KANSAN
Tuesday, July 12, 1977
Staff photo by KENT VAN HOESEN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Bogdan Kuzmanovic, professor of civil engineering, lives with the memories of his imprisonment in three German concentration camps. Kuzmanovic says that the four years he spent as a prisoner of war has taught him to feel empathy for the suffering of his fellow man.
Vol.87,No.158
Sensitive man
Professor haunted by memories of German concentration camps
By DON WALLER
Staff Writer
After 30 years, Bogdan Kuzmanovic, professor of civil engineering, is still haunted by visions of his experiences in three German concentration cames.
Kuzmanovic was a reserve officer in the Yugoslavian Corps of Engineers when he was captured by the Germans in 1941 during the invasion of Yugoslavia.
"Some of those visions are so sharp in my memory that I can't forget them." Kuzmanovic said. "I don't feel bitter, but I can't forget."
Kuzmanovic said his dreams always followed the same pattern, being chased
"I wander why the pattern is never reversed." Kuzmanovic said.
But, he said, a person who lives in the past cannot survive.
"You are over if you do that, but the scars make you definitely different," Kuzu.
Kuzmanovic said he understood other people better because of what he had gone
"I am very easy to work with because of
Heavy June rains thwart harvest
Staff Write
Bv KELLY BAKER
Earl Van Meter, Douglas County agricultural extension agent, yesterday said the crop was ready.
The rainfall in Douglas County for June 1977 was listed as 14.35 inches by the KU bureau—more than 8 inches greater than the average rainfall of 12.65. 1976 rainfall in the county was 2.13 inches.
Less than half of the wheat in Douglas County has been cut, according to Varn.
Van Meter said that the rain yesterday morning—98 inches reported in Lawrence by the Weather Bureau—a was severe in parts of the wheat harvest in Douglas County.
"A year ago we were experiencing a drought and this year we can't get it out of the field. Van Meter said." The weeds grew so fast that he and the wheat is sprouting on the ground.
Paul Gabriel, grain manager at the Lawrence Farm, harvested four or five daisies.
Although the moisture content of the wheat has slowed down its harvest, the wheat is coming in slowly even before the rain. Gabriel said.
The elevator was taking wheat with a moisture content of up to 17 per cent, Gabriel was, but wet wheat was being loaded from the wheel loader from the going price of £2.12 a bushel.
of wheat had sold for $1.48 to $1.51 a bushel. He also estimated that the cost of producing a bushel of wheat raned from $2.93 to $3.20, depending on the size of the farmer's operation. A farmer who sold 60 bushels of wheat for $2.12 a bushel was getting back about 64
per cent of his production costs, Van Meter said.
"Farmers will have to leave a lot of the wheat in the field," he said.
"There's going to be a lot less wheat planted next year," he said.
Despite the rain in eastern Kansas, a bumper wheat crop in western Kansas will still produce a record crop for Kansas. It is anticipated that it will be harvested for the third straight year.
The wheat surplus will have virtually no effect on the price of food, according to Van Meter. Wheat is only a minor ingredient in such items as bread, he said.
The Kansas Crop and Livestock Reporting Commission said yesterday that 85 per cent of the wheat in Kansas was cut by last August, five per cent ahead of an average year.
Van Meter said that the wet weather was better for corn but that most farmers in Douglas County didn't plant corn last winter because it was too dry.
my experiences in concentration camps,"
he said.
Now, he becomes emotionally disturbed about things and is easily moved to sympathy, he said. He's bothered by physical and mental abuse that he sees in others
To get his mind off the past, Kuzmanovic runs three miles a day. He competes in the Faculty Track Club and runs the 100 meters in 12.8 seconds.
"I can't stand to see a man degrade himself." Kuzmanovic said.
With the large rainfall, about 30 per cent of the corn acreage has reached the tasseling stage, compared with 20 per cent in average fields. This difference has reached the dough stage, which is averaged.
Kuzmanovic also concentrates on engineering. He has designed the seven-mile-long bridge connecting Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo, the widest span demanding self support.
After seven days he arrived in Osnabruck and was put in Ohlag VIC, a camp for refugees.
Sometimes, however, the memories linger. In the concentration camp, he said, "I had to remember the problems with his left leg after he was forced to march a 1,000-mile trek during the war."
In 1972, he received the Gould award,
presented by the best undergraduate
student in each division.
"The Germans had learned that I was a designer and tried to persuade me to become a civilian under the German government in design bridges," Kuznanim said.
"After I was captured, we were loaded into freight cars and weren't allowed to leave our compartments for three days," Kuzmanovic said.
concentration camps were delivered to Yugoslavia for trial.
Kuzmanovic said that after he went home to Ugolaysal, three commanders from the
"At the time that I was in the concentration camp, I would have killed them."
