Thursday, February 22, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Holocaust survivor reflects on life
By Danny Phillips writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
The facts of history and the interpretations of literature are often exclusive but sometimes collide with each other, an Auschwitz survivor and former KU professor told about 40 people yesterday.
"History and literature travel the same highway, but in different lanes," said Ruth Kliger, who was only 12 years old when she was taken from Vienna, Austria, and deported to Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp. "Sometimes the vehicles history and literature run parallel to each other, sometimes they are so far removed that they couldn't hear each other honking."
Klüger based her assertion on her autobiography about the Holocaust entitled *Weiter leben: Eine Jugend* (To Continue Living - Youth).
She said her autobiography would be a footnote to Holocaust history, and had no idea the type of reaction it would cause in Germany.
"Nobody was more surprised by its success than I was," she said.
Frank Baron, professor of Germanic languages and literatures, said it was a very unusual biography.
"It gives interpretation of events, not just the events themselves," he said. "The author reflects on them and gives them significance for today."
Klüger wrote her autobiography later in life because initially she thought adults had a better perspective on the Holocaust then she did.
"I had to get old to realize that a child's perspective was interesting," she said.
Weiter leben has been translated into several languages, but the first English edition won't be available until this fall.
She said autobiographies were history in the first person based more on the feelings, thoughts and perceptions of the author than on verifiable facts. Furthermore, readers had a choice whether to believe what the author said.
Klüger used the example of
Hillary Clinton's forthcoming autobiography.
"The truthfulness of a former First Lady will be judged by her American contemporaries largely in terms of their own knowledge of White House scandals," she said.
Klüger also explored the function of "truth" and readers' expectations when writing various forms of books. She said if someone presented untruths in a novel they were "legitimate inventions," but if someone did the same thing in an autobiography they were living.
"The difference lies in reader expectation," she said.
Klüger's lecture "History & Literature: Fact, Fiction and Lies," was co-sponsored by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the Max Kade Center for German-American Studies the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Humanities and Western Civilization program, the Hall Center for the Humanities and the European Studies program.
—Edited by Brandy Straw
Ruth Klüger, former University of Kansas professor and Holocaust survivor, spoke at Strong Hall yesterday about the concept of truth and how it had affected her life. Klüger was deported from Vienna, Austria, to Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Photo by Christina Neff/ KANSAN
Students, candidates meet
City commission hopefuls discuss campus involvement
By Cássio Furtado
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Candidates running for city commission, including two University of Kansas students, met with University students last night to discuss city issues and the importance of student involvement with these issues.
The forum, organized by Student Senate, attracted 40 people, most of whom were student senators, at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union.
Brett Logan, Olathe graduate student, and Jennifer Chaffee, Lawrence senior, said they were running for the commission to give students a voice on city issues and to encourage students to take part in the election.
Incumbent Erv Hodges said students had always been involved with the city commission. He said he had tried to be in permanent contact with students throughout his four years as a commissioner by coming to the University and speaking at Student Senate meetings.
Hodges also said he had encouraged
students to become involved with the city's boards, which advise the commission on various actions.
Marty Kennedy, also an incumbent, said students had been always active in city commission issues, but it only appeared that way when controversial issues arose.
He said three years ago, when he was mayor, the city formed an alcohol task force that had active student participation.
Sue Hack, a Southwest Junior High School teacher, agreed students needed to be involved with city issues.
"You should register to vote and participate." Hack said.
But Kevin Pollan, a Lawrence businessman, acknowledged it was a challenge to get students interested in city issues.
"Getting the general population involved is a tough one," Polian said.
Incumbent David Dunfield said one of the possible ways to integrate the city and the University was to integrate KU on Wheels and the Lawrence transit system. But Dunfield warned there was no single way of addressing the concerns of the student body because it was so diverse.
Craig Campbell, a commercial lender with Firstar Bank, said the commission needed to improve the lines of communication with students. He suggested a city commissioner could come regularly to Senate meeting and talk about issues.
