Fall Forum to debateethnic, racial hatred

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By BILL POTEATManaging Editor

This year's Fall Speakers Forumat Western Piedmont CommunityCollege will focus on a topic ascontemporary as today's headlines:"Neighbor Against Neighbor —Ethnic and Racial Hatred."

The forum is scheduled for Tues-day, Wednesday and Thursdayevenings, with all sessions begin-ning at 7 p.m. in Moore Auditoriumon the college campus.

The sessions include:• Tuesday, Oct. 24: "The Origins

of Ethnic Hatred in Modern Bosnia-Herzegovina," presented by Dr.David Crowe, a professor in theDepartment of History at Elon Col-lege.

• Wednesday, Oct. 25: "TheHolocaust — Lessons For Today,"presented by Scott Miller of theU.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,and by Runia and Henry Vogelhut,Holocaust survivors.

• Thursday, Oct. 26: "Resur-gence of American Hate Groups —A Clear And Present Danger," pre-sented by Dr. Neil Livingstone, anexpert on national and internationalterrorism.

The Speakers Forum is an annualcampus event organized by theDivision of Humanities and SocialSciences which features speakers ona controversial social subject repre-^enting different points of view.

All the presentations are free andopen to the public.

The annual Speakers Forum hasnow been in place for more than adecade and past topics have includ-ed peace in the Middle East, protec-tion of the environment and therelation of modern medicine tomoral responsibility.

Spearheading the organization ofthis year's forum have been WPCCfaculty members Mary CharlotteSafford, Dr. Carol West and PaulWardzinski. ,-v

According to Safford and West;the idea for this year's forum w?asbom last spring, as the situationlidBosnia grew more deadly andlasAmerica faced its own radicaKt£T>rorism in the Oklahoma City bomb^ing.

"We really made our decisiorronthis year's topic before the 0cJ;Simpson case became such a*fexample of racial divisions in ourown country," said West.

"We were looking at Bosnia andthen at Oklahoma City," West con-tinued, "which was an event thatsparked a tremendous amount ofconcern about hatred in America."

With those thoughts in mind,West and her colleagues went aboutfinding the best available speakersto inform and enlighten not onlyWPCC students but all BurkeCounty residents on these issues.

Please turn to Pagp 7

Miller's most recent article,"Denying, Minimizing and Obfus-cating the Facts of the Holocaust,"will appear in this month's "Journalfor Social Education."

Miller will be joined onWednesday by Runia and HenryVogelhut, two World War II Holo-caust survivors. The Vogelhuts aresurvivors of the Krakow Ghetto andthe concentration camp depicted inthe film "Schindler's List."

Neil Livingstone, who on Thurs-day will talk about hate groups inAmerica, is a noted author, lecturerand frequent media commentatorwho has been described as "one ofthe country's most visible anti-ter-rorism experts."

Most recently, he provided thepublic with his expertise followingthe Oklahoma City bombingtragedy. Livingstone's most recentarticle about militias and hategroups will appear in the journal"Justice."

"We hope that this forum will domore than present facts to the lis-teners," said Safford. "We hope thatit will make each person think,'What do we do about these issues?How do we confront them?'"

For more information about theforum, call Safford at 438-6198.West at 438-6138 or Wardzinski at438-6190.

Continued from Page One

Crowe, who will speak aboutBosnia on Tuesday, is a notedexpert on Eastern Europe. He haswritten several books on EasternEurope and his most recent work,"A History of the Gypsies of East-ern Europe and Russia," is a selec-tion of the History Book Club.

He is currently writing anothert>ook, "The Holocaust: Its Roots,History and Post History." Crowe

has also lectured frequently inEurope and America

Scott Miller, who will speakabout the Holocaust on Wednesday,is the university programs coordina-tor for the U.S. Holocaust Museum.He is also an adjunct member of theJewish Studies Department atAmerican University and is pursu-ing a doctoral degree in the Depart-ment of Jewish History at theHebrew University in Jerusalem,Israel.

o x> . l4'-\

Speakers Forum beginsBy KERRY BLACKFor The News Herald

Dr. David M. Crowe started offthe Western Piedmont CommunityCollege Fall Speakers Forum Tues-day night withan interesting;discussion onthe origins of jethnic hatred in jmodern Bosnia-Herzegorina.

He beganwith a back-ground of theBalkans underTurkish controlthat dated backfive centuries. CroweHe added infor-mation about the rebellion of theSerbs in the early 1900s and contin-ued with the involvement of AdolphHitler and the Nazis.

He discussed former dictators ofthe Serbs and the position they hadtaken. He concluded his discussionwith the UN involvement in pro-longing the war and the current sta-tus in Bosnia.