He refused and was sent to Ratzeburz, a concentration camp that was on the eastern side of Germany.
But, he said, after the war he realized that nothing could be gained by killing the commanders for something that had happened in the past.
"While in Ratzeburz, I was sentenced to be by the German High Command," Kuzma wrote. "Kumu
The crop service reported the sorghum and soybean crops were doing well. About five per cent of the sorghum is headed, and about per cent of the soybeans have bloomed.
Kuzmanovic said that he was near death twice while he was in the concentration chamber.
He waited for the execution, he said, but it was delay because the Allies accidentally broke the wire.
"Experience and capabilities seem like nothing during such a time because you feel
The execution was finally canceled when the Russians advanced on the Eastern front. But the Russian forcesAlexidofor, West Germany. He was forced to make a 1,000 mile trek by foot on a diet of three potatoes a day. The second brush with enemy tanks when he escaped during the march, he said.
He was marching along a road in front of a German guard.
"The guard twirled around but didn't fire."
"I made my escape by leaping on a pile of rocks along the roadside." Kuzumov made声.
Kuzmanovic said that he was lying on the pile of bodies while the guard was questioned by his superior about the noise. He admitted that nothing had happened, Kuzmanovic said.
"The guard gave me my life and helped pay for some of the things that they did to me in the concentration camp," Kuzmanovic said.
Tuesday
predicted oil could begin moving through the $7.7 billion, 80-mile pipeline again by mid-week, perhaps tomorrow or Thursday, but Jack Turner, head of the oil company Mo菲思, said he be doubted a movement could resume until sometime next week.
From our wire services
The students argued that the site should be preserved as a memorial to the dead students. The university, with its sprawling campus of 380 buildings, wanted to begin construction tomorrow.
It also told university officials to postpone construction of the $6 million addition until he can hold another hearing on the matter July 21.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) opened its first 1977 oil pipeline in the United States, the threat of a new oil price increase.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus, yesterday ordered that movement of oil through the trans-Alaska pipeline remain halted until he makes sure there is no danger of another explosion.
The Interior Department has the authority to shut the line down if it endangers public health because it crosses a federal land managed by the department.
More than 100 demonstrators have been occupying the site for 61 days in attempts to prevent the university from building a gymnasium anex.
OPEC meeting to be 'routine'
Oil halted until pipeline is safe
Following an agreement last month among the members that will hold the oil price increase to 10 per cent for the rest of the year, OPEC sources were insisting the meeting would be basically routine. But analysts have said there are areas
A blast and fire at pump Station No. 8 killed one person and injured five others last Friday, apparently when oil leaked into the pumphouse and ignited.
KENT, Ohio—A county judge yesterday ordered demonstrators evicted—and university construction plans delayed temporarily—at a site where four Kent State University students were held. Sixteen years ago are by National Guardmen
The temporary restraining order issued yesterday by Common Pleas
The temperatures will be in the 90s today after the brief, cooler respite yesterday. The National Weather Service in Topeka predicts partly cloudy skies and a 20 per cent chance of rain in the afternoon. Lows tonight will be in the 60s.
of conflict that would probably deepen a breach between the organization's radical and more conservative wins.
Court Judge Joseph Kainrad told the demonstrators to clear out by 8 a.m. today.
Conference sources said some informa price talks for 1978 were possible.
Weather
The meeting at Saltsjobaden, a resort about 10 miles outside Stockholm, was the first official gathering of the cartel outside a member country since a group of OPEC officials were taken hostage by terrorists in Vienna in December 1975
Students ordered off death site
Wet wheat
Spokesmen for Alysca Pipeline Service Co. and for state officials had
Chicago 4, Kansas City 2, Boston 2,
Cleveland 1, Detroit 5, Toronto 7,
Baltimore 4, New York 3, Montreal 4,
Pittsburgh 2, Houston 2, Cincinnati 4
Baseball
This year's heavy rainfall is a cause of a poor wheat harvest in Dougless County, Bill Cobb, Lawrence, an employee of the Farmer' coop north elevator. Third and Locust street, uses a probe to take a sample from a load of wheat. Samples this year' crop is 15%.
Efficiency of Kansas' energy plan debated
From the Kansan News Service
State Sen. Arnold Berman, D-Lawrence, complained yesterday that the Kansas Energy Conservation Plan was a loose collection of proposals that rely on volunteerism rather than on hard administrative programs to save energy.
But Dean Eckhoff, professor of engineering at Kansas State University, defended the plan, which he helped to write, the volunteer approach could work.
A legislative interim committee, studying ways to promote energy conservation, took a hard look at the state energy plan yesterday morning. The plan is now before the Federal Energy Administration awaiting approval.
