id b b Id f C
aced@clackamasr.edu
W ednesday, O ct. 26 , 2011
The Clackamas P rint §
WIENER: Holocaust survivor
to speak at Clackamas
Continued from Page 1
A picture o f A lter a n d Esther W iener on their wedding day
taken fr o m aA N am e To A Number. ” '
Alter W iener will speak in the
McLoughlin Auditorium Thursday,
Oct. 27 from noon to 2 p.m.
Tiffanie Clifford, from the the colleges human
resources department, invited Wiener to speak on
campus after she heard him speak in Canby. “I don’t
think we often have the opportunity to hear [about the
Holocaust] first hand,” she said. “It increases awareness
and sensitivity across the generations, and that’s a lesson
for everyone..
The chance to hear a survivor speak is becoming rarer.
“Al’s story is ohe of a thousand,” said Sonia Marie
Leikam of tfre Oregon Holocaust Resource Center. She
has known Wiener for eight years« “He has the courage
to speak about it, but there are a hundred more survi
vors that are not willing to speak it. Most survivors have
five years or less, to live so its really a once in a lifetime
experience,”
Wiener has' three reasons that drive him to tell his
story. The first is ignorance of the Holocaust. Wiener
says that he runs into people that know nothing about
the Holocaust before meeting him.
The second reason Wiener tells people about his life is
that some people deny the Holocaust, l his is very pain
ful, to me, he said, “How do you reason with a person
like that?” After hearing oh the news that the president
of Iran denied the Holocaust, Wiener sent him a copy of
his book, “From a Name to a Number” as well-as a copy
of,a check sent to frim.from the German government as
repayment for the labor he was never paid for in the
war work camps “If there was no Holocaust, why do
they send me a check?” Wiener asked. “There is no time
period in history as well documented as World War II.
There are survivors, museums and documents.”
However, it seems the main motivation for Wiener
tp tell his storyis the difference he sees it making in the
lives of his listeners. Wiener says he has over 40,000-
letters from people who have heard him speak; he Says
he has changed their lives. About 100 of those letters
are from people saying they were contemplating suicide
until hearing his talk. Some students write that they
were planning on dropping out of school, but changed
their minds after hearing that Wiener was banned from
school at the age of 13 and couldn’t graduate high school
until he was 36-years-old.
Wiener says he thinks he can relate to. “youngsters”
because he was about their age when the war began.
Before the war Wiener lived a simplistic lifestyle with
few conveniences.
Wiener says that it was this simplistic lifestyle and
the values on which he was raised that kept him going
throughout the Holocaust. “The values with whichT was
brought up are part of the reason I am still alive. I wanted
to survive to be reunited with my family because: it was
fo precious , to me,” he said.
Wiener did not have his doubts about his survival
despite the circumstances of the war. Wiener said, “What
ismost outstandingis the brutality. I saw a German take
a young kid and throw him against a wall, killing him. A
guard beat me so badly with his rifle that I pleaded with
him to kill me. He wouldn’t give me that pleasure. I saw
so much cruelty so much brutality for no good reason.”
Wiener says despite his haunting memories and
nightmares he tries to carry a message of positivity to
his audiences. “Did I ever dream I am going to be alive
and going to be in theU nited States? You never know.
You never know. You never give up hope... nevergive up
hope. At one point-when I couldn’t work anymore. The
Germans decided to liquidate me so they sent'me to a
killing center. I was standing in line. I saw the chimney.
I knew my life was coming to an end. While I was stand
ing in line a German entrepreneur approached me and
said, ‘Come on, get out of theline young man, you can
still work’ and he sent me backtowork. Two weeks later
I was liberated: Never give up hope. You never know.”' ■
The Bucket List: Ghost hunting experience leads to new hobby
By Mandie Gavitt
activity in ,th e building;
T his started, w ith everyone sitting in 4 ’ circle
in th e m ain room w ith, K2 m eters o u t and taking
tu rn s asking questions; Colé seem ed to have the
best luck w ith this, she was the first ohe t o g et
à reaction w ith h er questions, a n d -th e responses'
co ntinued for 45 m inutes. In this tim e th e iig h ts
on the m eter w ould consistently illum inate w ith
answers to the questions sh e wàs asking. -
D u ring our first-attem pt at contacting the spirr
its I kept feeling like there was som eone standing
behind me. Every tim e I turned around there was
no one there. ‘
A fter ;a break, we resum ed in an office, w here a
m an once felt as if he were being fondled w hen he
was lying dow n to take a nap. I did n ’t quite enjoy
tfris ro o m ,T felt th a t the people-asking questions
O n O ct. , 8 The C lackam as P r in t’s. P h o to , were going in the w rong direction an d tfre elecf
E ditor H illary C ole, and I were- invited' -to go tropics in the room were setting o ff the equipm ent
frost h u n tin g w ith the Spirited Away Paranorm al father than anything rem otely sp iritu a l..