Crowe concluded by asking thequestion of what role does the U.S.play in this? He gave two answers:

(1) Play a strong role in thepeace process.

(2) Or, if no involvement, couldlead to spread in war or the nextWorld War.

Following his lecture, Croweanswered questions from the audi-ence. Many took the opportunity togain from his knowledge on thesubject

Crowe is a professor of history atElon College where he teachesRussian and Chinese history and theHolocaust. His most recent book."A History of Gypsies of EasternEurope and Russia," is the currentselection of the History Book Club.

He lectures frequently on Bosniaand Serbia at conferences in Europeand the United States.

The Fall Speakers Forum contin-ues today at 7 p.m. with ScottMiller and Runia and Henry Vogel-hut speaking on "The Holocaust:Lessons for Today."

The forum will be held inWPCC's Moore Auditorium.

Holocaust subjectof WPCC forumBy CHARLES MORGANFor The News Herald

Scott Miller and Runia and Hen-ry Vogelhut spoke Wednesdayevening at Western Piedmont Com-munity College's Fall SpeakersForum on "The Holocaust: Lessonsfor Today."

Scott Miller, the university pro-grams coordinator at the UnitedStates Holocaust Memorial Muse-um in Washington, D.C., began thenight's lecture by informing apacked house audience of severalstartling facts concerning theuniqueness of the World War IIHolocaust.

He initiated his discussion byexplaining the concept of "TheFinal Solution" which in shortmeant complete Jewish extermina-tion and elimination.

Also, he touched on how theNazis persecuted many othergroups besides the Jews, includingthe slaughter of German handi-capped children by the tens of thou-sands and the virtual annihilation ofEurope's Gypsy population.

He concluded with an astonish-ing fact; by the end of the war inone concentration camp alone,6,000 Jews were being gassed inone hour.

The next speaker was RuniaVogelhut, a Holocaust survivor.She started out by stating herremembrances of life before Ger-many invaded her hometown ofKrakow, Poland.

She told of the tunes she waitedin box cars on a train with corpseslying stiff on the floor. Mrs. Vogel-hut also spoke of her family andhow her father stayed with herwhile her mother and 10-year-oldsister were sent td the gas chamber.

She addressed the brutalitytoward the Jewish people andexpanded by stating that within 12years, two thirds of the world'sJewish population had been execut-ed.

In her conclusion, she explained

Scott Millerthe reason she survived and was notbroken or beaten down by the Naziswas that she had promised herfather that she would survive rightbefore he was sent to the gas cham-ber.

Henry Vogelhut expressedalmost the same memories, j u - tthrough the eyes of a man. Herevealed some of his jobs in thecamp, such as pulling the gold teethfrom the corpses.

He described getting sick fromthe smell of burning flesh.

He is the only survivor from hisfamily.

Henry and Runis Vogelhutmoved to the United States in 1946and have lived in Raleigh for thepast 25 years. Scott Miller lives inWashington, D.C., and he has aforthcoming article in the Journalfor Social Education.

The Fall Speakers Forum willcontinue tonight with Dr. Neil Liv-ingstone lecturing about "Resur-gence of American Hate Groups:Clear and Present Danger?"

His presentation will be in the Henry and Runia Vogelhut at Wednesday forumMoore Auditorium at 7 p.m. and isopen to the public at no charge.

A- The News Herald. Morganton. N.C., Friday. Octnher 17 1995

Di Neil Livingstone spoke Thursday night at WPCC forum.

groups focus of forumB>:YVONNE N. SHOOKFor The News Herald such as the Waco and Randy Weaver tragedies can

only serve as ammunition for militia groups that dimthe U.S. government is attempting to oppress its peo-

xf T' ,°ne °f ̂ COUntry's foremost and-experts, lectured on the "Resurgence of^ G;rps: Clear wd Prese"i SSr- his address, Livingstone focused on the

He considers such books to be guidebooks to killing:Jk later pointed out that manuals like "The Poor

Mfc s James Bond," "How to Kill," and "AnarchistArsenal" are likely to have contributed to accused er-ronst Timothy McVeigh's knowledge of explosfves

Livingstone acknowledged that recenf ncSents

•rr ™, M law enforcement officials whoerr must be held accountable for their actions

Veral su§8es»ons for healing1S experiencing- Th^y include til

Toning down violent rhetoric.• Prohibiting "mayhem manuals."• Increased surveillance of suspicious groups

"

Livingstone, a native of Montana, currently residesXST' 5 -C' HC ̂ •««««"• more than 4Wtelevision broadcasts, and most recently shared hisknowledge of anti-terrorism with the pubHc foUowS othe bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City *