According to federal guidelines, the committee was to make suggestions for programs that would save the state five per cent of energy consumption in 1980, Eckhoff said.
The mandatory federal programs that the group had to consider as a part of the complete Kansas plan included a lighting standard for government buildings.
Eckhoff said this proposal dealt with problems of overlighting.
"Architecturally we have gone a bit overboard in lighting," he said.
The mandatory federal government guidelines also stated that by making them available to the public,
"However, in Kansas there is very little we can do about mass transportation since we aren't highly urbanized," Eckhoff said. Eckhoff said that Kansas would not be able to reduce its energy consumption substantially, as recommended by federal law by allowing right turns at red stop lights since the state already allowed those turns.
The federal program also recommended that proposals for mass transportation be
efficient purchasing and by requiring more building heat loss standards, the total energy consumption could be decreased.
Eckhoff said that by simply sticking to the federal guidelines, Kansas would not be able to reach the five per cent goal of energy use reduction by 1980.
However, he said a lot of energy could be saved in farm operating expenses.
One way to save energy, Eckhoff said, is to allow people to store gasoline under shelters in white or silver tanks. This would cut down on evaporation.
Gas regulations currently require gas to be stored in red tanks, absorbing a large amount of the sun's rays and causing increased evaporation.
Keeping a lower pressure point on irrigation systems and keeping the blades of all machinery sharp were other ways that machinery were saved on Kansas farms, Eckhoff said.
The final energy plan, including the agriculture recommendations, has the goal of meeting the needs of farmers.
However, Berman said, it wasn't enough. He listed a series of energy-saving steps not mentioned in the plan, including automatic pilot lights, setting aside parking around the state Capitol for state employee carpoolers, altering the utility rate schedules and basing automobile registration fee schedules on vehicle weight and engine size.
Eckhoff said, "There are generally two ideas about how to go about energy conservation. One is what you (Berman) appear to be saying here this morning—club people into submission. The other is taking education and voluntary action of that, education and voluntary action."
Eckhoff said the group that wrote the report considered a wide range of compulsory steps. He noted that Gov. Robert Bennett "told us point-blank he wouldn't accept one of them—a 10 cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline."
Meeting may ease hard feelings about political charges
By CHRIS COX
Staff Renarter
A meeting yesterday between the Douglas County commissioners and the Douglas County Democratic Party may have alleviated hard feelings caused by charges made last week by the Democrats. They charged that the commissioners and the Douglas county treasurer had impeded the transition into office for Ruth Vernicky, the treasurer-elect.
"I have indicated to her (Vervynn) that in no event we have we (county commissioners) had any desire to usurp any of the statutory obligations of that office," Bluttenlight, commission chairman said. "We're going to help her in any way we can."
The party accused the three commissioners and the current county treasurer, Edythe Norman, all Republicans, of "harassing" Vervyck, the
incoming Democrat county treasurer, Ruth Vervynck by usurping some of her duties and not allowing her to select her own staff. Vervynck takes office Oct. 11.
Whitmight he said he had asked Norman on a "number of occasions" to help Vernynck
"It is my opinion," he said, "that she (Norman) provides that service. She knows that I feel that way. She doesn't agree. She don't have an obligation to do it. She doesn't want me to do. I've taken the position you we asked to take. I don't know what else I can do."
David Berkowitz, party treasurer and spokesman for Vervynck and party leaders, said that although Norman had no legal requirements to allow Vervynck access to treasurer's records, Norman had an email account selected her to facilitate a smooth transition.
A second concern, Berkowitz said, was
Very much that it won't be allowed to select
but not all of the candidates.
Berkowitz suggested that Verynck be allowed to observe the workings of the treasurer's office on her own time until she assumed the position in October.
Berkowitz added that Veryvynck hadn't been allowed to observe the workings of treasurer's offices in other counties and that officials in those counties had been told they would lose their jobs in coming elections if they cooperated.
Whitenight expressed concern that a "carry-over" of personnel would exist the next day.
Whtengit said Veryvick would be able to choose "a couple primary individuals" who had a high level of application procedure. He said those people could run the motor vehicle department and the fire station.
any new ones Veryvynn wished to create,
would have to be advertised.
The necessity of creating a new position for the investment of county funds, which has been considered by the commissioners, was also questioned by Berkowitz.
Whitenight said the office wouldn't be limited to investment of funds nor would it be "usurping" any of the treasurer's functions, which had been charged.
Whitenight suggested that perhaps the treasurer's office was "an administrative position that was an elected position." He indicated that perhaps the politics of the situation kept the county from operating in "the best way it can for the taxpayers."
"I would much more have appreciated having had this meeting a week ago then having had things happen," Whitenton told me. "We've straightened things out a lot better."