. nvestigative Team run by D atum ; Blessing and her . I closed m y eyes in an attem p t to feel a .spirits,
présence like T h a d in tfré o ther room . I saw an
m other, C arol Blessing.
D atum Blessing told me she started th e com image th at played like a movie-, in my m ind, a
pany after having a paranorm al experience as w om an in a full length green velvet dress witfr
a young child. She had th e idea o f starting her w hite lace cowering in a corner p rotecting an
own investigative com pany after w atching “G host Infant. It kept playing over an d over so strongly
H unters” and th inking about the o ther people in my m in d th at .it felt real-and I swear I felt fear
who m ight w ant to experience ghost h u n tin g as ful for her.
well.
Eventually, I tired o f tfre questions the group
We were investigating C annabis Cafe, a m edi was asking and the way they were distracting me
cal m arijuana dispensary ow ned by M adeline from the w om an I kept seeing, so I slipped outside
M artinez. Custom ers and em ployees,of. C annabis where I found D atu m Blessing.
Cafe had experienced some bizarre phenom ena.
I to ld her. th a t I kept seeing a w om an in a
T he building has a. rich history, a n d 'it was at green d ress protecting an infant; I asked her if it
one p o in t a b rothel. T he team o f Spirited Away m eant anything or i f I was m aking u p th irig s to
tho u g h t it w ould be w orthw hile to investigate the make myself feel special. She grin n ed and knelt
place.
down in the exact position I saw the. w om an in
Before the investigation, my m ind, saying she saw h er w earing a full dress
D atum Blessing explained w ith a w hite trim . I was amazed th at d ie acted o u t
th e various eq u ip m en t exactly w hat I saw even tho u g h I was vague in my
used in investigating. description. T his was th e m om ent th at I th o u g h t
T h e e q u ip m en t used th a t the ghost h u n t m ight actually be real.
D atu m Blessing led me to a bathroom and said,
includes an electrom ag
n etic field detec “T h is is w here I see her.”
tors, n ig h t vision
I’ve tried since th a t nigfrt to find in- my vocabu
video cam eras, lary a way to explain th a t room b u t I can’t. All I
1: - voice recorders, Can say is th a t it felt heavy and thick. It was like
dow sing
rods, th a t m om ent w hen you w alk in to a room and
know by the stopped conversation everyone has
and K2 m eters.
A fter reco rd been talking- about you. B ut there was no one
ing th e base read there besides me and D atu m Blessing.
ings the lights were
I stood in the room for a long tim e, try in g
tu rn ed offt and we to grasp tfre em otion I felt in the bathroom . I
began trying to deter becam e distracted by people filtering o u t o f the
mine w hether or n o t office space, so I stopped prem aturely. We left
-i
there
was in fact spiritual shortly after m y bathroom endeavor. -
Arts & C ulture E ditor
I still consider myself a skeptic. I know th at it is
very possible th at my experiences were that. oft.an
o verictive im agination, though my conversation
w ith D atu m Blessing leads me to doubt th a t this
was the case. I th in k it wifi be a few m ore ghost
h u n tin g “trip s before. I. really decide w hat I believe
on the subject. I am looking-forw ard to t h e n 'e x t
gfrost frunt.<
... I f n o th in g 'else I know th at ghost, h u n tin g
was the start o f w hat I hope to be a long last
ing friendship between* m yself and the Blessings.
F urtherm ore, T \ th in k I have a new hobby ;;tfrat,
even if »J dpn’t know exactly w hat I th in k or
believe, I find fun.
f
D a tu m Blessing co-owner o f the Spirited Aw ay
Investigative Team, shows a group o f people how to
search fo r ghosts on Oct. 8 a t the Cannabis Cafe in
N orth Portland.