REGION
Saturday, April 22, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
BMCC ARTS & CULTURE WEEK
BRIEFLY
Holocaust survivor speaks to students
Desert View mourns death of counselor
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Menachem
Taiblum
charms audiences full of
people with his smile, wit
and disarming sense of
humor — which makes it all
the more devastating when
he tears up.
Taiblum, who goes by
Manny, spoke to a packed
house Thursday at Blue
Mountain
Community
College, Hermiston, about
his early life in Warsaw and
the Holocaust.
Even today, at 87 years
old, his memories are vivid.
“I was 11 years old when
the Nazis arrived in Poland,”
he said. “We had a grocery
store, and they said, you
have one hour. You can take
what you want and get out of
here.”
Taiblum, his parents and
his younger brother and sister
were sent to an apartment in
the Warsaw Ghetto where
they survived on little. One
day, he recalls, he decided to
go out and find food for his
family, who were beginning
to starve.
“I went to the farmer who
used to deliver produce to
our store,” he said.
After sneaking out, he
walked all night. Upon
returning with the food, he
remembers being happy that
he had done something for
his family.
But that happiness was
soon replaced by shock.
“I came to the apartment
and nobody was there,” he
said. “I’d just left for 48
hours. What happened? I go
out onto the street, I cry, ask
God what happened.”
He remembers an old
man coming out onto the
street and telling him that his
family had been taken away
while he had gone out.
Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan
Manny Taiblum signs copies of his book and chats with
students. Taiblum, a Holocaust survivor, shared his sto-
ry at Blue Mountain Community College in Hermiston
on Thursday.
“They liquidated the
ghetto,” he said.
Taiblum went back to the
farmer to see if he could live
and work there.
“I didn’t have anywhere
else to go,” he said.
In the months and years
that followed, Taiblum
assumed the identity of
a Polish man, Marian
Redlitzky, to avoid being
detected. But he was taken to
a detention camp anyway.
“In the camp there were
starving people,” he tears up.
“They had diseases. Malaria,
typhus.”
He
worked
several
different jobs in the camp,
including in a coal mine.
He recalls the vicious Hitler
Youth guards.
“When we saw them, we
knew we were going to have
a very bad day,” he said.
While in the camp, he
became friends with another
boy. While they were there,
they met a nun, who asked
them if they’d like to escape.
At first they didn’t believe
her, and turned her down,
thinking she might be a spy.
“We saw what they did
with people who ran away,”
he said.
But finally, Taiblum
decided it didn’t matter.
“What are we going to
lose if we say yes?” he asked.
The nun told them the
weekend guard was drinking,
and they could escape then.
She gave them pliers to cut
through the barbed wire, and
told them to throw the pliers
in the river once they got
there so dogs wouldn’t find
them.
Taiblum later joined the
resistance movement against
the Nazis, blowing up bridges
and cutting telephone lines.
After the war ended,
Taiblum said he and his
friend, with whom he had
spent the last few years,
parted ways so his friend
could return to his hometown
and look for his family.
“Because we had fake
names, we could never find
each other,” Taiblum said.
“I was and am heartbroken
I couldn’t be in touch with
him. I consider him like a
brother.”
Taiblum said upon going
back to Warsaw, everything
had been destroyed. He
couldn’t find anyone from
his family, and to this day he
doesn’t know what happened
to them.
“I started to prepare
myself for this life by myself,
with God at my side,” he
said. “I started writing my
memories. It took me seven
years to write. It’s very
important.”
Taiblum has spent time
all over the world, including
in Israel and as a journalist
in Brazil. He came to the
United States in 1972 and
now lives in Portland.
Taiblum stayed on after
his speech, signing copies
of his memoir, “With G-d
at my side: A child’s story
of survival,” and talking
with students about his life
experiences.
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com.
Morrow County looks for ways to house Irrigon offices
Considers moving
offices to Boardman
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Morrow County officials
are looking for a new home
for their north county
offices, which may include
leaving Irrigon entirely.
County offices in Irrigon
provide space for the plan-
ning commission, veteran’s
affairs, county clerk, parole
and probation, and the sher-
iff’s office.
“We’re bursting at the
seams in there,” said county
commissioner Don Russell.
The county is consid-
ering a few options, among
them constructing a new,
larger building on the
current site at 205 S.E.
Third St., or moving the
offices to Boardman where
the county could purchase
a recently vacated Blue
Mountain
Community
College facility.
At a recent Morrow
County
commissioner’s
meeting, many Irrigon resi-
dents voiced their displea-
sure at the idea of moving
county offices out of their
city, arguing that doing so
would diminish the city’s
already limited business
activity.
