friends were diagnosed with breast cancer and watching someone go through the treatment is incredibly difficult. “The least I can do is to walk 40 miles for what these women have to go through for treatment,” Geissler said. “I just wish they would find a cure for it.”
Hiller said the two have been training since the summer, which has been getting more difficult with work schedules and the sun setting earlier in the day. Hiller said she walks everyday at lunch and will keep training until the trip. “We’ve had fun training,” Hiller said. “I’m ready.” Hiller said participants would need to walk about 3 miles per hour in order to complete the walk at the pace outlined by the Avon Foundation. Though this is her first time participating in an event for a cause such as breast cancer, Hiller said she doubts it would be her last.
“I already told (Geissler) we still have to walk at least once a weekend,” Hiller said. According to the Avon Foundation Web site, the walk in Charlotte is the final of nine walks held throughout the nation. Madeleine Leroux can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 254.
!!W
e’ve had fun training. I’m ready.
— Elyse Hiller SIUC financial aid adviser