Jimmy Lee Bricker, a KU graduate, said he would like to tackle issues like the housing ordinance, halting city growth and requiring landlord registration that affected students.
"We should have a student representative with the right to vote," Bricker said.
Adam Mansfield, manager of Louise's Downtown, 1009 Massachusetts St., said he wanted to run for city commission because he had too much free time. Mansfield also said students should be active and participate in city issues.
Mark Lehman, owner of Old Home Denot. 1045 Pennsylvania, agreed.
"Students can be a huge power in local politics if they voted," he said.
Jessica Bankston, legislative director and Albuquerque, N.J., junior, said student senators would pass relative information on what the candidates said to senate committee members.
"The workshop is a step in making the student population more interested in local politics," Bankston said.
Scott Bailey, a health care executive, was the only candidate absent at the meeting.
— Edited by Jason McKee
Meth lab clean-up difficult
One of those labs, for example, was found in Lawrence less than a week after Ramos reported the ammonia tank on his property. The lab bust was just a few blocks away in a quaint neighborhood near 22nd and Harper streets.
Each one of those labs is a toxic waste dump loaded with extremely flammable gases and caustic chemicals.
KBI narcotics chief Kirk Thompson said the environmental hazards associated with the drug was the main reason the KBI has made meth its top enforcement priority.
"When a local agency runs across a meth lab, they have a problem that has to be dealt with. You can't leave a hazardous materials site sitting there," he said.
Most local agencies have a bigger problem than meth labs themselves: insufficient resources.
Just to enter a meth lab, there has to be an EPA- and OSHA-certified officer present.
Yet even an agency that has been able to send one of its officers to the 40-hour training courses probably doesn't have the safety equipment needed for meth lab clean-up.
Thompson said a minimum of $3,000 of equipment is needed for
each clean-up, including space-age protective clothing and a self-contained breathing apparatus.
"And just because you've got the training and the right equipment doesn't mean you're ready to embark on breaking down one of these labs. It's always good to have some on-the-job training first," he said.
Flynn said the average meth lab in Kansas leaves behind 50 pounds of toxic waste, samples of which are kept by the KBI as forensic evidence until each case is closed. The current backlog of meth lab forensic evidence is at least three months.
"It's a complicated problem to prove manufacturing based on the accumulation of some household products," Thompson said. "It requires a lot of forensic work and considerable time. Some prosecutors have to take plea bargains for lower penalties because of the lag time for forensic reports. With the case load we have, we just don't have enough resources to make that turnaround any quicker."
All too often — even after all the work that goes into a lab bust — meth cooks walk away with little or no punishment for their devastating crime.
— Kansan writers Mark Hansen and Nathan Dayani contributed to this report.
Edited by Leita Schultes
Meth or Life
Today is the second day of a five-day series on methamphetamine. The complete version of this project will be available at www.kansan.com as each component is printed in the Kansan.
Monday Life or meth overview
Tuesday Kitchens of meth, the drug's producers
Yesterday Faces of meth, users
Today All methed up, the drug and the environment
Friday Fight to the meth, Kansas legislators and law enforcers
All of the people named in this series are real individuals. However, some sources' last names have been withheld to protect their identity or at the request of prison officials.
This story is part of a joint effort by the Wichita Eagle and students and faculty of the University of Kansas School of Journalism. The project was funded by a grant from the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
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March 1
Vocal Jazz Night
KU Vocal Jazz Singers
KU Vocal Jazz Ensemble
March 2
Combo Night
John Abercrombie Quartet
KU Jazz Combo 1
March 3
Big Band Night
Dave Pietro, saxophone
And Scott Wendholt,
trumpet perform with
KU Jazz Ensemble I
Also performing: Middle
Tennessee State University
Jazz Ensemble I
Admission:
Thursday: $7 general, $5 students/seniors
Friday-Saturday: $14 general, $10 students/seniors
March-April-May: for tickets
www.ku.edu/cafu