“If the planning depart-
ment’s taken away, that
building generates a lot
of walk-through,” said
Barbara Huwe, an Irrigon
resident who collected
several hundred signatures
from people opposed to
moving the offices. “That
would tremendously impact
our businesses.”
She said she recognizes
the current building is
run-down and too small,
and that Boardman is more
of an industrial hub.
Russell said the county is
still in the very early stages
of decision making, and it’s
too soon to know how much
any option will cost.
The final decision won’t
come for months, he said.
First, the county would have
to design a building that
will fit their needs, and then
figure out the cost and how
it would pay for it.
“We have to determine
how big is our need today,
10 years down the road,” he
said. “Until we figure out
what we’re actually going
to do, it’s hard to say what
the cost savings are going to
be.”
He acknowledged that
people in Irrigon don’t want
to lose the county presence.
“But I haven’t heard
anyone saying they want to
spend more money to keep
it,” he said.
Huwe said while she, too,
is frugal, she hoped citizens
would take responsibility
for their town.
“We pay taxes to the
county, too,” she said. “We
need to have some owner-
ship.”
Russell said he does
not know when the next
discussion about the offices
will be, but that all conver-
sations will be conducted in
public meetings.
HERMISTON — The Hermiston School District is
mourning the loss of Desert View Elementary School
counselor Meghan Rahm, who died Thursday night.
According to the district, Rahm worked at Desert View
for two years.
“She had a significant impact,
not only on the students, but also
the staff,” the district said in a press
release. “We are proud to call her a
colleague and a friend. She will be
greatly missed.”
The school’s crisis team is
available on campus today for
students and staff who need support.
Rahm had recently been elected
Rahm
to the Oregon School Counselors
Association board. Rahm’s husband,
Mattias Rahm, is the school’s technology director. They
have eight children.
According to her husband’s Facebook page, Rahm
passed away during emergency surgery after a short illness.
Michael Roberts, Desert View’s principal, said Rahm
was a vital part of the school’s positive atmosphere.
“She made it her mission to make a connection with
every student,” he said. “Lots of days, she would work
until seven or eight at night, with parents and students.
That was her passion.”
Grand jury indicts Washington man
for causing serious crash
HERMISTON — Efrain Mateos Narcizo faces a
serious felony and multiple misdemeanors stemming from
a crash Saturday night near Hermiston that injured three.
The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office reported
Narcizo, 23, of Richland, Washington, drove a 2004 GMC
Envoy west on Westland Road, near the Agnew Road
intersection, crossed into the eastbound lane and headed
straight for a 2012 red Ford.
Brady Frischman, 25, of Gresham, drove the Ford and
tried to avoid the crash, but the Envoy struck the Ford’s
passenger side, according to the sheriff’s office, and
Frischman and his two passengers, Daniel Breece, 22, of
Portland, and Alyssa Ray, 23, of Philomath, all suffered
at injuries. Ambulances took Frischman and Ray to Good
Shepherd Medical Center, Hermiston, and a helicopter
flew Breece to Kadlac Regional Medical Center, Richland.
Umatilla County Circuit Court records show a grand
jury on Thursday indicted Narcizo on the following
charges: driving under the influence of intoxicants,
reckless driving, two counts of fourth-degree assault, and
three counts of recklessly endangering another person.
Those charges are all misdemeanors.
The grand jury also indicted Narcizo on one count
of third-degree assault involving DUII, which raises the
assault charge from a class C felony to a class B.
Narcizo bailed out of jail. His arraignment on the
charges is Monday at 1:15 p.m. in circuit court, Hermiston.
Editor’s note: The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office
referred to Narcizo as Mateos-Narcizo, which was the
name the East Oregonian used in its reporting on the
crash. Court records do not show a hyphenated last name.
Kay, Mendoza finalists for
La Grande superintendent job
The La Grande School Board has narrowed its list
of finalists down to two, according to board chair Merle
Comfort. The two finalists are Mike Kay, the Hermiston
School District’s executive director of operations, and
George Mendoza, assistant superintendent of the Morrow
County School District.
Mendoza and Kay are among five candidates who
were interviewed Monday at La Grande High School by
the school board, the school district’s staff, administrators
and a community panel. Also interviewed on Monday
were La Grande High School Principal Brett Baxter,
Wallowa School District Superintendent Bret Uptmor and
Paul Peterson, of Scappoose, the assistant superintendent
of the Northwest Regional Education Service District.
Board members will travel to Hermiston and Morrow
County on Monday to get more information about the two
candidates by talking with school district employees and
community members. — La Grande Observer
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